Tokyo, Japan - Day 3

Today we were lucky enough to have two great Japanese hosts give us a personalized tour of the city.  The first was Yuko, who is a family friend of the Plaut's, and Aki, who is a 3M co-worker and friend of Yuko.  It was so great not to have to consult a map all day.

We wandered around the Ginza shopping district again, where David was able to spend some time in the Apple Store.   It was pretty much the same as the US store (staff attire, Genius Bar and everything), just bigger.  Six floors of Mac computers, iPods and accessories!  

Here's a shot of one of the main intersections in Ginza:

We headed to the fish market area, which was pretty quiet for a Sunday afternoon (most of the action happens at 5am), and had lunch at one of those conveyor belt sushi places:

David's favorite part (other than trying sea urchin for the first time), was that not only could you tell the price by what color plate the sushi was on:

But each plate had a little RF ID tag on the bottom.  So the waitresses didn't even have to see the plates, they just came by with a little scanner - beep beep - and our bill was tallied.  Viola!

Aki, Yuko and David bought some oysters to slurp down at a nearby fish stall.  They were huge!  $10 for 3, a pretty good deal for the size:

On the way out, we hit a BIC store (an electronics mega-store - apparently Michael Jackson shops there when he is in town.  Tom Hanks, too, but we heard about Michael more) and found my Sony camera I wanted for the same price!  It's a Sony HX1, and has some sweet features you'll see in the coming days.

We then took the train up to the Asakusa Shrine, where the Sanja Matsuri Festival was in full swing.  "Over 100 Miko-shi (portable shrines) march in procession through the streets of the Asakusa district."  Note how some of the people are enjoying it a bit more than others.

The people wear a distinctive style of clothing, most  apparent of which is the distinct lack of pants for the men:

It's also a great place to buy souviners, and apparently it's always this crowded even when there's no festival going on:

Dinner consisted of some great sake and fresh udon noodles.  Our hosts were fantastic!

The Roppongi Hills neighborhood was the last stop for the day, where there is another tall building with a great observation deck.  Remember the Tokyo Tower from yesterday?  Here's what it looks like at night:

Here's a picture fo the city using my older camera:

And here's one using my new camera:

I love it already.  Tomorrow, work.  And Harajuku Girls.

Tokyo, Japan - Day 1 and 2

David was sent to Tokyo for work, and we decided that this was a great opportunity to mix business with pleasure.   Unfortunately, the one-flight-a-day to Tokyo leaves at 6:00am, requiring a 3:30am alarm setting.  David had a telecon at midnight the night before, and decided to just stay up the whole night and sleep on the plane.  Which resulted in us ordering room service as soon as we got to the hotel in Tokyo, and falling dead alseep at 7:30pm.  I took one single picture the first day:

Aaaahhh, finally a cool breeze.  That's a nice 62F for those of you who were hoping I'd do the conversion for you.

Day 2 in Tokyo, we rose early and took a Gray Line Tour to see a few sights and get oriented in the city.  The first stop on the tour was Tokyo Tower, which looks remarkably like an orange Eiffel Tower, and is really just a bit TV antennae.  Great views, though:

They had the oddest mascot at the tower... what is this thing?

Here's what the tower looks like from the bottom.  Don't worry, we'll get a better view later.

Next was the Meiji Shrine.  We learned about what the those big wooden gates ("torii") were, and not to walk on the gravel path in the middle, because that's where the gods walked.  "This is the biggest wooden 'torii' of the Myojin style in Japan, built in 1975 and modeled after the original built in 1920.  The material wood used is Japan Cypress, 1500 years old from Taiwan."

We learned how to cleanse ourselves before entering a shrine (rinse left hand, rinse right hand, sip and spit, tilt the dipper up to empty for the next person).  Here's me caught in the act:

We were lucky enough to see not one, not two, not three, but four wedding processions.  Here are two of them:

They're supposed to look somber, to convey the seriousness of the committment.  We also learned that when the obi (the thing around your waist when wearing a kimono) is in a bow, you're single, but when it's in a square, you're married:

Next stop on the tour was the Imperial Gardens.  No sign of the Crown Prince, but the flowers were pretty.  FYI, a traditional Japanese garden has five elements, real or symbolic:  Water, island, bridge, stone lantern, and tea house or pavilion.

The tour ended in a shopping district called Ginza, and I won't go into detail about how we got completely lost (the first of many times) in the neighborhood where we were dropped off, even with the guide pointing on the map exactly where we were.  We did manage to find the Sony building, where they had the latest and greatest in Sony gadgets.  Here are the coolest headphones ever.  For a mere $400 or so.

I also found a fantastic camera I would have loved to buy (duty free!), but they were sold out.  Crap.

That evening, we went to Jingu stadium and saw a baseball game, one my favorite things we did.  Tigers vs. the Swallows, and we had a great time.  

Outdoor stadium:

Beer girls:

Hot dogs (or noodles, if you prefer):

Potstickers in a cup!

There was no "Take Me Out To The Ballgame", but here's their 7th inning stretch tradition.  Press Play and wait for it...

This guy walked by every 1/2 inning with this sign.  I couldn't read what it said of course, but the picture was fairly clear.

Swallows win!  Good fun was had by all.

All this in one day.  Just wait for tomorrow...

Haitus

We're in Japan for the week, see you after Memorial Day!

Danger Everywhere

This sign spotted at Tanjong beach, where we take Millie swimming:

They warned us about the snakes and the bugs, but no one told us about the peacocks!

Finding Nemo

Sorry it's been so long since my last post!  We were planning a vacation, then we went on vacation, then came back and had to catch up on all the things that we fell behind on while we were on vacation.  Did I mention we went on vacation???

Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, Borneo

Day 1 was spent sitting on the beach, finding my new Happy Place at the Shangri-La Resort.  This is the view from our room, overlooking the South China Sea.  We didn't budge from our recliners on the beach all afternoon.

Day 2 was chock full of fun activities, the first of which was taking a bike tour to a neaby village to check out the local markets:

And visit a local temple:

You had to pay a couple of dollars and climb nine flights of stairs to get to the top, but the view at the top was worth it:

Great view.  Now if I could only find a Monkey Doing the Heisman, that would be something.  Oh wait, there's one:

On the ride back, we were able to crash a local wedding party because our  tour guide knew the groom.  I'm pretty sure we were the curiosity of the day...

All the local houses are on stilts, which makes for a finding shade a little easier:

We were pretty tired by the time we got back to the resort, but we hauled our sweaty selves to the Nature Reserve in the back of the hotel in time to make the Orang Utan feeding.  They were so cute.

And to cap off a great day, we had the pleasure of viewing a spectacular sunset in the evening:

On Day 4, we went snorkeling at a nearby island that had a beautiful little coral reef.  TIP:  two layers of 30 SPF sunscreen is not enough when swimming in the ocean for two hours.  I'll spare you the details, but I peeled so bad I swear I was molting.

But we did find Nemo!

Vacation accomplished.