Tokyo, Day 2

Some pictures of the day:

Sofie!



A restaurant near our hotel that specializes in "very rare cheesecake." We might check it out, just to be funny.


The Christmas tree in our hotel lobby. We have yet to see a big fat Santa Claus, but I'm looking.


Today was our first full day in Tokyo. We had two goals: first, exchange our Japan Rail Pass Vouchers for the actual pass, and figure out how to get to Ginza. We achieved both, but not without considerable confusion. Our hotel is located near Shinjuku Station, which according to our guide book, is the largest and busiest subway station in the world. It is a major hub for trains, buses and subway. It's like....D.C.'s Union Station times 20. It is enormous, crowded and very very confusing. We walked all over Shinjuku Station trying to find the right office to exchange our rail passes. We couldn't find what we wanted and decided to try again in the afternoon. Then it was off to find the subway lines! We had gotten all turned around trying to find the rail pass office so we had no idea how to get back to the subway. I got to practice a bit of my Japanese skills trying to find the right line to Ginza. Then it was trying to figure out the ticket kiosks, which are entirely in Japanese. With a little luck, and a lot of help from friendly locals, we made it to the Marunochi line, headed in the right direction, and got off at our destination...Ginza!

This is Jon in front of the Christmas decorations in Ginza and me at a little park we found. The Ginza district is like the Madison Avenue of Tokyo, I think. It is all fancy international shops and french boutiques. Louis Vuitton, Prada, Ferragamo, Tiffany, etc. It is tre chic.

We mostly just walked around and looked in all the windows. We explored a few shops, like some GORGEOUS kimono stores and stunning cermics workshops. We passed the Mikimoto headquarters, and I drooled a little. We found a few small art galleries as well and just enjoyed exploring the area.
We found this kabuki theatre, which is one of the most famous in Tokyo. It was rebuilt in the late 1800s after the original burned down. It is very pretty. Unfortunately, they don't have many shows in December.
Later that night we decided to head out to find the Tiki Tiki restaurant. Let me tell you something about Tokyo...they are not big on ADDRESSES. None of the storefronts have address numbers listed. None of the streets have street signs. None of the streets are marked. It's like some sort of bizarro world. According to our guidebook, we are not alone....even locals have a hard time finding things. But, foolishly, we thought a basic map and address would get us to our destination. Yeah, right. We walked forever. We looked at the maps on the corners near subway stops. We looked at every corner in every direction. Alas, no Tiki Tiki. I was fading pretty fast at this point, my feet aching and my recurring headache, which I've had since before we landed at the airport, in full swing. We decided to head back to the hotel and find something on the way. We saw this giant Gyoza outside a little hold-in-the-wall restaurant and tried it out. Delicious! Ramen soup, plates of gyoza, fried rice, steamed shrimp dumplings. It was the best meal I've had so far.

Today we try to find the Imperial Palace for a 10am tour. Then tonight we'll probably explore the Roppongi district.

Hope everyone is doing well. We are having a great time!