Tokyo Tokyo Tokyo

Well...Saturday morning Maria and I woke up way too early to catch the shinkansen to tokyo at around 7:30am. We both slept on the train, but its so comfortable and roomie...I love the shink. We aarrived around 9:30, it takes a little less than two hours to get to Tokyo from Nagoya. We hopped on the train to Ueno zoo. We were so excited to see the panda and all the animals, but once we got to the zoo there was a giant sign that said the panda had died in april. sad. we were not happy. but luckily i think there is one other zoo somewhere in japan with a giant panda...i hope! We wandered around the zoo for a couple hours, that zoo is huge. It has two parks connected by a monorail...remember when we lost chad there haha nice. We did get to see the cute little red pandas tho, which were definately my favorite. It was post-mating season so there were lots of little monkeys everywhere, too cute. We bought lots of souvenirs and finally got some soft-serve ice cream. yes. After the zoo we went to Ikebukuro to meet up with matt who decided to join us for the weekend. Ikebukuro has lots of large department stores and shops....me, shop? never. anyways, we went to wendys for lunch....delicious....then hit up tokkyu hands, a large department store but they have literally everything you can buy. On the top floor they have an area called Nekobukuro which is an area where you can play with cats...so we did that, but the cats were not cute...mainly just fat and lazy, i was quite disappointed but all in all it was a hilarious experience. After wandering and relaxing at a cafe we met up with maria's friend Nozomi from college, but who lives in Tokyo and who we stayed with, for dinner in Shibuya. We went to a little izakaya that randomly had graffiti all over the wall, which was an interesting twist. The food was good and cheap and then we wandered around the city. As we were walking we ran into a street festival, i dont know i guess the japanese in tokyo decide to have random street parades and such whenever they want. We couldnt find a pub to go to since they were all packed, so we ended up at a cafe-like place for drinks. After that we shipped matt off to a capsule hotel and we took to train back to Nozomi's apartment, which is about a half hour outside tokyo. In the morning we got up showered, etc. and met matt in harajuku around 10:30. Supposedly on sunday mornings the crazies are out and prancing around harajuku, but we only saw a few that morning. We walked to a shinto shrine in harajuku that was massive and quite beautiful and we got to see a couple wedding parades through the shrine grounds. Then we went shopping and bought lots of interesting things along the main streets in harajuku. We ate lunch at an italian restaurant and got crepes on the street, which is the trendy thing to do now-a-days in harajuku. Then we got the train to take us to Sanrio Puroland, better known as Hello Kitty World, which is outside the heart of tokyo city. We had the best time here, I cant even explain how much fun it was. We got to actually meet hello kitty, a life-long goal finally fulfilled, and some of her friends. We took a boat ride, kind of like Its a Small World ride at Disney World, but with sanrio characters. We saw a show and a parade with princess kitty and her beau daniel and many other characters. We got to tour hello kittys house and sit in her car. And then there was shopping. I bought way too many hello kitty things, but maria bought more so I dont feel so childish :)Hello Kitty rocks, lets be honest here. After hello kitty world we ate dinner at a ramen restaurant and headed back into shinjuku for some ice cream and street wandering. Then home for bed. On monday morning we left the apartment early to go to the newly opened H&M in Ginza....it opened on sat, the first one in japan....when we got there we saw a line about 1 mile long down the street to get into the store. So we scratched that idea and decided to go to some other stores before meeting up with Dave, an Irish jet from Guma who is friends with Maria. We ate lunch and headed to a buddhist temple in another part of tokyo. There were so many shops full of traditional japanese-esque things, finally, and I bought a kokeshi doll, japanese wooden dolls, and kimono kitty accessories...hello kitty dressed in a kimono, she is the best one! The temple was huge and we got to see the giant lanterns, cleanse our souls in incense, and get our fortunes, which were not too promising unfortunately. After the temple we went to see this golden statue along the river or as its more affectinately called the golden poo because it looks like poop. Ill post a picture because you must see it, its quite entertaining. After that we headed back to shibuya for last minute wandering and shopping and then Maria and I went back to Tokyo station to catch our 8pm shinkansen bound for Nagoya. We accidentally sat in the smoking car on the way home, which was unpleasant but not too bad I guess. When I got home I was wrecked and am still tired from being on the go. But Tokyo is the coolest place in Japan and I cant wait to go back in two weeks for some museum hunting and more shopping! I need a halloween costume :) If anyone comes to visit we must go to Tokyo, there is really no place like it. I hope all is well in the states! Let me know whats new or shoot me an email anytime! Lots of Love from the far east! xo