Hello again everyone... for the last time!
We are about to head back to LA via another stopover in Korea.
We had a nice couple days in Tokyo - it was the perfect way to end the perfect trip. It was a more laid back couple of days, as Tokyo is really more a city to experience than a lot of tourist sites and attractions to see. And while we enjoyed our authentic (well, authentic with a modern upscale twist) hutong in China, we decided to take things a step up in Tokyo and stayed at a super nice luxury highrise - the Hyatt Regency. Because we were on our honeymoon, they nicely upgraded us to a larger room too, sent us wine, and gave us some extra amenities for free! We had a beautiful park and city view from our 16th floor room.
Where to begin to describe Tokyo... as we said it's a city you really have to just experience... and an experience it is. It is a city with so much vibrance, character and a constant crowded buzz of life. Unlike many of the other cities we visited, the people in this city are always impeccably groomed and dressed - albeit often in a very "unique" style. You may have heard how many young people seek to express themselves through their unique style of dress in Tokyo (a way to break out of the rigid Japanese lifestyle), and it certainly is seen on the streets - girls wearing multicolor outfits, themed outfits, their hair done all funky.. guys with their hair long and dyed. This is generally only among teenagers. Other young-ish girls/women, skirts/shorts with tights and leggings is the norm too, though in a more refined style, makeup all done, etc. (we were often in the "hot spots" of town, with a lot of younger crowd probably too)
We had the chance to go on the Tokyo subways many times. It is absolutely packed with people. They have people working outside the subway trains pushing people onto the trains so that they are as crammed in as possible. Luckily we avoided being in that situation.
Our "Thanksgiving dinner" consisted of a pretty awesome buffet of all vegetarian Japanese food. They had something closely resembling Tofurkey, so we were set :)
We saw the many districts of Tokyo - Shibuya (a area where a lot of the young crowd hangs out, with shopping malls where they buy all their crazy clothes), Kabuki-Cho (nightlife area, more on the red light end), Rappongi (the hot night life area ... which oddly has become a place where a lot of Nigerians now come, and work outside trying to get people to come into the clubs and bars), Ginza (high end shopping district), Shinjuku (intersection of a business and shopping district), Harijuku (another crazy young area), etc. Saw the Meiji Shrine, a big famous shrine in Tokyo.
It is hard to fully describe what the Tokyo areas and streets are like. Just constantly throbbing with people, and at night they are all lit up with neon lights everywhere. We would look down streets at nighttime and it would almost look like daylight. There are lots of crazy kinds of stores, restaurants, arcades (everywhere!), etc. Vending machines for everything everywhere (we got a hot can of coffee out of a vending machine). There are also these pachinko salons everywhere... this is the Japanese form of gambling, since actual gambling is prohibited, they play these games to win money instead (basically a workaround to the gambling law)... we walked inside one and couldnt believe how loud it was... the constant deafeningly loud buzz of the pachinko music and the metal balls (part of the game).. our ears were ringing for hours afterward.
Anyway, we enjoyed our stay in Tokyo.. and the whole trip was absolutely wonderful and amazing, the most perfect honeymoon we could have possibly dreamed of - such a great mix of exploring, relaxing, culture, adventure, cute animals!, and so much more. While we had an amazing time, we are looking forward to coming home and beginning our lives together.. and seeing all of our wonderful family and friends - we have missed you all! We haven't changed too much during our trip.. although we have adopted some characteristic Asian traits.... We've included a picture of us saying hi from Tokyo!
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