Dear Tokyo

 *WARNING* FRIENDS MAY SUFFER FROM BOREDOM....THIS STORY HAS BEEN TURNED PG 13....sigh...

Dear Tokyo.
I promise to learn the following phrases in Japanese before I come back:
"we eat those little dogs for snack in Korea"
"yes, I was talking about your pet dog".
"I would like a room please. Yes I speak Japanese. Yes I am 21. Yes I want the room to stay, not just an hour."

In the event that I say:
"unlimited beer, yes. Unlimited sake...yes." Please tape my wallet to my body.

With warm heart and affection, 

Angela.

Morning view from Busan (where I catch my flight)- from the Jimjilbang

My first pic in Japan :)

This is one of our first stops - the Temple in Asaku - Sensoji Temple

I've always liked me my dragons. Still at the Sensoji Temple

Sorry folks, this is the only pic of me :)

Yes, that is a vending machine for beer - on the way to Mori building  for a view of the city

The crossing the Beatles made uber famous - Shibuya Crossing in Harajuku

Instead of Mori Tower we tried a different tower because it was supposed to be cheaper out in  Roppongi... but that tower wasn't that cheap either, so we just clicked as we went.

Now we are in the Kabukicho District. We went to a Ibuzukya and Rock bar . That lady in the fur coat was our  Australian local - that's Jenn on the left

Sake

All you can drink and eat for an hour and a half. That sake is....wicked.

Ha! I lied - TWO pictures :) That's my friend Erin on the right - unimpressed because I'm making her take a pic

this little beauty is Carrie - she's  amazing.  haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

 This is where I stop to explain something. NEVER... no ALWAYS have hotel or hostel reservations lined up if you plan to stay in Tokyo. Here's the reason:

As far as the eye can see, there are hotels. EVERYWHERE. Especially in this Red Light District we were in. However, unless you are able to speak Japanese, are 21, and in a party of just two - you won't be able to get a room. Because they're all LOVE Motels. A love motel is a seedy place where you can "rest" for an hour; or "stay". We looked for ages - and were turned away by every one of them.

We tried everything - even had Scott (our American but biologically Korean friend) pretend to be Japanese... obviously it didn't work.

A handsome Japanese couple helped us out - and explained this mystery to us and helped us find... alternative accommodations since no one wanted to pay $200-500 for a proper hotel for all of us.

So we stayed in an Internet Cafe. For $23/night, you can sleep in a cubicle that is lined with mats (or has only chairs) and you can shower. It's definitely a Tokyo story :) But...will I ever do it again? Nope.

This is where I slept ya'll. With my friend Erin. It was chilly, smokey, and  the lights never turned off. :)

So the next morning, Jenn realizes she is missing her wallet which contains her passport. So we spent until noon the next day wandering around Tokyo looking for the police station that had her wallet.

This is one of the buildings while searching for  the wallet.. nothing special, I just like it.

24 hours in and we're feeling it!

Across from the police station where we picked up the wallet there was a Yen-o-rama!!! A Yen store :)  The slogan written on this line of products is: "To me, who become pretty from now on"....haha. :)

Picking it up from our little detour, we went next to Meijji Shrine and YoYogi Park. This was probably my favorite place because I'm a tree hugger.

Because it's New Year, the kids wear the traditional  clothing (in Korea it's called a  hanbok) and do special Segae bows for their Grandparents for money. THESE kids are stinken' cute though.

These are "gold fish" in the garden. Do you see how one of them is looking at me????  Nasty.

One of my favorite moments the whole trip, because it was just so...beautiful.

Feed the birds, just tuppin's a bag :) I actually got to feed this little guy too :) The man in this pic  gave me some peanuts

In this garden, there was a well. A Japanese person was allowed to get some of this pure water on their  leaf ticket. As foreigners, we were not allowed to touch the water.

Here is the beautiful well

Next, we made a long treck to the Imperial gardens which were closed, so we started heading back to where we  would need to spend the night. This little garden was about 15min from our next....lodging. Notice how I didn't say hotel...*straight face*

We decided to go back to the Market at the first temple we saw and there was this little dog...and all I could think in my nasty little head was...we put dogs like that in soup where I live. :P

This is at the Lock Up. For those of you that know me, my drink is the beer in the 1L graduated cylinder.  And  because it THRILLED my nerdy science side, I was soooo happy that all the drinks came in beakers, test tubes and petri dishes. :) 

So, where did we stay in our last night since -once again - we couldn't get a hotel????? We stayed at a Karyoke Lounge. For $25 each you can rent a lounge for 5 hours. 7 of us slept in here. We were all up at 4:45am to catch our 5:58 train... not many people slept all that much on this trip ;)

So there you have it. 300 pictures whiddled down to 30 so that you have the basic compress of my weekend in Tokyo. But out of it, I met some pretty amazing people and had a pretty wild ride there. :)