Travel notes: Tokyo - everywhere else...sorta!

Yesterday, weather.com inaccurately predicted 90% rain all day, so we chose to shop all day. We started in Shibuya and somehow ended up near Harajuku and near the Meiji Shrine. I only now connected all the chrysanthemums around the shrines during the whole trip to the recent arc in xxxHolic. It still wasn't raining, so we wandered around the Shrine for a little time, and then made our way down the shops back to Shibuya station. We met bumpybear and her husband again for an extremely nice dinner at a pretty cool secret-like place. Yum!

Today was all sun! We started at the Tsukiji Fish Market. Very interesting, but not doing that again. I would suggest to them that building a second story walkway for tourists would alleviate all the hassles. We then rambled on to Asakusa and bought some souvenirs. And ate street munchies! The Ueno Park Zoo was next. The giant panda exhibit is under construction, and the red pandas only appear at certain times, so plan your time accordingly. I always like seeing different species animals, and they have some very cute indigenous animals, but many of them don't appear happy. I think their pens are too small and the the screaming kids no longer interest them. We took a walk through Akihabara next. Maids! Randomly saw the Gundam Cafe (right next to the Akihabara station), too, but I think mitsuki988 is afraid of otakus (despite being an anime-watcher), so no Haro-shaped food for me. The rest of the day was spent in Shinjuku. Funny enough, getting around by train/subway/bus throughout the whole city is easier than finding places around Shinjuku.

I found the transportation prices only a smidge higher than what DC offers, but I think we still kept our total under or around the price of a Tokyo day pass (the Free Kippu) using the Suica. The Tokunai Pass (for JR only) might have saved us a couple bucks, but being free to use whatever mode of transport is convenient.

...zzzz

Travel notes: Tokyo - everywhere else...sorta!

Yesterday, weather.com inaccurately predicted 90% rain all day, so we chose to shop all day. We started in Shibuya and somehow ended up near Harajuku and near the Meiji Shrine. I only now connected all the chrysanthemums around the shrines during the whole trip to the recent arc in xxxHolic. It still wasn't raining, so we wandered around the Shrine for a little time, and then made our way down the shops back to Shibuya station. We met bumpybear and her husband again for an extremely nice dinner at a pretty cool secret-like place. Yum!

Today was all sun! We started at the Tsukiji Fish Market. Very interesting, but not doing that again. I would suggest to them that building a second story walkway for tourists would alleviate all the hassles. We then rambled on to Asakusa and bought some souvenirs. And ate street munchies! The Ueno Park Zoo was next. The giant panda exhibit is under construction, and the red pandas only appear at certain times, so plan your time accordingly. I always like seeing different species animals, and they have some very cute indigenous animals, but many of them don't appear happy. I think their pens are too small and the the screaming kids no longer interest them. We took a walk through Akihabara next. Maids! Randomly saw the Gundam Cafe (right next to the Akihabara station), too, but I think mitsuki988 is afraid of otakus (despite being an anime-watcher), so no Haro-shaped food for me. The rest of the day was spent in Shinjuku. Funny enough, getting around by train/subway/bus throughout the whole city is easier than finding places around Shinjuku.

I found the transportation prices only a smidge higher than what DC offers, but I think we still kept our total under or around the price of a Tokyo day pass (the Free Kippu) using the Suica. The Tokunai Pass (for JR only) might have saved us a couple bucks, but being free to use whatever mode of transport is convenient.

...zzzz