so what did we do in japan, you ask?

Andy and I went to Japan this October with Andy's brother and sister-in-law (Kirk and Miyuki) and mom (Catherine). It was Miyuki's grandmother's 100th birthday (!), and since Kirk and Miyuki were going, we tagged along.

We spent our first week staying with Miyuki's family in Kawagoe (a "small" town 30 km northwest of Tokyo) and taking the train into Tokyo pretty much every day. Armed with our trusty Lonely Planet, we hit several of the districts in Tokyo:

Central Tokyo: The Imperial Palace (you can only walk around part of the grounds, and the palace itself isn't visible -- see left), Ginza (very very expensive shopping), the Sony building (a showcase of their new stuff), and Tokyo (train) Station, which is something to see in and of itself. And Godzilla, who we caught attacking a building.

Akihabara: Electronics central. In Canada we have large department stores with maybe part of one floor devoted to electronics; in Akihabara the whole floor is devoted to just one type of electronics, like mp3 players or cameras. And it's one department store after another.

Asakusa: The Shinto temple Senso-ji is here, which you enter through Thunder Gate (Kaminari-mon). Between the gate and the temple is like a mile of tourist shops (Nakamise-dori).

Ikebukuro: An entertainment district. Here Kirk introduced us to the wonder that is the dai-jokki (large beer). It was our first night in Tokyo and we also hit an arcade (six floors of Sega games, including The Typing of the Dead and a taiko-drumming video game).

Shinjuku: This is the big entertainment and shopping district. Here we went to Tower Records and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices (ie. City Hall), which has an observation deck where you can really start to appreciate how big Tokyo really is. Urban jungle in all directions, as far as you can see.

Harajuku: Here is Takeshita-dori, where one can find all the 'Engrish' shirts you could ever want. For example: "Listen is the floatable of my progress." Very deep.

Next post: what we did in Japan when we left Tokyo!