Jessica & Todd in Japan

Day 23 – Tokyo to Chicago – Goodbye, Japan

Today was our last day in Tokyo, and unfortunately also in Japan.  I’m writing this entry on the plane as we make our way towards Chicago.  I think we only have 5 hours left, or something like that.

This morning, we walked over to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office, which is the tallest building in Tokyo.  There is an observation floor that is open every day, so we went up to see the sights one last time.  It was clear and sunny in Tokyo today, and we even saw Mt. Fuji!

We took a shuttle to the airport and then wandered around waiting for our flight to board.  We did pick up some yummy dough and bean paste confections, so if you’re nice to us, we may consider sharing!

Our flight has been pretty good so far.  We had some turbulence at the beginning of the flight, followed by a really drunk guy across the aisle who kept dumping drinks on himself.  All has settled down now, though.  I just watched the sunrise over someplace in Alaska – pretty cool. 

If all goes to plan, we shall be into Chicago around 2:30ish, which is 2.5 hours before we left Tokyo!  Somehow, it doesn’t feel like we’re going back in time right now, but what do I know?? J

Love to all, and we can’t wait to see everyone!

~Jessica and Todd 

Day 22 – Tokyo – Lots of rain, goodbye to Mos Burger, and a most memorable last dinner in Japan

Hi all!

Saturday was our last full day in Tokyo, and in Japan.  We had decided to return to Asakusa, which is sort of “old” Tokyo if such a thing exists anymore.  Saturday was also an incredibly rainy day – it was brought home to both of us how incredibly lucky we have been with the weather on this trip!  So, we borrowed an umbrella from the hotel and set out for the train.

It was still pouring when we got to Asakusa, but we wandered the temple area and shops under our umbrella and had a great time taking in the sights.  There were so many people with umbrellas working through the crowd that it was almost like the street had a shelter of its own.  When lunchtime rolled around, we searched for and found a Mos Burger so Todd could have a final Mos cheeseburger.  He was really, really sad… so… if the powers that be at Mos Burger are reading this post, could you consider opening up in the US (preferably starting in Wisconsin)?  My husband would be ever so grateful!

That evening, we went to dinner at the steakhouse in our hotel.  It is up on the 52^nd floor and the views are said to be amazing, but we were still fogged in.  I kind of liked it – the restaurant felt so isolated!  We had an absolutely amazing dinner – words cannot accurately describe how fantastic the steaks were.  The menu also featured “Wisconsin Duck”, which we did not try, but had to smile just a bit at the entry.  The restaurant had an open kitchen, and we had a great time observing the chefs at work in the kitchen.  After dinner, we had a drink at the lounge associated with the steakhouse and listened to some amazing jazz.

Love to all!

~Jessica and Todd

Day 21 – Tokyo – A visit to Shibuya and a farewell to shabu-shabu

Day 21 of our trip was a sightseeing day around Tokyo.  We took the train over to Shibuya, which is a ward in Tokyo.   Among other things, Shibuya is known as the home of the funky Tokyo fashions.  This is the place to visit to see what is right-now in Tokyo fashion.  We spent the morning and early afternoon just wandering the streets, taking in the ambiance and seeing the sights.   We briefly visited 109, which is a 9-story mall, which is where all of the cool kids go shopping (I think Todd and I were waaaaay too old to be there!). 

Shibuya is also home to a very large intersection which has been featured in several movies.  One thing we’ve seen in our travels is that at crowded intersections, the pedestrians are granted their own time to cross the streets while all of the traffic is stopped.  Because of this, the crosswalks are diagonal across the intersection as well as what we would typically see and you can cross the street any direction you want to.  This intersection is like this, and one corner is the outlet of the nearby train station, so there are always masses of people waiting to cross.  Crossing felt literally like being swallowed by a mass of humanity.

Todd and I had dinner at the Japanese restaurant at our hotel that night.  We had beef shabu-shabu, and it was by far the best shabu-shabu we’ve had in our time here.  The beef was so good I seriously thought Todd was going to break down and cry at the table.  (If anyone has a lead on Japanese beef at home, please let us know!)    We were given a table right at the window overlooking Tokyo, and we ate and watched as fog rolled into the city.  It was incredibly pretty to watch.

Love to all!

~Jessica and Todd

We’re home!!!

Hi everyone!

We just wanted to let all of you know that we are currently writing this entry from the couch in our living room.  We had a safe flight from Tokyo to Chicago earlier today and a wonderful shuttle ride home courtesy of Jessica’s parents!

We still have some final posts and pictures to add to the site that detail our final days in Tokyo, so stay tuned over the next couple of days.  As for now, though, we have been awake for a little over 24 straight hours and are rather tired.  As such, we will not be posting more cool stuff tonight.

Love,

Todd and Jessica

Day 20 – Tokyo – Exploring Shinjuku

There’s even more of Tokyo and Shinjuku in the Gallery!

Hi all!

Yesterday was our first full day back in Tokyo, and we found lots of fun things to do.  We’ve decided at this point that we are pretty much done with rushing around sightseeing, and want to concentrate the rest of of our time here just being out and about people watching and getting a feel for the city. 

We had breakfast at a cafe near to our hotel and then caught the train over to where the Tokyo Dome is.  We had a bit of shopping to do, and wanted to get a look at the area without swarms of people heading to a baseball game.  It was a beautiful day to just wander!  After, we took the train back to Shinjuku, which is the ward in Tokyo where our hotel is located. 

We spent the afternoon just wandering the streets.  There was plenty to see!  Shinjuku is home to an area called Kabukicho, which despite the name, has nothing to do with Kabuki.  Instead, it is a very popular nightlife area containing street after street of restaurants, bars, nightclubs, arcades, and some seedier establishments as well.  We wandered this area looking for possible places for dinner.  In a way, it reminded me of Electric City (we visited there on our first visit to Tokyo) in that there was so much going on at once.  There was music coming from everywhere, bright neon signs, people shoving menus for restaurants at you to look at, and just people, people, people.  This was during the day when this area is considered to be relatively quiet!

That night, we went out for yakatori, which we have learned is the name for the yummy grilled meat on a stick that we encountered on our first visit to Tokyo.  We had chicken and squid, and some yummy sashimi (raw, of course… not grilled!).  We then wandered the streets again – checking out the area now that it truly was filled with people and you could see all of the neon signs.  We ended up at a bar we had read about called the Christon Cafe.  This is a theme bar with a theme of sort of medieval Christianity – all white and black and red featuring gargoyles, stained glass windows, angels, saints, and other religious artifacts.  Their drink menu was similarly themed… I tried a “succubus kiss”, and Todd tried a “darksythe”.  We had a great time and got some cool pictures!

Love to all!

~Jessica and Todd

Day 19 – Okinawa to Tokyo – Back to where we started

Hey everyone!

Today we left Okinawa and returned to Tokyo, where we started this whole adventure… can it be almost three weeks ago?!?  That doesn’t seem possible, somehow.

At any rate, we had breakfast at the Japanese restaurant in our hotel for a traditional Japanese breakfast much like we had back on Miyajima.  There was raw and cooked fish, rice, soup, pickles, and as usual some things we couldn’t identify but ate anyways.  We then packed up the car and headed for Naha one last time.  We turned in the car and took the shuttle to the airport.  Not much to report from the airport – everything went smoothly and was on time.  We did return to Tokyo in a large (and packed) 747, which was very colorful and had pictures of Pokemon characters all over it.  I personally think everyone else at the airport was jealous of our plane. 

We took a monorail and a train from the airport to get to our hotel.  We are staying at the Park Hyatt Tokyo, which as I mentioned yesterday, is the hotel from ‘Lost in Translation’.  I can’t even begin to describe how cool this place is.  Our room is on the 47th floor (the lobby is on the 41st), and we have quite the view of Tokyo from our room!  Getting to reception is quite an adventure – you walk through a lounge, past a restuarant, and then through a library before you hit reception.  Only, reception doesn’t look like reception – just a bunch of people sitting around behind desks in a causal fashion.  We did get it all figured out finally and got checked into our room. 

We then explored the hotel, and already have reservations for Saturday night at the steakhouse at the hotel.  It’s up on the 52nd floor, and the bar here was the one Bill Murray spent his time in in the movie.  We’re excited to have our final meal of the trip there, but I’m refusing to think about it until Saturday!

Tonight, we had dinner at the Japanese restaurant here - we got a table at the window overlooking Tokyo and had a delicious dinner.  We’re just laying low for the rest of the evening so we can storm Tokyo tomorrow.  We don’t have a real plan yet, but knowing Todd, we’ll have one before bedtime or he won’t be able to sleep.   

Thinking of all at home!

Love,

~Jessica and Todd

Day 18 – Okinawa – Nearly destroying our rental car and pachinko!

Konnichiwa, everyone!

Today, we had quite a few adventures to report on.  We drove the car back down to Naha to check out more of the city, and to just kick back and wander.  We stopped in at a gas station to fill up our car – we reviewed the pump and thought we were doing pretty well when we managed to figure out where to put our money in and select the grade of gas we wanted.  We were just about to start pumping the gas when the attendant came running up to us to inform us that we were about to put diesel into our car.  (Not desirable, to say the least!)  He was very nice and helped us cancel our transaction and start over with the correct gas.  Whew!  That was a close one…

We drove down to the area of shops and restaurants we had located a couple of days before and pulled into a public parking lot.  There is a little bar you drive over to pull into the stall.  We had noticed on other cars that a little flap was raised under the car, so we assumed that the flap would pop up once we drove into the parking spot.  Only, it didn’t.  We didn’t know what to do then… there was a machine in the parking lot that looked like it controlled things, but there was no English on it.  We were about to move the car when a couple came through to get their car out.  We asked the lady how to take care of the car, and she was very nice once we pointed out which one was ours and worked the machine for us.  After they left, we realized that she had thought we were asking how to get our car out, so we were back to square one.  We started stopping people on the street and asking them, but no one seemed to know the answer to our question.  Finally, someone who spoke English stopped by to tell us that the bar would go up on its own after a while, so we were okay.  So, we took off for our wanderings.

We stopped for lunch at Mos Burger (mmmmm!), and took in the sights and did a little shopping.  Once we were ready to call it a day, we decided to stop in at a pachinko parlor so we could report back to my grandparents about it.

I should stop at this point and explain pachinko for those who aren’t familiar.  The idea is similar to a slot machine, only instead of putting quarters in, you feed little round metal balls into it.  Then, you pull a level, and similar to a pinball machine, the ball gets shot out into the board and bounces around between little pegs.  If the ball lands in a cup, the the machine rewards you with extra balls, otherwise if the ball falls all the way to the bottom of the machine, it is kept.  If you have any metal balls left when you’re done playing, these have a value that you turn in (kind of like cashing in chips). 

My grandparents had one in their basement when I was growing up that they had brought back from Okinawa with them ages ago.  Unlike the slot machines we are familiar with now, this one was completely mechanical.  You’d pop in a ball, pull a lever attached to a spring, and the ball would shoot up a slide and into the playing board.   I was always fascinated by the back of the board – it was a series of springs and metal ramps feeding the balls where they needed to be behind the scenes.

All I can say is… pachinko has changed in the last 45-50 years!  We wandered into a parlor, and looked around at the machines in amazement… they’re brightly colored, have lots of lights and sounds, and extra little games embedded like slot machines do now.  I put a 500 Yen coin (about $5) into a machine, and received a bunch of metal balls in a tray.  I didn’t see a lever, but there was a knob to turn, so I did that.  A ball got flung in and bounced around, so I figured I was on the right track and did it again.  It seemed like kind of a slow process for the number of balls I was given, but I kept at it.  Soon, though, one of the employees came up to show me that I was supposed to just keep the knob turned, and the balls were fed into the machine like crazy.  It was popping one out every few seconds.  Meanwhile, there was a display to watch with animated cats and dogs.  All of a sudden, the machine went crazy and started flashing and blinking and playing all kinds of music.  Balls started popping out of the machine, and an employee came over and hung a lucky sign over my head.  It turned out that you get a bonus if you line up three of the same type of cat or dog.  Mainly, though, I had no idea what was going on – I just kept the knob turned and randomly pushed buttons when it told me to.  It took me about 45 minutes to run out of balls, with saving up the balls that the machine spit back out.  It was like a never-ending supply for a long time!

When I ran out, I had accumulated a big plastic bin of balls, so we found an employee who showed us what to do.  We had read that due to some laws, pachinko parlors never exchanged balls for money, but gave you a token prize that you would take to another location for your money.  This turned out to be exactly true… they guy dumped my balls into a big counting machine which tallied up the number and printed out a receipt.  He then took us back to a counter where another employee took my reciept and handed me a box of flints with a note rubberbanded to the box.  Then, our helper led us outside to the parking lot, then down an alley, and up to a window with a screen in front of it.  Here, I exchanged my box of flints for 4000 Yen (about $40).  So, even though we had no idea what was going on, we managed to net about $35.  Not too shabby!

After having some dinner, we returned to our car.  We weren’t at all sure about rescuing it from the parking stall (the flap was now up, effectively trapping the car in the stall).  Luckily, we had paid enough attention to the helpful lady when we first got there that we were able to push buttons until we had paid and freed our car.  Hurray!

Tomorrow, we are leaving the beautiful island of Okinawa and returning to Tokyo.  We are sad to be leaving here, but are looking forward to returning to Tokyo.  For those who have seen ‘Lost in Translation’, we are staying at the hotel from the movie, though we don’t anticipate seeing Bill Murray.

Hope everyone is well!

Love,

~Jessica and Todd

Day 17 – Okinawa – Exploring the northern part of the island and a trip to the world’s largest aquarium

Check out even more pictures of our trip to the aquarium in the Gallery! 

Hi everybody!!

Yesterday, Todd and I drove north up the coast from our hotel towards Nago City.  We were excited to see the ‘other’ side of the island that’s not so densely populated. 

Our first stop was at Ocean Expo Park which, among other things, is home to the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.  This is the largest aquarium in the world, and one of the viewing tanks has the largest underwater viewing window to be found anywhere.  The aquarium was incredibly well done, and we had a great time checking out the sea life.  The large tank was a bit awe-inspiring.  It’s big enough to be home to multiple whale sharks and several good-sized mantra rays, in addition to lots of other fish.  There’s even a tunnel under one edge of the tank so you can stand underneath and watch all of the creatures swim over the top of you.  After, we explored the grounds, which were beautiful.  We also got a chance to see the dolphin show, which is always entertaining.

After leaving the park, we continued north along the coast.  The plan was to drive all the way to the tip and back down the other side, cutting across the island in the middle where our hotel is.  It quickly became apparent that we didn’t have nearly enough daylight to accomplish this, but we did make a nice loop and see some of both coasts.  What a difference from the southern part of the island where Naha is!  We saw pineapple farms, small towns, long stretches of empty beach, and various other beautiful scenery.  Unfortunately, it was raining like crazy yesterday, so we didn’t get as good a look as we would have liked, but enjoyed what we did see.  I also got really good at snapping pictures through the windshield between the windshield wiper blades.

We had dinner at the Japanese restaurant in our hotel again, this time getting little chunks of fish, seafood, pork, beef and chicken to roast over open flame on a little grate.  We enjoyed it lots, and there were no burned fingers.

Love to all!

~Jessica and Todd    

Day 16 – Okinawa – A brush with the law and duty free shopping!

Be sure to check the gallery for more pictures of our Day 16 trip to Kadena and Naha!

Greetings to all!

Yesterday, we took a day trip out in our cute little green rental car (I think it is a Mazda Demio?) back down to Naha, where we had flown in on Friday.  Our goal was to visit Shurijo Castle and then look around town a bit, as Naha is by far the biggest city on the island, weighing in at about 700,000 people.  First, though, we had some reconaissance work to do for my Grandpa.  Kadena Air Force base was right on the way and all, so we thought we’d better try to get some pictures.

The base is not hard to miss – there’s a giant area right along the highway fenced off with barbed wire with big signs saying the interior is patrolled my military dogs.  Oh, and you could see planes and tank looking things as well, so that helped give it away.  I wanted to get pictures of the main entrance to the base, so when we found that we pulled in thinking we could snap some pictures and zoom away.  Only there wasn’t a place to turn around before the manned entry gate, so before we knew it, we had an airman approaching us with a giant gun!  We explained that we had just taken a wrong turn and were trying to turn around, and he was very helpful giving us a spot to do so.  I couldn’t help but wonder if he was at all suspicious of me snapping pictures like crazy on the way out.

Grandpa – if you’re reading this and we don’t make it home, can you just check in with the Air Force and make sure we’re not in military jail?? 

We passed the Marine Corps base as well (don’t remember the name off the top of my head), but figured we shouldn’t stop in at two bases in a row snapping pictures!

From there, we headed into Naha, got parked, and walked over to Shurijo Castle.  This was the home of the king (back in the days when Okinawa was its own kingdom).  The castle has been there for centuries, although has needed to be rebuilt a few times along the way – the last time after the Battle of Okinawa in WWII.  They are still working on rebuilding and restoring it, and you can take a tour of how the castle would have been back in the day.  We weren’t allowed to take a lot of pictures inside, but did manage the outside pretty well.

After touring the castle, we took the train down to Galleria, which is a whole mall’s worth of duty free shopping.  We poked around in the stores for a while and found a few things we couldn’t live without.  After, we wandered that area of Naha for a while and then took the train to the downtown area.  We weren’t looking for anything in particular besides dinner, but ended up tripping over a really fun street filled with shops and restaurants.  The shops were closing up right as we got there, but we had fun looking around, and ended up at a hibachi restaurant for dinner.  It was really fun!

After taking the train back to our car, we attempted to retrace our steps through Naha back to the highway, but ended up taking a wrong turn.  We spent the next 20 minutes driving around on really narrow neighborhood streets before we found our way back to a familiar road and on our way back to the hotel.  We were both pretty freaked out for a while!  (Again, maps and GPS are only so much help when you can’t read them!)

Love,

~Jessica and Todd

Day 15 – Okinawa – A day of relaxation

Greetings from Okinawa!

Today was our first full day on Okinawa, and we spent it mostly relaxing and doing nothing in particular.  It was wonderful, and we both are feeling very refreshed!  After breakfast, we settled in by the pool to read and watch the world go by.  There is a beach associated with the hotel, though it is a shuttle ride away so we saved that for another day.   It was about 75 degrees F and sunny today – just a beautiful day!  We lounged until about lunchtime, then headed in for lunch.  After lunch, more relaxing ensued.

Just so you don’t think we didn’t do anything today… we did do some laundry here at the hotel.  They have a small laundromat in the basement, and it is really, really nice having fresh from the laundry clothes again. 

We ate at the Japanese restuarant in our hotel tonight, and once again had shabu-shabu.  This time, we had pork, and were more than a little delighted when the thin slices of pork that came out looked just like bacon.  (In hindsight, perhaps we should have seen that coming?)  It was delicious!

A word on Okinawa: for those who don’t know, Okinawa holds a special place in my family’s heart.  My Grandfather was stationed here when my Mom was in her early teens, and so my Grandparents, Mom and Aunt spent a few years living here.  I have heard stories of Okinawa and their time here all of my life, and am so excited to be here – not that we could ever see it now as it was then.  Tomorrow, we’re headed back to Naha for some sightseeing, so we should have some fun updates for tomorrow.

Grandpa – we did see where Kadena AFB is as we were driving to the hotel last night.  I’ll try to get some pictures tomorrow without getting arrested for snapping pictures of goverment secrets.

Love to all!

~Jessica and Todd