Post #2 - October 13, 2012 - Tokyo, Japan

Okay here's my first post. Jeff and I have decided to alternate days writing the blog. Tomorrow's Jeff's turn.

It's 9:00pm Saturday night in Tokyo and we have spent most of the day out and about mostly walking from place to place. It was a great day, but naturally we're both pretty tired and will likely go to bed fairly early.

So as Jeff mentioned, we went to bed almost immediately upon arrival to our hostel yesterday which was about 9:30pm. We traveled about 10,000 km in about 24 hours! We didn't actually get out of our hostel until 11am. First stop was lunch. Which was awesome. Pics attached. Server was a gem and taught us how to pronounce "arigato gozaimas" which means thank you very much.

Senso-ji temple was our first site which is about a 10 min walk from our hostel. Very cool first stop that showcases traditional Japanese architecture. This place has been destroyed and rebuilt twice due to an earthquake and WWII. 

One thing we quickly noticed was how many people there are everywhere you go. There is more than the entire population of Canada that lives in Tokyo and definitely feels that way. But, the remarkable thing that Jeff and I are in awe of is the impeccable condition the city is in. The streets are immaculate, with not a single piece of garbage in sight!! The people here have been something special too. It's been only one day and you can really sense the nature of Japanese people is one of kindness and respect. Three examples I'll give you before I go:

1) An older gentleman sitting on bench saw an even older couple looking for a place to sit and right away got up off his seat to give his spot to them. The older couple smiled and bowed to him. 

2) Walking by a little girl who was about 8 years old on our way to the Skytree (brand new enormous tower in Tokyo, pic below) she bows as she walks by us. She was bowing to the cemetery right next to where we were.

3) We went to dinner at this neat place where all the guests sit around a huge U-shaped table and select plates as they are circulated by you on a conveyor belt. The restaurant keeps track of the plates at your spot and you pay accordingly. Anyways, a sweet Japanese couple on our right saw us confused and poured our green tea, and offered samples of their selections which were obviously way better than ours. The older lady on my left looked like a Japanese grandma and served our ginger on a plate for us and let out a "hmm" and nodded at us. Even with their minimal english skills we managed to have a really nice conversation with the couple. At the end the lady gave me a Japanese disney fan as a gift. 

All in all we met so many nice and helpful people today. Complete strangers going out of their way to help others with no questions asked. It's pretty amazing being here. We feel really lucky and really safe! It's insane how safe it feels here, can't even really explain why, there's just such a sense of calm in this city. We'll see how tomorrow goes I guess.

Tomorrow we're off to the top of the Skytree to take some aerial pics of Tokyo. Then we're going to see some Sumo wrestling, and compare their skills to those of my mom and sister who enjoy sumo wrestling in their spare time. And finally, we hope to see the Imperial Palace before the end of the day. Hopefully all goes as planned :). Hope all is well in Winnipeg.

Patty