We had a long weekend in India. They are doing their voting right now and so they had Thursday and Friday off. With the extra time a couple of us decided to go on a trip..... To Japan!
It was a ton of fun. I would have written during it but my battery died on my laptop and the plugs here don't have the ground wire it needed. As it is I'm writing this one on my phone. I'm at the airport now waiting to head back home to the US. Going to India was an experience that opened my eyes.
Japan was full sensory overload. There are so many people and shops and lights. Most places are really cramped so if you go shopping the aisle is just big enough for my shoulders to kind of touch either side. Josh is over six feet tall and had to duck in many places. The food here was excellent as well. We had some grilled meat cooked at our table for our first dinner. I missed beef so much I almost cried.
I bought a lot of souvenirs for myself and others. There were so many things I wanted. Seems every Street had some kind of toy store. Some new and some used places.
Speaking of streets they are so clean. Even the subway areas were clean and we'd often see people washing or sweeping to keep it tidy. After bangalore this was a welcome change. No open sewers here! The subway system was complex and the easiest way to travel. You could get anywhere in Tokyo with it. Almost all signs were in Japanese some were in romanji versions of katakana that we could read a bit at least.
I really loved trying to speak with locals, mainly people in stores. I knew a few words and phrases already and would look up others on my phone. People seemed pleased or at least amused by this. Even when we were in less tourist areas it was easy enough to be understood through broken Japanese or pointing and hand gestures.
We saw some really awesome architecture, old temples, and giant robots. I know we only saw a small fraction of the city too. We went to one of the newer malls, sky tree, that has a look out tower at the top. I think it's the highest point in Japan now. Even up there we couldn't see the city edges.
Over all I'm really glad I came and would go back again to see other sites. Josh and Kelly both want to live here and I can't say I'd be opposed either. It's a very orderly place and so big it'd take forever to explore.
