Up a little later today. Normal laziness setting in. Feet on fire from walking around for 12 hours a day. Back sore from standing all day. Yet I must persevere because... I do not like Japanese TV.Having been to much of the city in the past two days and basically killing our bodies by walking non stop we decided yesterday would be a rest day. We wanted to take it a little slower, sample some of the more traditional Japanese culture, so we started our morning with breakfast at McDonald's. I am now a convert of the delicacy that is the McGriddle breakfast sandwich. The many blasphemies I said about it before I take back. It is cocaine for the taste buds.
We left McDs for Ueno, to check out the neighborhood and buy train tickets down to Kyoto. Using my fluent Japanese, meaning being able to say Seat Reservation and the train name, I secured two tickets. It also helped that the attendant knew how to say Tomorrow and the times in English. Either way it was our first major challenge and I was able to get by without making anyone cry this time. On the way out of the station we were stopped by a little old Japanese man, who knew quite a bit of English. I am not sure if he was drunk, homeless or just bored but he proceeded to lecture us on the downfall of traditional Japanese culture. From people paying for sushi rather than making it, to coffee drinkers instead of tea, to how expensive an orange is to the fact that 50 years ago milk and cheese did not exist in the culture. He seemed very upset about the Irish Pub in the train station and yet very pleased with the train system as a whole. When I mentioned we were going to Kyoto to see more traditional Japanese culture he seemed pleased and said how much better looking the women are. We listened to him for about 15 minutes before I got sick of it and told him we had to go. He had some valid points about the changes in Tokyo over the past 50 years but he picked the wrong people to use as a soundboard. We shopped around Ueno for a little bit, finding the Gremlin shrine in a toy store and the best t-shirt I have ever seen: Lazy Smurf with the words This Is My Lazy Shirt. I really wanted to buy it but for $60 and a woman's small I didn't think it was a good use of funds.
After Ueno we headed down to Ginza, the big modern shopping center. All the buildings are new skyscrapers with familiar stores like Prada, Brooks Brothers, etc. We did the Sony building tour and played with the gizmos which really isn't that exciting. One thing about Japan is people love to shop and with two penny pinchers like us walking around the city it eliminates about 50% of what we can do. As we walked down the street of Ginza looking for the Kabuki theatre we spotted in the distance what could only have been a mirage. As we got closer the mirage materialized into heaven on earth - Wendys. We grabbed lunch even though it was early because lets face it, there are only so many chances for Wendys in a foreign country and being connoisseurs we were not going to pass it up. The odd thing was they were playing American Top 40 music inside, so for a moment I totally forgot I was even in Japan.
Continuing with our traditional Japanese day we headed out to the Edo Tokyo Museum, which was closed. We were not real happy as we had to take 3 trains to get out there. We went over to the Sumo Arena instead and did their short museum tour, which consisted of 1 room and a whole bunch of Engrish. This part of the day was feeling like a bust until I spotted a sumo guy coming out of the building. Thinking this was our chance to get more authentic I asked if we could take a picture with him by pointing at the camera then at him, to which he replied Ok Sure. So much for authentic. It was even stranger to see a large man in a robe get on a bike and ride away, barely dodging the cab as he crossed the road. It was mid afternoon at this point and being hot, tired and full of good food we headed back to the hotel to recharge.
With still half an afternoon and an evening left in Tokyo we felt we had to get some more traditional Japanese experiences. And what better way than to head to Tokyo Disneyland. Yes you read that right, I flew half way around the world to go to Disneyland. The funny thing was it was just like regular Disneyland; long lines, cartoon characters, the castle and lots of Asian people. We did a few of the traditional rides, like Its a Small World (very creepy and very racist ride. Why must the asian creepy animatronic people have slanty eyes? of the black ones have big afros and be riding elephant tusk), Haunted Mansion, and Pirates of the Caribbean. I thought Justin was going to cry when Space Mountain was closed. The park over all was packed and as we watched the Light Parade pass the street opened up for everyone to cross. I thought Shibuya crossing was crazy but this blew it away. People were running, kids were getting knocked over and women were dragging their strollars. We tried to grab some food by heading over to Westernland or something like that. Little did I know that cowboys only ate curry as that was the only food on the menu. As we headed for the exit, resigning ourselves to ramen for dinner again, I spied a hot dog restaurant. Foot long dog, fries and a coke, I was a happy camper. On the way out we also tried to go into one of the stores for souvenirs but the place was insane. It was like they were having a fire sale. Shelves were bare, people running everywhere and the line to checkout at the Sugar Bank (candy store checkout line) was almost as long as the rides. As the employees tried to restock the shelves people were going through the boxes and pulling stuff out. I don't know how Disney did it, but Japanese people love their Mickey.
We got back to the hostel around 1030 and the regular hostel kids were hanging out drinking and talking. I really don't know why these people came to Japan as half of them seem to sit in the hostel all day. We slipped by without talking to anyone, hoping they would think we don't speak English, and into our room. This morning we got up, packed up the bags and headed for Kyoto. 3 hour train ride down, box lunch of some beef and god knows what veggies, 1 mile walk carrying 40 lbs and we were in our new place. Kyoto is pretty neat, definitely a little more traditional and older than Tokyo. And so far the old man was right about the women.
