Getting there + the first full day

Well, we made it. We thought that leaving Edmonton at 11:40AM was going to be perfect because we wouldn't have to be up so early in the morning to leave, but that just meant that it was 4:30AM Edmonton time when we finally got to our hotel.

Right now it's 6:43PM Tokyo time, which is 3:43AM Edmonton time. I can't figure out what time it feels like thought. Erika's having a nap, I'm sure she'll fill you in on everything I forget once she gets up.

The flight to Vancouver was uneventful, and the only reason I mention it is that Erika snuck a photo of me in YVR, and it was the first vacation photo.



We mentioned to the lady at the counter in Vancouver that it was our honeymoon, and she seemed totally indifferent. But when the steward on the plane found out, he said "It's your honeymoon?! And you didn't tell anyone?" He treated us really well all flight. He brought us champagne in actual glasses (from first class, and not the plastic cups the plebs got), he brought us special desserts from first class, and he gave us chocolates. As we were landing, the pilot made an announcement that we were on board and congratulated us. So, we got a bit of special treatment.

I spent most of the flight trying (unsuccessfully) to sleep, and watching the entertainment system try to reboot. It seems every time I fly Air Canada their system is up for about the first 40 minutes of the flight and is pretty much useless after that. Erika's worked, but she was one of the few. I borrowed her seat for a while while she slept though.

It seemed to take forever to get our luggage, get to the train station, get our tickets, and get to Tokyo station. It was late enough by that point, so we got a cab to the hotel even though they're by far the most expensive mode of transport here.

There's a few odd customs surrounding hotels here, like leaving your key card at the desk when you go out, and having to leave your key card in the wall in order to turn the lights on. And Japanese TVs seem to have only 12 channels, with one button on the remote for each channel. I thought it was just a special system for this hotel, but all the TV remotes we saw today in Akihabara were the same way.

I haven't gotten used to having a heated toilet seat yet, and I haven't explored all the various spraying and misting options our toilet has.

Today we woke up at about 5AM and couldn't get back to sleep. By the time we were ready to leave it was too late to do the fish market, so we just wandered the streets around the hotel until 7 when breakfast started. Not much was open, but we got to see a lot of vending machines. I was expecting a lot, but you can hardly walk half a block without finding a cluster of two or three. I tried some melon cream soda, and it was actually pretty good.

After breakfast, we walked to the Imperial Palace Park to look around. Most of the palace grounds aren't open to the public, but there's a pretty large garden that we were able to visit. There are several entrances, and each has a pretty impressive gate.

This was just an interesting building we saw on the way.




A view of the moat and the surrounding city


The first gate we passed:


Erika said it looked like someone had trimmed the ends off of all these leaves


And this handrail felt the need to follow the stairs quite closely






There were a few places where it looked like the guards were ready at any time to go into lockdown and shut down all the roads around the palace grounds


A fancy toll booth. Tokyo gives you non-stop sensory overload at every turn.


The park walls


This was the bridge we crossed to get to the entrance we went in


...and the gate we used.




Admission is free, but they give you a plastic token you have to return when you leave. We're not sure what happens if you lose it, but they probably don't let you leave.



This staircase doesn't seem to go anywhere in particular anymore.

Part of the foundation of the former castle. The blocks are about 4' tall, and must weigh hundreds of pounds easily.




This part of the garden had trees from many (if not every) of the prefectures of Japan.


Didn't expect to see palm trees, but I guess Tokyo is warm enough. Today's high was 24C, and mostly sunny despite the fact that originally the forecast was for rain this week. Not complaining. Later in the day it got a bit cloudier and windier. It was nice to cool down a bit.




Most of the buildings weren't very well explained in English, if there was any attempt at an explanation at all.










The park was full of these huge spiders, most around 2" in length. Erika kept wanting to take pictures of them, so we have quite a few.




The spiders weren't the only wildlife, there were some koi too.






I think this sign must have been for the fish.








A light that was probably overly ornate:




This was one of the buildings that we did get an explanation for, it was one of the innermost guardhouses, just before you got to the inner part of the old castle.




More spider pictures


The green fountain. The building close by had a model of what the castle used to look like. It's almost entirely gone now, just the foundations are left. There was a sign that said "free a guide", so we took a guide. It's a shame we couldn't free them all.




The music hall


This was the area of the foundations you were allowed to go up into.

















A few shots of the street as we went looking for a place to eat lunch. We ended up at McDonalds where I had the Teriyaki McBurger and Erika had some burger with an egg and bacon on it. She tried to order the Cheese Fondue burger, but apparently it's not available until later this week. So I guess there will be at least one more trip to McDonalds before we leave.






This cathedral was in an area of the city that was otherwise entirely un-notable.









We have no idea what this was. We weren't close enough to the building to read the text. It appears to be some greeks and the American founding fathers.


One of the shrines in Tokyo


Someone had graffiti'd this building to look cracked


Just outside another shrine








And another shrine. We just walked past this one without going in.


Ah, the pancake juice. We couldn't resist, so we bought a can and shared it. It tasted mostly like milk and maple syrup, with a slight pancake taste as well. Not unpleasant, but I don't think I'd ever choose to buy it again.


The second main area of the day was Akihabara, which is the electronics district. Besides lots and lots of electronics, there's a lot of Anime type stores, and maid cafes. As far as I know maid cafes are unique to Akihabara. Basically you pay to have some girl dressed in a maid costume waiting on you hand and foot. The streets in Akihabara were full of maids handing out handbills for the various cafes.

We found wigs for dogs at one shop that was full of rows and rows of stacks of vending machines for useless junk. So Pepper's getting a souvenir.


We spent the rest of our time in Akihabara at Don Quixote's, which was a huge multi-floored department store that sold just about everything imaginable.

Like breast enhancement cookies. There were also all kinds of massaging rollers for body enhancement. Bust enhancement rollers, cellulite removing rollers (which looked uncannily like the enhancement rollers), rollers to improve your smile, you name it.


Unidentifiable Fried Object


Meat King


A pillow-sized bag of chips


Completely unsubtle racial stereotypes


The building also had two entire floors of arcade with all kinds of arcade games. Most of them have no counterpart in North America.

We ended up going back to the hotel after that, but I think we're going to spend part of another day in Akihabara because there's so much to do.

We brought back quite a haul from Don Quixote's. I had to buy a power bar so that I could plug my grounded laptop adapter into the ungrounded power outlets. We also got:

Pringles Grand Canyon French Fries


Some sort of watermelon drink. Could be pop, flavored water, juice, who knows.


We don't know what this is either. Erika suspects it's some sort of breaded pork snack.


These candies are just sugar and color. I think you're just as well off to eat sugar cubes, but Erika likes them.

Okonomiyaki drops. I know what okonomiyaki is (some kind of omelette/pizza thing), but we're not sure what form these are in.


I'm sure there's much more that I'm forgetting but that's all the stories I can think of for now. Oh, and you'll all be disappointed to know that all the guests in our "clothing-optional" have so far opted for clothing.