Tokyo

Tokyo is definitely one of the coolest big cities I've ever visited. i was here three nights but I could have explored for a week. A bit lacking in Japanese culture, but full of neat big city things.

It's just an endless city in all directions! This is the view from the metropolitan government building. Free observation deck.

The Japanese know how to do arcades. This was in another SEGA store in the akihabara(sp?) district. It was an HD gundam game that links to all the others in the row. This district also had restaurants where the servers are all cute girls dressed up like French maids(sadly I did not partake, because it would make me too much of a creeper). I think it's a brilliant marketing scheme. Put all the cute girls in the same district that all the antisocial nerds go. Also the girls are handing out flyers on the all streets trying to get people to go in.

Got up at 3am to see the tuna auction. Auctioneers sound pretty funny when you don't speak their language. And those tuna are huge.

6am we got in line for the best sushi place, and by 7:30 we were in. This is fatty tuna, the most expensive on the menu at ¥700 (~$7.00 CAD) per piece. All the sushi was fantastic.

In the Odaiba district, they have a giant gundam!(for those of you that don't know, gundam wing is a popular Japanese cartoon, among anime, it is somewhat popular in Canada too). I couldn't believe the detail on it, it looked fantastic up close. It had lights almost like a plane and it moves (although I missed the actual demo). Even up close there are decals saying "structural bolt here" and stuff, which are true to the actual show, not just a statue thing.

I am on my way back to joetsu to see Allison one more time. We will be off on the great Japanese road trip to Sendai! Then I have one more night in Tokyo before flying to Taiwan on Monday. And the cherry on top of the "2 weeks in Japan" sundae? I got tickets to see the sumo grand tournament on Sunday! Sumo!