This was taken the very first morning after we arrived in Tokyo, from the roof of the hostel we stayed in. We stayed in two different places in Tokyo at the beginning of the tip, both of them in the old style Asakusa section.
Taken the same morning, me up bright and early
This is the first of the AMAZING vending machines we found. There are vending machines literally EVERYWHERE in Japan. On every corner you can buy a variety of cold teas, juices, and sodas, hot coffee in cans, and cigarettes. There are also vending machines for BEER, whole meals, and an abundance of other things.An interesting thing I noticed was that the beer and liquor manufacturers in Japan make EVERYTHING. Asahi, Suntory, Kirin, and Sapporo all have extensive lines of sodas, water, coffee, gatorade-style drinks, and more that can be found in vending machines and convenience all over the place, along with their own brands of beers, malt liquors, and whiskeys.
One of many incredible-to-look-at streets found in Tokyo.
Many people are aware of "Engrish" and it is evident in signs EVERYWHERE. This is just the first of many amusing signs that i snapped photos of.
Doug at our first proper breakfast in Japan, at DENNY'S of all places.
Do you remember going to arcades and they had those grabber machines with cheap prizes in them that you tried to nab with a crane/claw mechanism? Well, in Japan there are multitudes of humongous buildings filled with these tings. This was taken on the first floor of a 6-story tall arcade in the Akihabara section of Tokyo.
These mushroom things I guess is a mascot for a cell phone or IT company of some sort, but we saw them literally EVERYWHERE in Japan - all sorts of shops, posters, whatever...so I'm not really sure WHAT they are...beyond being weird mushroom people.
Another claw machine, this one bearing quite a majestic title
Doug observing the madness of Akihabara, also known as "electric town"
Some of the sights in Akihabara
This was an absolutely irresistable window display...I don't know if these are licensed products or WHAT they are...but they're gosh darned adorable.
This is the massive entrance from the subway into the section of Tokyo known as ROPPONGI HILLS, which is basically like Beverly Hills.
A very cool and very LARGE sculpture found in one of the main courtyards in Roppongi
We had the damnedest time trying to find decent inexpensive food while walking around Roppongi Hills, which was akin to waltzing down Rodeo Drive trying to find $10 quick eats smooshed between a Gucci store and a Rolls Royce dealership (both of which were present in this particular part of Tokyo). So we wandered around for quite some time and I believe we ended up somewhere outside of Roppongi and stumbled upon this little Chinese food place (it was even called CHINESE'S FOOD or something similar). Even though it was a total hole in the wall it sill had an automatic door, but the little little old lady that ran the place spoke NO English whatsoever. The menus had pictures and we pointed and ended up with pretty good food. This photo is Doug's triumph at FINALLY eating after quite a hungry mission.
An example of VERY awesome and somewhat strange modern Asian architecture
Wandering through the middle of a fairly dense metropolis outside of Roppongi on our first day we stumbled upon our first "temple." Walking up past the gate in the photo was a much larger structure with what appeared to be a rather long valet line in front of it, soIi'm assuming it was a hotel or something. Either way, it was a cool breath of fresh air hidden amidst all of the skyscrapers.
Another bit of completely bizarre advertizing. BOSS is one of the many brands of hot coffee in a can available in vending machines all over. It was strangely comforting to see this rather grim portrait of Tommy Lee Jones staring at me EVERYWHERE I went around Japan.
-THIS blog thing is rather new to me. I think I found a more efficient way to do ts, so i'll end this post as of now.
END PART ONE
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