Catching Up Part Two (Tokyo)

So, we arrived in Japan. There are very few "westerners" in Japan, so when you are a tall blond, you feel a bit odd. Also, unlike in many other countries where the signs are either subtitled in English, or you can sort of figure out the foreign language, Japanese is impossible to read to the untrained eye which makes it challenging to do things like take the train. Thankfully, hubby has been there many times and knows the ropes. This truly isn't for the beginning traveler.

When we were on the train and leaving the airport, we pulled out of a tunnel into the countryside and I immediately felt at home having grown up in the southern US. There was KUDZU everywhere! You get a sort of limited view of what a place is like from the train, but it was interesting to see the rural areas merging into the small towns and finally arriving in Tokyo.

It is a little difficult to describe Tokyo. It is in many ways what I expected, a busy thriving city. It is also very clean in comparison to many of its European counterparts. The streets are free of litter and graffiti is virtually non-existent. It is also very, well for lack of a better word, civil. For instance, vehicles yield to each other more readily it seems. I didn't fear for my life during the taxi ride to the hotel even in the smallest alley. Oh, and get this; the cab drivers wear white gloves, the seats have these lovely white doilies stretched over the tops to keep them clean and when you pay the driver, you lay your money in a little tray that he sets down just for that purpose. This is common in many stores, etc. You don't just hand your money to someone.

The one thing that I really wasn't prepared for was the sheer size and density of the city. It's about 1300 square miles I guess and they have used every inch of it. Most of the buildings were modern if not new (what I saw of them.) There was a really fantastic view from our hotel (the Park Hyatt as featured in "Lost in Translation"). I particularly loved the night time view from the famous New York Bar. There were little blinking red warning lights on most of the buildings in view and they just twinkled. I have to say, I really ate it up sitting up there having a colorful New York themed drink while hubby enjoyed a cigar and listening to a lady singing some classic songs with a jazz trio.

Naturally, while we were in Japan, we had to visit that most important of Japanese sites ...

Disneyland! They also have another (Disney) park called Disney Sea. I forgot how much fun it could be going to a theme park without kids, just me and my sweetie. Anyway, they have a lot of stuff at Disney Sea that we don't have here like "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad" Disneyland was interesting in the ways that it was similar, yet different than the Magic Kingdom. For instance? Their version of the Winnie the Pooh ride is SOOOO much better than ours. The Huffalumps actually JOIN you on the ride! The only downside to the day was a constant rainfall. What did we expect considering it was rainy season, right? On the upside, we did get some way cool ponchos, much better quality than the ones from Orlando.