Japanese Blast!

So we are two full days in and absolutely stoked. There is significantly more walking than you would ever do in San Diego. Sheesh. And amazingly most people are wearing dress shoes.... not sure how all the girls (business type and young alike) do it in their glitzy high heels. Speaking of dress, it's cool to see totally different fashions. There are different types of dress. Everything from the older business men in their regular suits to younger men in their pimp straight legged suits and hair like crazy rock stars. There are the punk rock Japanese teenagers who have the teased out punk hair often crazy fun colors, tight ripped jeans with glamorous sun glasses. The girls are everything from business suit types to the younger girls who wear fancy shoes, knee high tights and short skirts or interesting bloomy shorts. Totally different fashion.... things that just wouldn't fly in the US but work great here in Tokyo. Here's an example of a Japanese teenager in the fashion oriented Shibuya:



The quick rundown of what we've done. Monday we had a fun day heading to Molly's hometown which is a few stations on the subway from here, Yoyogi-uehara. She had a blast showing me her house (even met up with her sweet neighbors from 15 years ago!), her bus stop, friends house, her playground, where she used to hang out, etc. So fun! We then took a short subway ride to Harajuku. For those of you who listen to Gwen Stefani, this is the place where the Harajuku Girls that she tours with are from. It is simply a crazy fashion scene. Tons of super cool shops, great clothing, etc. We hit up Mol's favorite toy store from childhood and had a blast playing with the toys.

Tuesday we took the bullet train to Kyoto, which is an older styled Japanese city. It had a much slower paced vibe than that of tokyo. It was great to take the bullet train. It's so so fast! Was great to see the countryside of Japan on our way to Kyoto. We saw a shrine there, had some fantastic lunch and were back in Tokyo for night time. Later that evening we had a beautiful date night in Shinjuku at the Park Hyatt hotel. This hotel sits on the top of the Shinjuku Park Tower. We first had wine and cheese at the New York Bar (the Jazz Bar where Lost in Translation was filmed), which had killer views of Tokyo from the 52nd floor. We then had a second glass of wine at the Peak Lounge which is a more Japanese flavored bar/lounge. It had bamboo, japanese lanterns, and low seated chairs all on the 41st floor with beautiful views of Tokyo.

It has been a fantastic trip so far! It is great to see Molly truly in her element. Her Japanese has saved us many times! So lucky to have a personal tour guide!