The Last Blog on Earth: Tokyo, Part One

Tokyo, what to say about this place? Tokyo is definitely where my culture shock has sunk in. There are so many people EVERYWHERE!!!! Besides being accosted by old drunk Japanese men at 9:00 in the morning (one telling me I had a nice body, while the other people with him wanted to teach us about God) it has been an experience to say the least.

At our hostel we got to stay in a traditional Japanese style room and sleep on the floor on mats. A great experience, but I am excited to sleep in a regular bed soon.

First off we got to check out the Tokyo Sky Tree, it has only been open for about a month. The tower was amazing, unfortunately we didn't head up to the top tickets were sold out about a month ago. There was a huge complex surrounding the tower with every kind of shop you can think of, including a Tokyo Banana (picture to come soon).

The fish market was a little different than I expected. They had a little section with shops and food places, the rest was bustling with forklifts, people and all kinds of trucks. The sushi looked great, but every place had a huge line and about 6 places to sit at the counter inside.

Line for a sushi place


shrine inside the fish market

Next, we hit the Imperial Palace, again a lot different than I expected. They don't let you go inside or even near the palace. We got to take pictures from across the moat and watch the changing of the guards

The Imperial Palace, with a random Japanese lady


Changing of the guards

Lastly, we came upon Tokyo Tower. It was great to head up to the observation deck and see amazing views of the whole city. As we got off the elevator from the observation deck, there was a lady with a monkey doing tricks. Gotta say, it has been one of the best parts of the trip. That monkey was awesome.