japan: tokyo pt. i

Here’s the craziness that went on while I was in Tokyo: I stayed at a hotel called Sunlite Shinjuku, my room was sooooo tiny, but I didn’t care because the location was amazing! The first night, I went to this festival thing near my hotel. There were a bunch of food stands and people dressed in traditional Japanese attires drumming and dancing around. That was probably the most Japanese thing I witnessed so far.

After that, I went to Harajuku to see what's all the hypes all about. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any crazy 'Harajuku girls'... maybe I did, but everyone in Japan dresses so unique and crazy already.

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The next day, I went to the best museum ever! It was the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. It was a Hayao Miyazaki museum... the place was set up like a studio: showcasing sketches, paintings, photographs, and different stages and processes in making Miyazaki films... oh, including the actual full storyboard to Grave of Fireflies!!!! The museum was absolutely amazing... actually, I cannot describe how much I enjoyed that place; it is definitely my favorite thing in Japan so far!!!!!!! Sadly, I was not allowed to take pictures inside the museum (even though I tried to take a few, but they were all blurry)... nonetheless, I was able to take pictures outside and I took a bunch of the flying robot from from Castle in the Sky... that thing was huge... it was soooooo cool! Ok, you are probably tired of hearing about how much I loved the Ghibli Museum, so I’ll move on to my next destination in Tokyo.

I traveled to Ebisu to check out the Yebisu Garden Place. I walked around there for a while, went to the Sapporo Brewery Beer Museum and got some free beer... it was sweet! I was planning to go into the Museum of Photography, but it was a little expensive; they were charging like 7 bucks for each floor… I thought it was a rip-off!

I did more traveling, this time to Hamamatsucho for the Zojyoji Temple, Tokyo Tower, and the bay area. The Zojyoji Temple was kind of sad: it had "rows of little statures of Jizobosatsu, the protector of the souls of stillborn children. Mothers who have experienced stillbirth or who have had an abortion may dedicate an image of the deity and decorate it with baby clothes, toys, and little windmills." Haha, that was take right from this Tokyo pocket guide book... btw Liam, that book is awesome!... I totally planned my trip mostly according to it, thanks!!


After the temple, I went to see the Tokyo Tower. I just walked around the outside area and to the first and second floor of the tower. I thought the funniest thing was how there was this large picture of the tower in front of the entrance and people were getting their pictures taken with it. I mean, WTF?!?!?! The real thing is right there and people were taking pictures with a photograph of it, how strange!

The last thing I did in Hamamatsucho was just walked around the bay area, or the harbor front. I had a beautiful view of the city and the water and wind was a nice and refreshing contrast from the extreme heat I felt for the entire day. I hung around there for like an hour or so, bought some dinner and went back to my hotel. This post has been extremely long, so I will leave out my last day in Tokyo in another post. Peace-out kids!

see my Tokyo pictures here