The blog that's gotten one comment ever! Thanks mom!

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Continuing adventures...

Morning again! It's Thursday here, and I'm up and showered before 8 AM. Today is Akihabara day! But that's getting ahead of myself. My last post was before we hung around Batty and Sonoko's neck of the woods. Aaron had a doctor's appointment, so we got up, Sonoko made breakfast, and we headed out to Tsudanuma, only one stop away by train, but we drove to make things easier on ourselves. Sonoko loaned Janie and I her cell phone, dropped us off at a mall, and took Batty to his appointment. Janie and I wandered around the mall all morning, buying more nick knacks than we have room to carry home. Right about the time we ran out of mall, I pulled out Sonoko's keitai to make sure they hadn't been trying to call us, and realize that I haven't heard any of the calls they'd been making. They finally got a hold of us, we met up, and proceeded to the next stop.

The afternoon is a blur, I may actually need Janie's help recalling what we did. But I do know for sure what we ate! For lunch, we stopped by a ramen place that they like, and it was nice weather for it, a bit on the rainy side. I had traditional miso broth ramen with the addition of a soy sauce soaked hard boiled egg. Delicious! For dinner, we went to a Korean bbq not too far from the Batty's home, and grilled our own short ribs at the table while snacking on kim chee. Also delicous! All in all, no complaints at all about the food, and I'm pretty sure Batty and Sonoko are having fun too!

Yesterday, Wednesday, was our whirlwind tour of Tokyo. First stop was Harajuku, famous for it's goth kids and the Meiji shrine. However, it was a school day, so the goth kids were mostly absent. It was, however, just about the best day we could have been to the Meiji shrine. Each shrine has a festival day once per year, and we accidentally visited the Meiji shrine on it's festival! We watched part of several ceremonies, jumped every time they struck this really huge drum, and saw more Shinto priests than I've ever seen in one place (admittedly, not a very impressive number before today) place offerings in the shrine. Absolutely great! We then wandered around Harajuku for a good part of the afternoon. We sampled a Harajuku tradition, crepes filled with tasty things and rolled into a cone so you can eat them on the move. Janie got one filled with cheesecake, and has decided it's her mission in life to discover other tasty things which one can fill with cheesecake. We walked down a street where all the goth kids shopped for their outfits. Imagine a whole street of Hot Topics. Oh! Almost forgot! Lunch at one of those sushi places where they have a conveyer belt carrying different sushi around the table. Just grab what you want, and they count up the number of each color plate to determine how much your meal was. I got some laughs from some other English speakers by asking if some green powder was some sort of wasabi. Turns out it was instant green tea, which was even printed on the lid. Oh well. We also found a little gift store where Janie bought even more things, along with a nice scroll for the house.

Took the train, and headed to our next stop, Shinjuku. This was where we were going to meet with Sonoko and Mika and find the restaurant that Sonoko had gotten us reservations at. After some more shopping, we met up with them, and headed to the restaurant, a yakitori chain famous for their wings. And rightfully so. Sweet and spicy at the same time. We had to order more, I think that was definitely the table's favorite. I also discovered a new taste sensation in drink form, kiwi chu-hi! Really yummy, I may have to attempt to replicate that one at home.

So, that probably sounds like a full day, but we're not done yet. One of Aaron's fellow teachers and the university was playing as part of a jazz quartet in Shibuya, at a little Irish pub. Never one to turn down a Guinness, we took train yet again, and had a pleasant end to the evening listening to some 1920's style jazz, eating chips, and drinking Guinness. One hour long train ride later, and we were home after midnight, with everyone crashing right away.

Anywho, pictures from the first part of the trip are up on Flickr now, I'll link them when I get home.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Scott and Janie,
Glad to here you're enjoying yourselves and the food! Love you much! Mom

Scott Ledet said...

Thanks mom! And congrats on being scottlovesjanie.com's first ever comment! Woot! My mom likes my blog!

Have you read my blog?