Tokyo, how I love thee

I really love Tokyo. Really. I would LOVE to live here. I mean, I do love BIG cities, but I think Tokyo is so much fun. Anyway, enough of that.

The girls and I arrived in Tokyo on Thursday afternoon, after a 5 hour train ride (including a half hour break in the middle at Osaka). We easily found our hostel, given I had been here before, and Ange, Katie & I left Erin to sleep whilst we walked up to Senso-ji - the big Buddhist temple near here.

The temple was packed, as always, though in the heat people weren't lingering so long. After we saw the temple we went shopping! Or rather, the other 2 went shopping! We found a reused Kimono shop, where we spent serious time, and Ange spent serious money! Ange got a Kimono and a jacket, and Katie bought 2 jackets. I tried some on... of course, but didn't buy anything.

We went back to the hostel, and as usual had another shower, and then all 4 of us went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building - free view over Tokyo. When you are up there at night it really feels like Tokyo is so ginormous, as the lights stretch so far!

On Friday we did some shopping in the morning. I know it sounds like we're doing a lot of shopping this trip, but we're browsing a lot of the time, really! Or buying things for other people! I promise!

Then we went to Iron Chef Chen Kenichi's restaurant. I had made a reservation ages ago, but no one on staff spoke much English the day I called so I wasn't able to get more directions that which subway stop to get off at. This meant it took us ages to find the restaurant, and once there we were hot & sweaty - what a surprise.

Katie and I decided to live dangerously, and ordered the lunch set meal, a menu I could only read about half of. The other 2 (avoiding seafood) ordered meals, and they were fabulous! Ange says Beef with Oyster sauce is ruined forever! Anyway, Katie and I had a 6 course lunch - small courses though! We started off with sea cucumber, which has a texture that is really strange, but the taste was so good that we just kept chewing! The other courses were: beef with miso paste, spicy prawns, mushroom soup, chicken with amazing oniony sauce & chilli tofu. Katie and I agree that the beef & prawns tie for number 1!

Our waiter was really funny. He spoke some English, but it was really strange, so I swapped over to Japanese, and just translated for the others. He was really worried that things would be too spicy, or something, or that 1 soup came out before the other (Ange's before K & I) even though K & I had the set, and the others just had ordered individual dishes! Then he offered to take a pic of all 4 of us together, and insisted on doing 1 photo with each of our cameras!

Oh, K & I also had a dessert course - some kind of jelly, but the spoon even came chilled!

After that we did some book shopping - for the plane - then headed back to the hostel, to quickly change for Tokyo Disneyland! However, that will be the subject of my next post, as I am off for my next adventure now!