We flew into Tokyo on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. The flight was delayed a bit and with the 2 hour Bus/limo ride into the city, it was around 11 PM when we got to our hotel. Brock is a very good baby, but for some reason, this flight brought out the worst in him. He wouldn't sleep, even though it was way past his normal bedtime and he was tired. He figured out real quick that he liked being passed between Brandon and I on the plane and spent a good deal of time moving back and forth. He also liked to stand on my lap and look down the isle at the people behind us. There was a Japanese man behind me that was smiling and making faces at Brock, which was nice. The funny thing was that Brock would alternately smile back and him and then in the next minute would crinkle up his nose and sort of snort at the guy in a menacing manner. At this point, Brandon and I were seriously reconsidering what we were thinking when planning this trip. Luckily the rest of the trip was smoother than our flight.
This is Thanksgiving day, we had breakfast at the hotel and are setting out for our first adventure.
Our first time in the Tokyo Metro system. The map looks completely intimidating, but Brandon was able to figure it out with the help of a cool app on his phone. Notice how very clean the subway is!
Reagan taking a rest on the ride.
The Pokemon Center. Reagan is crazy into Pokemon right now. When we found out there was a store in Tokyo, we knew we had to go. She's been researching this store for weeks online by watching you tube videos and looking at pictures. She wasn't feeling the best, but put on her game face for this outing.
Here Reagan is with her goodies. I'll admit, I was worried about how much this store was going to set us back, but luckily for Brandon and I Reagan likes little things. She always picks out tiny things, she got some keychains for her backpack, a couple of stuffed animals, a christmas tree ornament and a few figurines.
While Brandon and Brock were outside waiting for us to check out at Pokemon, they saw a bullet train.
Next we headed to Tokyo Tower, but stopped for lunch on the way. Reagan was impressed with the plastic food we saw everywhere. We ended up eating at McDonalds - the plastic food didn't look good enough for us to eat :).
Tokyo Tower
The view from the observatory -this city goes on forever! We've been to big cities before, but this one never ends, I was amazed by the size of Tokyo.
This is the Tokyo Tree
This Robot cruised around and was an information source. Kids were shaking his hands and he/it was speaking to them in Japanese. The only thing I understood it say was "excuse me". We really need to work on our Japanese.
This was a shrine or temple of some sort. All those little things in the front our grave houses. They are very elaborate - I think I mentioned them in another post.
On our way back to the subway, we stumbled on a random park. We didn't see a whole lot of green, so we decided to pop in and check it out.
I think people might actually live in these housed in the park. There was a car that was covered with a cloth outside of one.
We wanted to do something for dinner since it was Thanksgiving. If you'll remember, we had McDonalds for lunch, so we wanted something a bit nicer. We just started wandering over to the Shinjuku subway station, which is very large and busy. There are a number of big department stores and a ton of restaurants. We found this one and it had an English menu, we we went with it.
The table had it's own little grill, and we ended up cooking the food ourselves, which was an experience. Instead of napkins, you get aprons. Brandon got a steak, I got vegetables and some ramen and Reagan had soup and rice. There was a note on the menu that the meat is best when seared on the outside for a second. If you know me, you know I like my steak to resemble beef jerky when it's done, so this scared me off. It shouldn't have since we were able to cook it ourselves. On the menu was also yummy things like Ox tongue and other meat that we don't typically eat.
When in rome...so Brandon ordered Sake. He got his own bottle, it must have been good because he offered me a drink when it first came out, but then never ended up sharing :).
Chef Brandon cooking my vegetables. I tried the green things, not sure what they are, but I didn't overly care for them. Reagan and I tried the corn, but again, it's not Iowa corn and doesn't compare. We thought the white things were potatoes, but they weren't. Brandon ended up burning them anyway, so we didn't try them. It must have been the sake...
Brandon's sirloin cooking along with the rest of my vegetables. I did have some of his steak and it was excellent.
This one shows my Ramen and the sauces to dip the meat and vegetables in.
Brock and I after dinner. I forgot my hair products at home and could have died! In this pictures I have no product in my hair. I was able to use sign language with a japanese store clerk and replace most of what I left at home with success. If you are a guy, you just won't understand how lost I was without my mousse.
Leaving the restaurant - overlooking Shinjuku area.
After dinner we wandered around a bit and went into one of the department stores in the area. I cracked up when I saw the number of Japanese men in business suites taking naps and/or reading their phones while testing out the recliners.
Brock is a huge hit here. Babies in general are popular, but blonde babies are the rage. He would draw a crowd almost everywhere we went.
Just a random shot on the way back to the hotel.
Up next - day two Ginza and the Imperial Palace.
