Wow, that 12 hour flight was no joke. At least the guy who sat next to me was very nice. He said he and his family are from Wisconsin and loved their first trip in March so much, they had to come back to do more exploring.
We received so many compliments on my shirt illustration! My crowning achieving was after landing at Narita. The checkout girls at the Pokémon store smiled and said they liked our shirts. “She made them!” Helen said. Which seemed to amaze them even more. My art even wowed the locals!!!! Truly the highest compliment, seeing as they have grown up in the land of anime. It warmed my heart <3
On the shuttle van to the airbnb it was around sunset time in the city. It was a magical ride into Tokyo. I whispered to Alex, “I’m afraid I’m going to fall in love with this place, and when we leave for home I will feel brokenhearted.”
Tokyo has been special in so many ways. The art, design and advertising is right up my ally. I rarely see this style of art back in the states. Each train station and ward in Tokyo has its own adorable mascot. The manhole covers are even unique pieces of art. You can tell people here respect and honor their traditions through creativity.
The food is awesome! We have been to a few themed restaurants which were spectacular. Including the Teddy Bear Onsen, where you melt broth gelatin in the shape of a teddy bear, into soup! The Pokémon cafe was also awesome. I loved my Snorlax rice 🙂
We have been staying in Shinjuku, which has been fairly low key. Not a lot of noise or heavy traffic. But still a densely populated area. It’s nice and quiet at night. Shibuya is another story. It seems there is not an inch of space to be spared. There are no benches. When I walk slower, or linger in a store, I feel like I’m always in the way. So many “sumimasen’s.” Meaning “excuse me.” I do my shopping quickly and leave to make room for someone else.
The sea of people in the Shibuya Scramble is a lot to take in. I didn’t know a place in the world like this existed. We have been walking in a single file line and holding onto each other’s backpacks in an attempted to not be separated. At some point you no longer see individuals. It becomes a massive swarm of pulsating humanity. It’s dizzying. It puts into perspective just how many people there are in the world. In times when this gets dizzying, I try to lock in on a fun ad on a building, or zone out on Helen’s yellow backpack bobbing in front of me.
We did go to Meiji Shrine, which was a welcome natural park area nestled in the city. The shrine area was very tranquil. I’ll be curious to ride the Shinkansen in a week out to Kyoto and Osaka.
Well! That’s my overall summary. Let’s scroll through some of the amazing photos we’ve taken.
Love reading about your adventures!