Tokyo

Tokyo was great. Tokyo is a big city that feels like a big city. It's hard to explain. Seoul is huge and has millions of people, but it does not have a big city feel for me. Manhattan is small, but feels like a big city. Tokyo felt more like Manhattan to me. It felt like a big city. Seoul tries, but they are not there yet. Maybe it is the whole first world feeling. Korea is a new first world country, and as such there are still many old ways it does not feel like it. In Tokyo, there is far more culture... you can walk down the street and find restaurants from different countries besides just Japanese food. In a store (convenience or just shopping), there are white and black people working, not just Japanese. Traffic follows traffic laws. Motorcycles do not drive on the sidewalk and make their own traffic laws. Cars do not honk incessantly. Literally, walking back to my apartment in Seoul from the subway (about 100 meters) I heard more honking then the entire time in Japan. In NYC there is a lot of honking. There are also fines for honking. NYC honking is because a cabbie is in a rush or because there are people in the street. In Seoul, there is almost no reason. If a car wants to run a red light, they just honk and drive through. There is honking because nobody obeys traffic laws. There is honking sometimes it seems like they just want to press a button. Also, even small cars and motorcycles use air horns. Rob said that during his Korean license test, they even talk about how good at driving the Japanese are and how they do not have to honk (Korea does not like Japan, so it is insulting to Korea to be told Japan is better). Seoul does have a much better Subway system. Tokyo's is 90 years old. NYC's is 100, and Seoul's is 35. An analogy is that Seoul is like a High School student. Fashion, cliques, keeping up with the Jones, attitude. Tokyo is more of an Adult, their fashion may be crazy, but there is no 'in' for them. In Korea, if you go out running or hiking, you buy the gear... in Tokyo, there were old people running with shorts and a t-shirt. Its very hard to put it on paper....
It just strengthened my resolve to get out of Seoul. I feel that Seoul has been missing something for a long time, and Tokyo helped me see it. If I am in a big city, I want it to have that big city feel. If I stay in Korea, I would love to go to a small town (I love my school and it would be hard to leave them). The boondocks. Really get the Korean culture and have to learn the language. Basically... I have no idea yet what I want to do.
This may come off as hating Seoul or hating Korea. I don't. I am just kind of bored by it right now. I get that feeling if I am anywhere too long.

Day 0
Hello!
So we fly in to Narita Airport, Tokyo, take a bus to Shinjuku, check into our hostel, then walk around the neighborhood. We get in late, so we don't do too much. We grab a few drinks as we explore.

Day 1.
We walk.

We walk from Shinjuku through Yoyogi park, look at Meiji shrine, and walk to Shibuya We walk all over Shibuya. We then walk home. Shower and then go out for the night. We randomly stumble into a small Japanese bar. We were trying to get to a rooftop because that is fun to do. There is a sign that says bar. Mathew opens it and they say come in. Its a little Karaoke bar name Hango Bar  (hangover). We stay and get drinks. A person comes in and sits by us. Lo and behold, it is a Korean. So the three of us sit and talk, exchange contact info. He lives right over by were we live. We invite him to the beach that we are going to the next day. We head to the hostel and sleep. we walk over 10 miles.

Day 2.

Beach Day

We take a train down to Zushi with Kim and another person we met in the hostel Steven (a Korean Canadian). We spend all day at the beach. Very relaxing. It felt very much like a beach. There were buoys to mark the swimming area. In Korea they are about 10 meters from the shore. Here at least 50 meters. People swam. They were not afraid to get sun and were not covered up. There were bikinis ( a rare sight in Korea) and tanned people. Kids were in the water without a life jacket. Tents did not cover the beach, there were not hundreds of inter-tubes in the water.

We got back to Shinjuku, explored, got on a rooftop and enjoyed the city, went to some bars, had fun.

Day 3

Old and new

We took the subway to Shibuya so Matt could buy a wallet he saw there on Sunday (store was closed). We then took the subway to Asakusa. We saw a temple there and a traditional part of Tokyo. We then walked to Akihabara, or the electronics district. Arcarades, lights, shopping, anime, cosplay. Very Japanese. We took the train back to Shinjuku, showered and then went to the Robot Restaurant. Awesome. Some real robots, but most were people dressed as robots. Lights, lasers, music.... intense. I would go back again. Picture stereotypical Japanese craziness... this is it. Walked around, found a rooftop, drank some drinks, in all a very fun time.

Day 4

A bit of everything.

Took the train to Daiba, a manmade island.  Saw the giant Gundam, the statue of liberty, had ramen at the 24th floor of the Fuji TV building. Took the train to the Fish market. It was the afternoon so there was not much action. Then we just walked and walked. We ended up walking to Tokyo station, through a little of Chiyoda and walked to Tokyo tower. When we got there, it was right at the cutoff time for the special observatory (the top). Oh well. We go up. Matt makes the comment he thought we would be higher... we walking around, there is a line for the special observatory to buy tickets. I get him, we get in line. 5 people behind us the close the line. We get to go to the top. It was nighttime, and we had an incredible view of the city. We take the train back to Shinjuku, meet up with a friend we met, and we go to Korea town (just for laughs. We get a drink there. Then we get a drink, and walk around one final time. We have to be checked out of the hostel at 10 the next morning. We walk over 11 miles

Day 5

Goodbye!

We leave the hostel and walk to Shinjuku station. Make reservations for our bus to the airport and drop off our bags. We walk to the Municipal Government Building (which has a free observation deck). We go up, look around, and go back down. We get food, and we get on the bus to the airport.

Tokyo Photos In theory, they are in order of time....