Snapshots from the Tokyo-Kyoto Tour.

All this language learning, SRS talk and no how’s Matt and what’s he REALLY doing?

Japan!

Really, I should say I did a tiny fraction of Tokyo and and a bit of Kyoto and a bullet train in between. It was one week of an almost completely tourist adventure. I should emphasize that one unit of measurement, the week. It didn’t feel like seven days. Days and nights were one.  Every hour was different but the whole week was the same. Ramen meals were perhaps the only consistent ingredient in action packed nonstop attempt to experience a bunch ‘o stuff. I’ll run through it here  as I did in Japan  —>  Arrive Toyko,  find Ueno district, find crew and the hotel, eat at best ramen joint ever, wander  Higashi-Ueno market, see Sensoji Temple, see Five Storied Pagoda, eat sushi, wander Asakusa Market , visit Asahi brewery (no more), ascend Tokyo Tower…eat best ramen ever… cross the Shibuya crossing, all-nighting in Roppongi, eat best handcrafted mochi ice cream ever, check out Akihabara cosplay, sleep in a capsule, visit Kappabashi kitchen town, visit Tokyo Contemporary Art Museum, watch  bustle of Tsukiji Fish Market… eat best ramen ever… tour Ueno Park and temples, ride bullet train, check out International Manga Museum, view Silver Pavilion, visit Samurai shops and manga store,  play video games, bike Kyoto,  tour Imperial Palace… eat best ramen ever…train ride back to Tokyo. And that’s maybe 1/3 of the trip, the highlights.  The highlight of the highlights for me, was the Imperial Palace in Kyoto with those sweet  nightingale floors and awemazing murals.  Impressive. I don’t have any interior pictures though. They wouldn’t let me take ‘em.

What about the stories in all that stuff? -Like how Cezar and I played human frogger at Shibuya crossing and lost Melodie in the mass of people and how she wasn’t so happy, and how and why my image of ramen is no longer Top-Ramen, and how dangerous it is to first look left when crossing  street, and what happens with you share beers with carnies? That’s for another time.