My sister has been in Japan doing some site seeing and gave me a call to meet her for dinner on Saturday night. Sharron and I decided we’d make a weekend out of it, so we made reservations at my sisters hotel and made out way into the city. Saturday was most nice outside so that was a big bonus. We got into the city in the late afternoon and had a couple of hours to look around before dinner. We also kept our eyes open for good looking restaurants. We met up with my sister and her friend Karen at 6 pm and told them about some of the places we were interested in. Stacey looked pretty uninterested and told us she’d made reservations at an Italian place. Italian…in Tokyo… Ok… So we went, and we ordered, and we received some…interesting dishes. Not quite what I was expecting. Mine was a little flat pastry with some cheesy stuff and shrimp in between. It was almost good. Oh well. After dinner Sharron and I headed up to the room and watched a movie. I know, pretty boring.
On Sunday we busted out our train passes and did some more shopping. We headed to Ueno to this big toy store I’d read about online. It was 6 floors big and full of all sorts of toy goodness. I mean really, I was in toy heaven. The most exciting things were these little boxes or bags that cost about 100-300 yen apice that each come with a little figure or something in them. You don’t know what you’re getting beforehand so that adds to the fun. I’d bought some Transformers figures a few years back in this method, so I was already keen to the idea, I just had no idea how many different kinds of figure lines they did this for. The ends of the aisles had display cases with some of the older lines they had. I was quite sad some of them were no longer available. Ah well… I ended up buying some Star Wars M&M figures and a few packs of the surprise figures. Not bad considering the amount of money I *wanted* to spend. There were surprises around every corner. :-)
We next headed to the electric city in Akihabara. I’d been wanting to do some more exploring there and find a couple more toy stores. By the time we’d spent a couple of hours in the Ueno toy store though, we were getting tired (Geez! Are we old or something?). We decided to hit just a few places and then head home as we still wanted to do some more supplies shopping around the base (Sharron still needs a coffee maker).
Overall, it was a good trip into the city. The rail system has gotten easier to understand now that I’m the one that has to pay attention. It really did seem mind boggling when I was just blinding following people around. Most everything is in both English and Japanese, so that helps a lot.
When I was in Italy, one of my favorite things for a couple of meals was to go find the nearest Chinese food place.
When in a foreign country, you should always try the foreign food. Foreign to the country you’re in, that is. It’s interesting to see another country’s take on another country’s food, and compare it to your country’s take on the same.
Maybe I should stop now. My head’s starting to hurt. :)
In response to Urn’s comment, if you ever go to Australia avoid the Mexican food, unless you are not in the mood for Mexican food and you are in the mood for something odd. I never knew that mushed up cucumbers were an acceptable taco topping until I went to Australia. It was amusing to watch the UK tourists try to eat their tacos with forks and knives though.
Also pay close attention to your hamburgers or they will be served with a fried egg and pickled beets hidden inside. That isn’t as bad as it sounds but it’s very weird if you’re not expecting it.