Japan – Tokyo and Friends!!
It is great to have friends that can travel across the world to meet you! Well, Kim and Peter are in Asia for vacation, so we decided to travel to meet them. We won’t see them for a week, but we might as well enjoy Japan! Hooray for vacation, sabbatical, and time off!! I stole this picture from Raymond’s facebook page. Don’t ask me why I don’t have any happy pictures of everyone!! Kris joined us for 1 day!
Toyko: Meiji Shrine, Imperial Place Grounds, Asakusa Temple, and Odaiba
- Asakusa Kannon Temple: This is the sandal of the a god. It is good luck to touch the sandal.
- Imperial Place Grounds – I wonder what the budget is of the emperor of Japan and other royal families. According to Forbes, Japan and Spain did not make the top 15 wealthiest. I thought it was interesting because royal families have a lot of obligations and I assume that the country pays for their travels/obligations. I wonder how it works – do they get the same budget as last year, do they get an automatic increase, get a bonus if they don’t spend it all, what happens if they spend over their budget, do they submit a request if they need a larger budget like a royal wedding?
- Meiji Shine: Purification ritual, sake barrels, Torii gate, and shine. The trees were donated from the people of Japan for the Emperor Meiji. I wonder if the family is relate to Meiji company (the ones who make Hello Panda, Chocorooms, Yan Yan) – the company started in 1916, the emperor died in 1912. I grew up on Yan Yan or maybe my younger brother did and I just ate all of his!
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- Tsukiji Fish Market. In order to see the famous tuna auditions you have to stand in line at ~mid-night. I remember my dad watching a documentary of the tuna auctions. The fish were selling for ~1 million – that was probable ~5 years ago, they are probable a couple of million now. We met people at ~10 am who were standing in line since 2 am to eat at a famous sushi restaurant. It is like Black Friday in America, but with sushi. The sushi was yummy at the non-2am restaurant – I guess it is never to early to eat good sushi!!
- Odaiba: Largest artificial land in Tokyo bay. In the picture below, you can see the statue of liberty in the foreground, Tokyo Tower (look like the Eiffel tower), and rainbow bridge (looks a little like the golden gate bridge). The replica of the statue of liberty has July 4th 1776 engraved on the book (US Independence). Who needs to go to Vegas to see all of the famous structures in the world in one place!. I added the picture of the Fuji TV building – it is really futuristic.
- Japanese Fan Dance!
- Japanese Garden at the beautiful New Otani Hotel and teppanyaki
- 100 Yen Store in Takeshita Dori/Harajuku
Random pictures of Tokyo – Don’t forget Godzilla. He looks big, but he is easy to miss (~2-3 ft tall). I was trying to find the large scale Godzilla head.
