ready, set...

Tokyo!

The whirlwind tour!

That's right, if I had three days of sightseeing mania, then you're going to get it in one fell swoop too!! Hang on!

Day one: Friday

Friday morning after a crash course from Josh, I was ready to tackle the big town for a day. Camera armed and ready!

First stop: a shrine in Ueno park.

Complete with a, uh, gong-er thinngy!

Next stop - shopping! Ameyoko plaza is supposedly one of the grandest bazaars in Asia. Where you can find...

uh, these.

Ahh, that's better!

This thing haunts me! Apparently it's a good to honest cultural symbol. A badger (not a bear like I supposed) that frequents food or drinking places. Hmm...

Ginza! The classy part of town. ;D

And then by night, Shibuya the, uh, people part of town. Seriously, there's no way to convey in one picture the sheer oceans of humanity at this intersection. Just get me to show you the video sometimes, cause this just doesn't cut it!

A must, apparently, in Japan. I have yet to try it, but I feel that my destiny awaits me...

Day two: Saturday

This day Josh and I traveled in to his work together and I spent a little while observing some of his classes. But then I went to a mall to wait for him.

And well, one must stay awake somehow.

But then we were off!! Where am I here?

The Imperial Palace of Japan!!! This place rocked, it's actually still the current residence of the Emperor of Japan so obviously we didn't get to see the palace itself, but the grounds were great! The pic above is one of the many buildings near the moat that surrounds the whole grounds.

Me and the moat! Here you can see the grounds starting to the left and city city city on the right.

The palace was indeed peaceful, but only a few steps away the city begins in earnest again. Shiny!

I know, it's silly. But really, what sort of trip to Japan would it be without Godzilla?!

Walking the streets at night (that's Josh there in his spiffy hat).

Day three: Sunday

Saturday night we spent near to Tokyo so that we could rouse ourselves at the perky hour of 5:45 and train back in to see this - the biggest shrine in Tokyo.

I honestly don't know what that thing is, but it is big!

And this spiffy dragon was on the bottom.

And right around the corner - a pagoda!

It doesn't get much more cultural contrast than monks and a Starbucks, and yes, they actually went inside and got something!

This was a monorail train we took that rode us around the whole bay area (the first picture on this blog was taken from it. Sveet!

One more shot from the train.

And sadly, my camera would have been much more active on Sunday, if it had not died of batteries shortly thereafter!! Oh well, now that it's Monday and I've taken a day off, they are fully charged again and await any other adventures I have. My time here has only begun!