The "week" that was golden...

I'm back in the grind after spending a brief holiday in Tokyo. Last week, Japan had renkyu, which means consective holidays, or more popularly known as Golden Week. However, this week is actually 3 days of holiday, though it is referred to as a week. Luckily, this year it fell at the end of the week giving us 5 days off. So on Wednesday, Dave and I hit the big capital and were set loose. Unfortunately, we didn't go all wild and crazy like a couple of frat boys. We explored a lot of Tokyo's more cultural sites, ate like fiends, walked around a whole bunch, rode A LOT of trains, got to know each other better and enjoyed what Japan has to offer. I can't remember what we did everyday so I'll pretty much summarize. Over 4 days, we visited Shinjuku, Shibuya, Aoyama, Harajuku, Ginza, Roppongi, Ikebukuro, Asakusa and nearby Kamakura. The picture at the top was taken in Roppongi where we strolled around at night. Roppongi is gaijin (foreigner) central and man, there sure were a lot of them. Too many. And there were so many varieties of restaurants, which was nice. We saw this fish tank and we don't know for sure if it was a sushi restaurant or something, but the fish were frightening, intimidating and lacked that Finding Nemo quality. And no, we didn't eat there. But we did eat at a fabulous Indian place. Like the previous night, we were accosted by a random man standing on the street handing out coupons for a restaurant. We eventually settled on eating there and dammit, it was delish. Like plate licking delicious. Happy happy joy joy. Nearly had stomach-gasms at the table. This was the second night in a row that we had Indian and we both just about died from happiness both times.

This pic of Dave and I was taken in Kamakura, about an hour away from Tokyo. We are standing in front of a Great Buddha, though I don't remember how tall it is. There were loads of people, but it didn't detract from its beauty. This was my second time seeing it and it was just as breathtaking as it was the first time.




These photos were taken at Hasedara Kannon (?) nearby the Buddha. The garden perfectly captured what Japan meant to me before I came to live here: tranquil water gardens, stunning flowers and greenery and beautiful parasols. It was even more impressive in person.


These photos show the Buddha in more detail and his slippers. I forgot the story behind it. Sorry, I wasn't taking notes!


These photos were taken in Asakusa, old school Japan in the middle of Tokyo. There is a huge lantern marking it's entrance and there were tons of kitschy souvenir shops and mercifully, I didn't succumb to buying useless shit. But Dave and I had some beer, yakitori and yakisoba in a tented restaurant. Then we were bumrushed by a gaijin-seeking Japanese man looking to practice his English. In a space of about 6 minutes, he told us everything he knew about Scotland, Montreal and Ghana, and as quickly as he came, he left. Bizarro.


This is the Asahi buidling we saw as our ferry was pulling in to Tokyo. Looks like one big giant, gold turd to me. I suppose it's a fitting symbol for a beer factory.

I was rather lazy with the camera during this trip to Tokyo. If you're aching for some photos of Tokyo and other places in Japan, you can check out Todd's Flickr album from his time here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/flowizm/




I will update shortly with school life and a brief summary of a fantastic book I read about the JET Programme. Until then, be well.