Aloha, Tokyo!

After taking one last walk down the streets of Roppongi and meeting Alfred for coffee one last time, Nicole and I made our way to Narita airport. Really the only good that came from it was that we were upgraded to economy plus for free and there was a different episode of Hannah Montana. My TV, however, wasn't working. So, rather than strain my neck to watch Nicoles, I slept almost the entire 7 hours.

It's nice to be home and see my Dad, but Nicole and I have been missing Tokyo quite a bit. To satisfy us, our first night we rented Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift. Of course, I was jetlagged and slept through the entire thing. For Nicole's birthday (4th of July) we went out to a Japanese restaurant in Waikiki! That was nice except the waiters and chefs spoke perfect English. It turned out to be a blessing because after all the talking we did, he gave us ice cream on the house.

Speaking of house, the picture above is my back yard overlooking Kaneohe bay.
I took Nicole on one hike to Manoa falls. It was a fun trail even with the typical sprinkled. Unfortunately, the waterfall was only a trickle - most people were pretty disappointed. We drowned our sorrows in an Andy's eggplant melt and smoothie. Even though Japanese food was good, nothing compares to the food in Hawaii!


Unfortunately, I had to say goodbye to Nicole yesterday. She's back in O-town and starting at work again tomorrow. Good luck with those day dreams. As for me, I'm just sitting back and relaxing. I get to swim every day and eat fish... and mochi, and shave ice, and kim chee, and zippy's, and the list goes on...

Thank you to all who read my blog and to those who pretended that they read it even though they couldn't answer specific questions about it. (No, really, I'm not offended at all). :) It's been fun and I may do this again for my trips in the future. Or maybe even for my daily life. I know you're all dying to hear about what I learned about Trademark law on a daily basis.

I will post the link to all my pictures from the trip so check back.

For now, alooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooha!

Park Hyatt

The 52nd floor of the Park Hyatt hotel contains the New York Bar. This was in the movie Lost in Translation. It looks EXACTLY like it does in the movie. That's because it was in the movie.

We were ballers on our last night and paid the $20 cover charge just to walk in the door of the bar plus the $20 for a drink. We decided to splurge and get some food. Nicole suggested the steak tartar, but I pointed out that it was $110. We settled for some $26 pizza.
I enjoyed a Kir Royale....Delicious!

Dizuney sheee

Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea were fantastic! That rounded out my 9th Disney park around the world!

Nicole had this great idea that we should bring our kimonos to the park so we could take a picture in them in front of the castle. As stupid as I thought the idea was, I did it anyway. As we were putting them on near the entrance of Disney Sea, a girl came up to us and said that they were doing something special today for people wearing yukatas in the park - would we be wiling to be in a magazine?

Um... YES! So, she lead us over for a photo shoot and we will be appearing in Tokyo-Graffiti - a trendy magazine! Yep, we're big in Tokyo!
The park was pretty strange - it was similar to what I know very well, yet different. Kind of like a bizzaro world. Everything looked the same, but, people were well behaved and nobody spoke my language. Also, Disney was kind of like a fashion show; everybody dressed up all cute-like and they were skinny. It was very different from the fatsos shoving turkey legs and ice cream into their beer guts.

I bought a minnie mouse doll in a kimono - she's pigeon toed.

Splish splah I was taking a bath

The greatest hidden treasure of Japan is the onsen. I don't know about any of you, but I have taken a public bath before....it wasn't pretty.... for details about this experience (in Turkey) ask me directly.

In Japan, however, it is a totally different experience. The odaiba onsen is one of the most relaxing and magical places on earth! Once you get there, they let you choose a yukata (a summer kimono) to wear for the day. You change into this, and you have a bracelet with your key and bar code on it so that you don't have to use any cash for the rest of the day. You can shop, eat, get massages, relax in the hot springs, and more just by scanning the bracelet. Of course, you have to pay for it all when you check out!
There was even a show by the strangest man I have ever seen. He came out riding a mechanical horse, ballet danced, played some instruments, put on a feather boa, and roller skated around. So weird!

The best experience, however, was the doctor fish! Apparently these are special fish from Turkey that like to eat dead skin cells. For $15, we could stick our feet in a pool of them for 15 minutes. My feet never felt so smooth! It kind of felt like a vibrator, but looking down and seeing slimy fish made it really strange.

Sunrise-Sunset

I have seen both the sunrise and the sunset two days in a row. Tokyo has really my schedule really messed up, but is the most fantastic city I have ever been to. Last night, after a farewell dinner for Caren and Jamal, we sang some more karaoke, got a little rowdy, and had some ramen before walking home in the daylight.


Today we spent the day in harajuku looking at the people who dress up all crazy. I am in desperate need of some rest. I think tomorrow might be the day to rest Japanese-style. Check back for an update.

The day that never ends

This morning we went to the Tokyo fish market! Because you have to get there really early to see any of the good stuff, I only had a brief "pause" between going out and going to the fish market. We got to see the crazy auction, and there is a crazy Japanese man yelling fish prices. Then we went to one of the sushi restaurants for the freshest sashimi that I have ever eaten. Notice that everyone is drinking beer with their sushi for breakfast at 7am!

Karaoke!

The Japanese loooooove their karaoke! I looooove my karaoke. We get along. Last night was the third time I've gone in this country.

My rendition of "If I Could Turn Back Time" got more intense each time.

Apparently, my calling, instead, is the tambourine.