Ginza: TV Debut, Shiseido & Shopping. Then, Dance Festival & Yukata Party!

Since we didn't go to sleep until 5 AM Friday night, we didn't wake up until 1:30 PM on Saturday. Ha! So lazy. But it was okay, since we were relaxed and after the long, hot days, it's nice to sleep in a little.
This is what I had for brunch in Ginza. Tempura rice bowl with miso soup. So delish!
Oops, skip back in time to where we're still at Daryl's in Akasaka and not at brunch in Ginza. Daryl accompanied us to Ginza for a little shopping and siteseeing because he's a stand-up guy and wanted to hang out with us. Plus, he had to purchase a yukata (summer kimono) for the party that night. This is Vanessa and Daryl on the Metro (Chiyoda line) towards Ginza:Evidence that we made it to Ginza St. :)
Ginza is like the Fifth Avenue of Tokyo, complete with wide streets and upscale shops. It's also the home of Shiseido, which, as you may know, was a client of mine for a while. I learned to know every single U.S. product and love the aesthetic, so I was excited to see the "headquarters." There is also a great gallery there as well as a pastry/chocolate shop (which I didn't know at the time!).

We finally arrive at Shiseido!Shiseido Gallery exhibit featured a contemporary take on antique menus and place settings. It was kind of weird. The best part was these lady and gentlemen outfits made from the tablecloth that you could pose in. There was even a tripod. Naturally, we obliged.
With no people:
With Daryl and me:With Vanessa and me (I'm the dude here):Once we departed the Shiseido Gallery, we headed north to Mitsukoshi, a huge department store in Ginza that boasts an underground marketplace full of fresh fish, fruit, veggies, desserts, breads - you name it, it's there. HOWEVER, as we were crossing the street, we were approached by a a TV crew who was interested in interviewing us tourists about our budget and interests while in Tokyo. I really hate being on TV and filmed and whatnot, but I resigned myself to it. Here's me displaying my budget to the camera:That actually made it onto the segment, which aired Monday morning at 7:21 AM JST (Japan Standard Time). This is me encouraging Vanessa to talk to the camera about her budget, etc. The dude with the mic didn't speak English, but his translator was off camera.
After all this hoopla, we went to Mitsukoshi department store and moseyed around. Then went back to Daryl's apartment in Akasaka to shower and get ready for the yukata party that Daryl's friend Tomoe had some friends who were throwing that night. Unforch, we didn't really know how to dress ourselves in the yukata. Basically it's a long, light cotton robe with two long cotton ribbons and a long wide sash. Luckily Tomoe came over to help. She rocked! Here's the process and the final result:

And from the back. She was an excellent bow tier! Then we went to a dance festival in Ebisu, where we drank cheap Sapporo , danced some traditional dances and ate delicious ramen.(Video of the dance to come!)
After that, we went to a house party in Azabu, an elite neighborhood where celebs and diplomats live. The kids there were nuts, drinking and setting off fireworks. Here's Vanessa and me after our crazy sparklers wouldn't work:

Temples and Technology: Rest of Asakusa, all of Akihabara, Yakitori dinner & Karaoke

Vanessa holding Asakusa-jinji by the...

Asakusa is the place where you see all the well-known temples (oh my gosh, MORE temples??! it's like Gettysburg and cannons; you really can't escape them) and huge lanterns. You know the ones from the movies? They are here. It's the place everyone goes and takes her picture under (at least one of the lanterns - there are two temples with I think 3 or 4 huge lanterns in total), and we were no exception. Here is me under Senso-ji temple lantern:(I look like I'm throwing gang signs! But was really in the middle of pointing/doing the peace sign.)
There's also a wicked open air market mostly full of tourist crap like wooden shoes, cheap yukata, cell phone trinkets and stalls upon stalls of sembei (rice crackers), pastries, candies, all sorts of yum-ness. Needless to say, I was in heaven there. So were the throngs of tourists. Check out this video of red bean pastries being made in and distributed... also listen to me sound like a valley girl when talking about shoes... ughh

While in Asakusa, Vanessa and I dined at what Japanese like to call "fast food." This consists of figuring out what dish you would like from an outside display case, then punching its corresponding number on the adjacent machine, paying and receiving a ticket that you then take to the cook inside who makes your dish fresh and quickly. Genius, really. Here's me outside the ticket-vending machine after being stuffed full of soba noodle and eggs and pork over rice. Yummm:
After wandering the streets of Asakusa, getting somewhat lost among quieter streets littered with stray cats, trinkets, old men and eateries, we headed back to the Metro where we came upon this funny sign. It's a wonderful example of "bad English":
We headed down towards Akihabara, but first ventured towards the Meiji University Criminology Museum because I'm fascinated with crime and punishment (not the book; couldn't get through that). It took FOREVER to walk there, and didn't help that we'd walked about 1/4 of the way in the wrong direction. According to our friend Daryl, this isn't rare or due to our tourist ignorance: street names in Tokyo are rarely clearly noted and so everyone just has GPS. Wish I could've used my iPhone to triangulate our location! We broke down and got a cab b/c it was hot and dirty and we were tired. The Meiji University Criminology Museum (which was more like an exhibit, thanks for exaggerating, guidebook) was great once we found it. We stumbled onto an Open House for summer classes and went up three flights of escalators, and visited an awesomely clean bathroom before a nice student who knew a little English guided us towards the museum. Although more English descriptions would've been great, you really didn't need to understand how the torture devices in front of you were used.

After an hour in the museum, examining torture devices and copper plates, etc., we sauntered towards Akihabara. Akihabara is where you want to go for all technology and anime/manga/etc.-related items. It's full of insanity and Vanessa wanted me to experience it.
(Oh, look, we found the Big Apple in Tokyo!)

We saw the future of technology and it's this: larger cell phones to accommodate television watching, cell phones with antennae to access this TV (and I'm pretty sure Tokyo Metro's wired for connection) and so many fun colors.As you may be able to tell, it's quite humid here in Tokyo. Verrry humid, but it's been overcast, so not completely unbearable. We knew the weather would be like this coming into the trip but honestly it's not that bad. I just drink my Green Apple flavored Volvic water and chug some yogurt jelly drink, and we're all good!

That night we met Daryl's friend Tomoe who took us to a kick-ass yakitori (skewers!) restaurant where we enjoyed lots of chicken and shrimp, tofu and drinks with real fruit you squeeze yourself!Delicious. None of the food I've eaten here has been anything but extremely delicious. Then we went to karaoke with some of Daryl's colleagues, who proceeded to spank us with their amazing singing abilities. The Japanese are NOT to be trifled with when doing karaoke, in case you were wondering. They will sing better, louder and more songs than you could ever imagine. Here's the crazy menu that comes in every room you reserve.
We went to bed at 5 AM that night/morning. LOVE TOKYO!

Temples & Technology: Temples of Ueno & Asakusa (Day 2)

Breakfast of champions: onigiri business/shopping center before heading on the Metro to U, or rice balls with various fillings. Ours this morning was mashed tuna wrapped in dried seaweed. And yogurt. YUM! Sitting outside the Akasakaeno Park:Tokyo Metro is extremely clean and the seats are, get this: cushioned and covered in a poly-cotton blend. People are friendly and courteous.
Would never fly in NYC. Check out how clean the Yamanote line to Ueno Park is:
There are many drink machines around Tokyo with diverse options, as I am demonstrating. (I look fat here but don't worry - it's the angle) However, there aren't many trash/recycling receptacles.
We headed to Ueno Park, a huge park in the Shitamachi neigborhood filled with temples, museums, shrines and a zoo. This is the entrance to the path leading to Toshogu, a shrine of some sort...
A relative of a survivor of the Nagasaki bombing went back to his uncle's home to see what was left of the damage. He found a flame from the atomic blast and somehow kept it aflame during his journey home. He kept it as a reminder of the pain the bomb had caused, but many years later, he healed and decided the flame should symbolize peace and the fight against nuclear weapons. This monument holds the flame and stands as a symbol of peace and freedom.Vanessa and I in front of the Toshogu temple. Prayers from people all over the world outside the Toshogu temple. Background is a lantern. Will add more to the Asakusa section shortly!! Tired now, as it is 4:30 AM TDT.

Sayonara, NYC; Hello, Tokyo!

The journey of thousands upon thousands of miles began on a Wednesday morning in NYC (okay, the boroughs Queens and Brooklyn), where two ladies in their mid-twenties were set to embark upon an overseas trip. Vanessa and I met up at JFK airport at 10:30 AM for our 1:30 PM nonstop to Tokyo because goodness forbid there somehow be long lines for check-in and long security lines. Guess what? JFK was a ghost town. We zipped right through, at which point I realized that bringing both Etienne (my larger rolling suitcase) and Isaac (my new, smallish bright pink rolling suitcase) was not a good idea. (It's extremely WASPy to name suitcases, I know.) It's not easy to roll two rolling suitcases around. It proved to be quite the headache once we arrived in Tokyo. Here I am at JFK! Look, so fresh and bright-eyed.
Once checked and cleared, we settled into the Japan Airlines/Korean Air terminal, where food choices were scarce. We chowed down on pesto paninis, checked email, talked and discussed our itinerary. Around 1:15 we boarded our enormous double-decker plane, finding ourselves placed in the upper level where ECONOMY seats were located. There I found out that Isaac wouldn't fit in the overhead compartments (and why should it?) so I had to remove all necessary items and put them in our little storage compartment to the right. Vanessa had the window seat and I was sitting next to a father whose wife and kid and maybe foreign exchange student were in the opposite row.

Completely unsurprisingly, our plane was delayed getting out of JFK. At the front of the cabin there was a monitor which showed the view from the nose of the plane, which was cool during take-off. The safety demo was also amazing, as evidenced below:What IS that? A Twizzler??

V and I got up a lot during the 14-hour flight to stretch, pee and steal those amazing "crisps & crackers" snacks and jack chocolate from the business class areas. Movies were kind of a saving grace: I watched Iron Man twice, Kung Fu Panda four times, What Happens In Vegas almost twice and 21 almost three times. Despite earlier plans, I decided not to sleep or take any pharmaceuticals around 10:30 PM EDT. This was actually fairly easy because until we hit the International Date Line at approx. 11:25 PM EDT, we were chasing the sun, going back in time. This actually made me and V a little stir-crazy. It was NEVER going to get dark. Then BOOM we crossed the International Date Line and it was suddenly 12:25 PM on Thursday. We'd just lost 12/13 hours by flying west. It still trips me out.
Then we got to Narita Airport where we were greeted with so much organized chaos. After electronically finger-printing and photographing us at customs, we headed down down the escalators to the transit systems.
As per our friend Daryl's suggestion, we bought the JR Line (train) N'Ex ticket with the Suica (Tokyo Metro/subway) card package. After an hour train ride through the non-attractive rural Tokyo countryside in front of a very garrulous Alabama man, we got to Tokyo, where we hopped a cab (they drive on the left side!) to Akasaka TBS. Turns out that TBS is Tokyo Broadcast Station, home to zany talk and game shows. Daryl didn't live there, so after many attempts to try to find our way around, we finally just called him. He picked us up and took us to his phat amazing from-the-future apartment. His toilet is one of those that senses when you are near and opens its lid for you, warms the seat automatically, cleans your butt and other holes at the touch of a button and cleans itself. His shower is either a regular shower head or a rain shower and is an entire room that dries itself at the touch of a button. also, you can set the bathtub to fill up at a certain time and temperature and it will just do it automatically. You get into his apt building and room with the swipe of a card and all of his lights are motion-sensing.

Daryl took us to a local sushi place and ordered us a bunch of delicious savory dishes. Here's me giving V some sea urchin (which I ended up eating and not loving; I'll try anything once):