Day 11 - Osaka Aquarium and Kobe Dinner

Highlights

- Penguins, Dolphins, Sea Otters, Whale Sharks, and Porcupine Fish at the Osaka Aquarium.  Felt like a child again!
- Kobe beef dinner in Kobe.  So worth the bruise to the wallet.
- Osaka full of young people opening shops their way, and doing it well.


For those who don't mind my gregariousness

Happily, Tania and I changed our plans today from going to Hiroshima, Himeji, and Kobe, to staying in the hotel room while it rained and lazily making our way to the aquarium, possibly followed by dinner in Kobe, which is 15 minutes away via the bullet train.

First off, though, I need to comment on Osaka.  It got a bum wrap by everyone we talked to before getting here, and I need to counter those arguments.  Our hotel is tucked away in a corner of the ritziest part of town I can imagine, with Hermes and Tiffany across the street from us, yet our room was very affordable.  Even though it's just as small as our room in Tokyo, it's designed better so that we have room to store our bags and to sit at a desk while staying connected on our new Macbook Pro.  Much less cramped feeling than our last western-style hotel room.  So one point for Osaka.

Next, it's ritzy.  Even though the people seem a little cocky about their high fashion and plethora of trendy shops and restaurants, they're still Japanese, meaning they're still very hospitable.

Lastly, it seems like since it's such a booming and young town, all of the younger people are opening shops and restaurants on their own, and doing it their own way.  We had a great Japanese curry dinner at a hole in the wall in a tucked away alley.  Nothing fancy, but once you get in there, you feel comfortable and entertained.  And the food was incredible.  Authentic and tasty.  We had lunch today at a similar type place that was even better, and obviously run by two buddies looking to be their own bosses.  I loved how capable this city allowed it's youth to be to make their own opportunities.

So, onto our doings.  After spending the morning staying out of the rain, taking mid-morning naps (me), and organizing our entire music collection on the laptop and on our iPod (Tania), we had lunch then rode the subway over to the aquarium.  Boy was that worth the trek.  Sea otters, dolphins, dinosaur-looking fish, whale sharks, giant crabs (the largest in the world, attacking Tania to the right), penguins, jellyfish, etc.  It had it all.  No wonder it's said to be one of the best in the world.  I don't remember ever going to an aquarium in my life, but Tania has many times, and happily supports this claim.  I felt like a kid again snapping more pictures than I ever should of, but man, these beasts of the Pacific Ocean are worth a full memory card.

Some shots below for your enjoyment.

After the aquarium, we ran over to Dotombori, which was an American-influenced snoozefest.  So we walked up to the street to the subway station to catch a high speed train ride to Kobe, which is about 15 minutes away.  Once in Kobe, we walked out the train station, looked up to our right, saw the Crown Royal hotel standing a stone's throw from the station, and headed over to the third floor of the hotel's lobby shopping complex for Wakkoqu, a fine steak house recommended by Lonely Planet (which without shame has given us innumerable quality recos).  After contemplating for a few minutes whether the exorbitant prices were worth the meal, and the story of having the meal in Kobe, we decided to give it a try.  And boy are we glad we did!

We sat at a Bennihana-style table with seats surrounding us, and a pristinely cleaned cooking surface in front of us.  Since there was no one else in the entire restaurant, we had an entire staff waiting on our beck and call.  A nice Beaujolais + a kobe tenderloin for Tania + a kobe sirloin for me + perfectly grilled and spiced vegetables + a genuinely pleasant staff + and a deserved sense of celebration = a storied meal for the newlyweds.  We'll remember this one for a long time.

And what better to do after an incredible (and overly filling) meal?  Fall asleep on the empty train home, of course.  (and of course, I have to post a picture below)

Off to Hiroshima early tomorrow.  Honestly this time; we have tickets for the 8:36 shinkansen.  Not sure what it's going to be like to stand on the ground of one of the most horrifying events in history will be like, but I know it will be intense to say the least.

Tania's Top 10 - Japan

Top 10 reasons why traveling with Craig is so awesome

10 Craig has done an amazing job in planning Japan – the hotels and ryokans to the japan rail pass to the day trip plans, his time and care in the planning paid off and we are loving our time here.  But what I love most about the trip so far are all the non-planned things we’ve done because of his spontaneity – the green tea ice cream stop, his beer museum excursion, mid-morning naps, etc… 

9 Now I don’t know if Momma Palumbo’s amazing cooking has given Craig an uncanny nose and eye for good food, or if the years of LA restaurant dining has made him an expert (probably both…), but Craig is very good at finding little gems like the Japanese curry restaurant we went to last night here in Osaka.  Walls lined with books, friendly Japanese staff and clientele, and great reggae music blaring, this was an original place for sure – and the curry was absolutely terrific!

8 Craig is not shy with communicating.  He smiles and talks to locals with no fear at all.  If the language barrier gets in the way, he resorts to sign language, which always makes me laugh and sometimes his audience as well.  He loves waving and making funny faces at kids – most Japanese kids just stare back at the funny-looking foreigner!  He also loves talking to other foreigners and we have met fun Aussies, Russians, and Brits because of it!

7 Craig is also not shy when it comes to photography.  Guards might be scolding him to step back from the approaching wedding, but Craig is right up there trying to get the perfect shot.  In the end he is never taking any damaging shots in forbidden areas or hurting anyone with his camera, so all his climbing, running, crouching for the shots and thorough reviewing/deleting later are going to provide amazing memories for us later.

6 Simply, Craig’s MBT shoes (aka his new tevas) still make me laugh!

5 Craig reminds me how great it is to be a woman sometimes, mostly when he describes the men’s bathrooms as a hole in the ground.  The women’s toilets on the other hand usually have a western option which have a seat warmer, a bidet, a flushing sound (to mask any loud sounds), and sometimes even a massager.

4 If the temperature is one degree over room temperature of 72, Craig begins to perspire; he truly emanates heat.  It’s not a curse, it’s a gift.  Many times it is much cooler than 72, and giving Craig a hug raises my own temperature by four degrees at least.  He warms me (and my heart;-)

3 Craig and I have started some of our own travel traditions, one such being DDR – Daily Drink Recall.  Between 5 and 6pm everyday, we treat ourselves to a tea or beer or some other type of relaxing agent in liquid form, and we talk about our favorite things over the past 24 hours. 

2 I am a “need-to-have-been-there-before-or-seen-it-on-a-map” kind of girl, in other words my sense of direction is not the best.  I really do need that iphone compass app!  Craig on the other hand has a good sense of direction and can usually get us to where we need to go with ease… usually;-)

1 And the number one reason why it is so great to travel with Craig is because he is MY HUSBAND now and I love being with him=)

Political ad? Or...

...is Steven Colbert starting a fashion line in Japan?

Days 8-10 - Temples, Temples, and More Temples in Kyoto

Highlights

- Autumn in Kyoto HAS to rival NYC - leaves changing from deep green to all shades of red, orange, and yellow. Breathtaking.
- We can never find what we're looking for when we are looking for it, but that something will be everywhere the day after we're looking for it. Always.
- Kyoto is more our speed. Sorry Tokyo.
- The 1001 buddha statues (each with 40 arms) at Sanjusangen Temple is indescribable.  Another marvel of man's hands.  Thanks for the reco, Tony S!
- Nijo Castle was the best highlight of Kyoto.  Not a better setting in which to stroll and take in the changing seasons and morphing colors of the city.
- The Silver Pavilion was a close second in beauty.  Mr. Myagi's backyard x100000.
- Cafe du Monde is in Japan.  YAY!  But it doesn't have beignets.  POLICE!!!!

Drawn-out Blog

Okay, sorry for the lapse in reporting.  We didn't have wireless in John and Acco's ryokan, so us digital-types were stuck in the dark ages for a few days.  The pain.

Instead of going into massive details about what we did in Kyoto, let's just say that it's either our favorite city in the world, or it's one of them.  It's sleepy yet lively.  It's small yet large.  It's authentic yet welcoming to foreigners.  Simply, it's a city we could see ourselves living in.

We visited the Sanjusangen Temple on Saturday afternoon after a lazy morning, and Tania's dad (and my new father in law!) nailed it with this recommendation.  The temple contains one thousand life-size statues of the Thousand Armed Kannon, which stand on both the right and left sides of the main statue in 10 rows and 50 columns. Of these, 124 statues are from the original temple, rescued from the fire of 1249, while the remaining 876 statues were constructed in the 13th century. The statues are made of Japanese cypress. Around the 1000 Kannon statues stand 28 statues of guardian deities. (Thanks Wikipedia).  It's a marvel to be seen.

We then went on a mission to find pizza.  Any kind of pizza.  Yes, we took off from partaking in local fare.  We're allowed.  Yet we couldn't find any.  Not after walking for over an hour up to Kiyomizu-dera Temple could we find pizza, so we settled for snacks we had brought with us. 
Not sure if this put us is foul moods, but we decided not to fork over the 800 yen to enter the temple.  We did enjoy the incredible view of the city from outside the temple, so at least we have that going for us, which is nice.

The city was packed at this point.  No wonder we had such a difficult time finding housing this weekend.  So many people had swarmed the city to visit all of the temples as well as enjoy the changing leaves.  Justifiably so.  Kyoto was stunning.  There was a slight chill in the air, which complemented the views we were enjoying.  Such a perfect fall setting.

After the worst earl gray tea I'd ever had, we stomped back and forth around the same city block for about an hour looking for an REI-type store so Tania could buy hiking shoes.  Apparently, her knee-high suede boots weren't fit for so much site seeing.  And apparently, REI-type stores are as anonymous as any basement dwelling store, and not as eye-poppingly gaudy as in the US.  Luckily her attendant knew what "light", "6.5", and "waterproof" meant, because Tania found the perfect pair of moon boots to cushion and protect her feet.  Now we can trek through Asia with the best of them.

So frustrated trying to find the damn store, we rewarded ourselves with a drink at the little bar in the adjacent alley that was calling our name by playing the Beatles.  The two bartenders and lone patron enjoyed entertaining us with custom drinks (vodka, ginger syrup, apple brandy - sounds like that's quite popular around these parts) and discussing music.  Although we decided to leave when the patron excitedly proclaimed that Boston and Damn Yankees were in the same league as Led Zeppelin and Hendrix.  I guess the Japanese know as much about music as we know about good sushi.  They do know a lot about good Italian food because we had a delicious meal, including our better-late-than-never pizza.  And we finally exchanged our vows that were unfortunately missing from the wedding ceremony, amongst other things (THE KISS!!).  Then it was back to Kitayama for a good night's rest on our futon.

We took Sunday at a little slower pace because our bodies were starting to wear out from all of the non-stop touristing.  Luckily, the first place we decided to visit was our favorite of the city, the Nijo Castle.  The grounds are vast, around which we lazily strolled and took some gorgeous photos (see below).  We thought that we knew how beautiful this season was before the castle, but now we really knew how good it could get.

A quick stop into the International Manga Museum (Japanese cartoons) led into another no-end-in-site journey through the city.  Not able to find a Japanese curry restaurant like we were craving, we settled on a quick sushi fix.  We did walk by about 1000 Italian restaurants which offered as much pizza as we could handle, but they came a day too late for our cravings.  That combined with the fact that we couldn't find an ATM or bank (since we were almost out of the yen purchased before we left the US), we were convinced that we'd always find what we're looking for the day after we were looking for it.  And yup, no ATM on Sunday, but a plethora of them found us today, Monday.  The day after we needed one.  Thanks travel karma Gods.

(Here's where Tania asked me not to mention the fact that we took a bus across the entire city to see the Tenryu-ji Temple, only to get there 2 minutes after it closed, and after it was already pitch black dark outside.  So I won't mention it.)

Any way, we settled on another Italian dinner after nothing else was open at 10pm.  I guess we stuck around the Irish pub with free wifi too long.  Funny because it didn't seem like long while I finished two glasses of 15% barley wine.  Hmm, weird.  Yet, we're ashamed of having Italian two straight nights in Japan, but we forgive ourselves because good Italian is made from quality, fresh ingredients, which this country knows how to do, so we forgave ourselves.

Another futon sleep, another granola breakfast with John and Acco, and off to another temple.  This time, the Silver Pavilion.  Dear Lord what a breathtaking place.  Second only to the Nijo Castle, this place showed the changing leaves begging to be posted on a postcard, which is funny because we bought a handful of postcards from this place.  It's a temple built by a Buddhist who spent his entire life creating it so that he could retire in it.  Imagine Mr. Myagi's backyard on a hillside, then multiply that by 1000000.  Pristinely manicured trees.  Finely designed sand sculptures.  Gentlely dribbling creeks.  Layers of the season's finest colors climbing the hillside.  And a view of Kyoto meant for day's of pondering during retirement.  All so amazing, and thank God I forgot my camera and Tania forgot hers.  I was soooo happy about that.  Why would I ever want to take pictures of this crap?  It might ruin your impression of Kyoto, so luckily I won't be able to subject you all to that.

Luckily we made it out of that hellhole and back to the ryokan so we could grab our bags and head to Kyoto station for our train ride to Osaka.  We stopped ourselves from eating any French pastries all day so that we could stop by the Cafe du Monde (yes, that Cafe du Monde that I love in New Orleans) for some beignets.  Except this Cafe du Monde didn't have beignets.  You heard it right, no beignets.  Which is like McDonald's not having hamburgers.  Needless to say I was depressed for a few minutes while they made my cafe au lait, which helped the pain a bit.  But I'll be sending a scathing email to the Cafe's headquarters letting them know they need to get it right overseas.

Oh, time to go.  Tania just finished Twilight (in record time) and needs to fill the void left by no Edward Collins with some Japanese curry.  No more blogging for today, but I will finish with a YEAH CARDS!  Way to take control of the division with the stomp down over Seattle.  AWWW AWWWW!!!

Night.

 

Day 7 - Kyoto on a Friday night

-- Back dated due to lack of wireless at ryokan. Finally found wireless at MacLaughlin's Irish pub which has free wireless while serving 15% barley wine --

It’s Saturday morning at 10:30am and I just woke up from a nap. Yes, your calculations are correct. I’ve already taken and woken up from a nap before 10:30 in the morning. That’s what a Japanese ryokan will do to you.

A ryokan is a traditional Japanese house in which you can rent a room to stay. Sometimes it’s strictly a business, but in other cases like ours, families rent rooms to travelers. The room is quite large, and during the day is just an empty space carpeted with bamboo mats. At night, you lay out futon mats and the cushiest duvet blankets I’ve ever been wrapped in. Very simple, but oh so comfortable.

Yesterday, Tania and I checked out of the hotel and spent a few hours doing laundry, and packing a bag of excess clothes and items to mail back to the US. We simply had too many items to lug between cities and countries, so we shed ourselves of the obviously unnecessary items. While Tania finished the laundry, I headed over to the post office to mail back this bag. I had 5 different mailing options, ranging from overnight air to 1-3 month cargo ship. Let’s just say that the overnight option to mail a 8 lb bag was quite expensive, so my brother should be expecting a package somewhere around, oh, February, if it ever gets there at all.

After the laundry was done and we finished some mystery meat sandwiches (good mystery meat since we’re in Japan. I have a feeling the bad mystery meat will start coming our way in China and beyond.), we sprinted to Shinjuku station, I with the world’s largest and most overpacked travel backpack on my back (yes, it was busy back there with the pack and my big Polish ass, you jerks) and a large Yahoo backpack on my chest, and Tania with an equally stuffed roller bag running beside me. We then connected over to Tokyo station to catch a high-speed train to Kyoto. Boy is that the way to travel.

We had soooo much space around us to set our bags and stretch our legs. And the train, boy is it fast. I’m guessing that we were humming along the Japanese countryside at around 130 mph, with the smoothest ride imaginable. Before Tania could have another day dream about Edward Collins (thanks Rox for getting her addicted to Twilight. I swear she wishes he were on this trip with her instead of me.), we were in Kyoto. We did the mandatory “getting lost looking for the tourist information office which was hidden in the 9th floor of a train station department store” thing before catching a subway ride up to Kitayama where our ryokan is.

Kitayama is at the northern edge of Kyoto, which is quite out of the way of all the popular areas of town, but since the leaves are changing and it’s quite possibly the busiest weekend of the year, there was only one other option for housing, and it wasn’t cheap, so we opted for the “out of the way yet won’t break the bank” option, which I’m glad we did.

We’re actually the first guests to stay in this very old house that was recently purchased by a couple named John and Acco. She is from southern Japan and he is from Chicago. She plays the mandolin and he sings, which I assume is the reason they got to come together; music that is, just like Tania and me, even though I can’t sing for crap.

After chatting with Acco for a bit, Tania settled into the room while I walked down the street to the world’s most expensive grocery store. I blew $40 on some fruit, crackers, and individual cans of weird alcohol to get us revved up for a crazy night on the town (if you knew Kyoto, you’d know I was being a tad sarcastic right there).

We hurried to Misoka-an Kawamichiya, a noodle shop which opened in 1710. They’ve definitely mastered the art of the soba noodle over the last 300 years. Tania had the herring in soba noodles which was beyond words, and I had my soba noodles with egg, chicken, and onions. Hot damn was it good!!

We strolled through the Abbot Kinney-type boutique streets and into the old-town Vegas covered shopping streets until we hit the river, which had kids hanging out in groups just like we used to during the hotter months in Sevilla (what up Steph and Spen??!!!). There was even a guy swinging fire ropes around. It was right around this time that Tania and I exclaimed that Kyoto was the greatest city in the world. She felt a little bit of Austria in the area, too, which made it even sweeter for her.

Needing what international travelers do every now and then, we stopped by Mclaughlin’s, an Irish pub. Thinking there would be people of all types with their arms around each other’s shoulders singing drinking songs, we instead walked into an Oxford University Press party. These were the dullest people this side of the Pacific, to say the least. Tania and I resorted to making up drinking games to entertain each other. One game involved having to make up and remember a sequence of odd hand maneuvers. The other game was a takeoff of Tania’s favorite game Dancefloor, but instead of having to dance up on someone, you had to get up on one of the Oxfords and talk about a specific subject. Instead of talking to the first subject about Obama’s foreign relation policy with the East, Tania was able to grab some drink tickets from the man who made Tammy Bahama shirts look even worse (sorry Dad). Free drinks!

We enjoyed the drinks with two Ausies named Emma and Steve, and then headed home. All in all, Kyoto is an incredible city that we haven’t even gotten to know yet, so we’re off right now to start checking off some of the 800 temples we want to see.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Day 5 & 6 - Rain, Hakone, and Shabu Shabu

Before I start, I just want to say Happy Veteran's Day to all of the veterans out there. I want to thank you for your selflessness and bravery, even though a simple thank you could never be enough. But that's all I've got from over here, so thank you!

Okay, now that I'm all better, I'll report that I spent the whole day Wednesday in bed with some sort of bug, mostly in my stomach. Now you can't worry since I'm better, Mom. But yeah, it sucked. I think it was a mix of the flu and the beer tasting followed by a sumo wrestler's amount of tempura, but whatever it was, it required plenty of bed time. I may have pushed it yesterday to see some more of Tokyo, but it was raining cats and dogs all day, and the view outside of our 8.5x11 window seemed more than ominous, so I was fine staying in and getting better so that I could enjoy the nicer days more. Plus, after going non-stop for the last two months with moving out of LA, planning and executing the wedding, and transitioning into this trip, I think my body was saying, "damn man, give me a break." So I did, and I reaped the benefits of resting this morning when I felt like a new man.

Tania got out yesterday to see the Edo-Tokyo museum, but came back and got to bed early as well. The rain helped her do it with a clean conscience, too.

So we woke up this morning around 7am and got ready for Hakone, slowly, as we seem to do on this pseudo vacation of ours. We jumped on the train down to Hakone for the 1.5 hour ride southwest of Tokyo so we could partake in one of Japan's finest customs, Onsen, or hot springs. After taking our JR pass to Odawara, we took a switchback train to Hakone-Yomoto, and then the B bus through the quaint town up to Tenzan, a hot spring recommended to us by Nakaba and Lonely Planet. For 1200 yen each (app. $25 total), we were able to spend as much time as we wanted in the hot springs and in the adult nap room.

The hot springs are broken out by sex, so Tania and I had to part ways to enjoy them. The idea of leaving my bride to go spend an hour or so with a bunch of naked dudes isn't ideal, but I got over that very quickly when I was relaxing in large stone pools with bamboo forests hovering above and around us. I normally hate jacuzzis because I get impatient and a bit claustrophobic, but I jumped from the medium heat pool to the hot-hot pool then into the holy-crap-cold pool and finally back into the medium pool, I shocked my body into letting go of the storm of thoughts that normally cloud my brain, and truly letting my self relax and not worry about life's minute details. And when I finally did settle in, I realized why this is such a popular national tradition. For men, we never really let go of our minds like this. We're either consumed with work or family/relationships, and when we relax, we're distracting our minds with more details like making sure our fantasy football roster doesn't have a WR who's questionable this weekend. We never let go, but in this environment, I did let it go, and it was great.

When I was done using the pools, I headed over to the cleaning area. A French guy had spotted me as an English speaker earlier and immediately grumbled about the cleaning areas only having public bars of soap, so I knew what to expect when I squatted in front of my own private mirror and European-style handle shower, but in between 6 similar stations next to me, to clean up. By this point I didn't care whether another man's ass had been on my stool a few minutes earlier, or that naked men were showering next to me. I simply rinsed off the stool and focused my energy into my little area. And it was a fine shower. Quick, but fine.

After getting dressed, I headed out to the public area about 20 minutes earlier than Tania and I were supposed to meet, so I wandered around the Tenzan grounds and explored what else this magic little complex held, and boy did I find a surprise I knew Tania would fall in love with...an adult nap area.

When Tania walked out of the women's side of the hot springs, I escorted her to this sleeping heaven, and her face lit up like a Christmas tree. She gazed upon the matted floors covered with individual futon mats, which looked out upon a perfectly noisy stream, and we sprinted for two open mats next to each other to do some reading and get some shut eye. An hour and a half later, we woke up and took the B bus back to the trains. Boy what an afternoon. If you ever come to Tokyo, make sure you make a day trip to Tenzan and learn what it's like to truly let go and relax. And this means a lot coming from a beach guy who adores napping on the beach.

After a quick stop in the electronics mecca Akihabara to buy a battery charger for our point and shoot camera and to look for comics, we went out for dinner with Kojiro. He took us to a shabu shabu place on the 50th floor of a building just down the street from our hotel. The view was spectacular, and the food was incredible. The meat was perfectly marbled and the veggies were a nice complement to the meat. Tania was the only to enjoy some sake since I didn't want to test my stomach and Kojiro was driving, so as you can guess, she was all giddy and, well, you know how she gets after a little sake.

She's asleep now, and I'm on my way to join her since we need to be checked out of the Shinjuku Washington hotel by 10am in the morning. We're going to do some laundry before catching the train Kyoto where we'll be until Monday. Then off to Osaka next week and to Beijing on the 20th. Every time we turn on CNN, they weather person is exclaiming how cold it is in Beijing, and how much snow they're getting, which is sweet since we didn't pack for THAT kind of cold, just kinda cold. Oh well, we'll get through that quickly then send back all of that cold weather clothing so we can focus on our SE Asia warm weather gear.

Day 4 - Roppongi & Ebisu

The blog entry I though I would be making...
Tania and I headed over to Legends, a sports bar recommended by Matthew H, to watch the Steelers vs. Broncos MNF game. Afterward, we split up; I headed to the Imperial Palace while she headed to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. Missing each other so much, we rushed back to the hotel to express how much we hated being away from each other. We then went to dinner with Matthew's friend Nakaba at an amazing tempura restaurant in Shinjuku named Tsunahachi. After dinner, we partied all night in Shibuya with Nakaba, and woke up the next morning with matching tattoos of the Japanese symbol for puppy and kitty.

The blog entry as it actually happened...
Tania and I headed over to Legends, a sports bar recommended by Matthew H, to watch the Steelers vs. Broncos MNF game. The bar was closed, and so were all other bars in Roppongi that would be showing the game, so Tania and I hit up a small burger joint for a quick lunch before splitting up.

At lunch, we had a few beers and decided to scrap our plans to split up for the Imperial Palace and Edo-Tokyo Museum and head over to Ebisu instead. Thinking it was a quick walk away, we started our trek underneath the metro line. Well, it wasn't as close as we thought, and ended up walking for an hour just to get to Ebisu. Tania was exhausted and just wanted to either sit at a cafe and do some writing, or find a nail salon. We ultimately found a cafe called Monsoon where she was able to relax for a bit.

I on the other hand noticed that we were two blocks away from the Sapporo beer museum. Needing to fulfill my civic duty to explore all culturally relevant spots in town, I walked over the museum, skipped the actual museum since I figured it was just like the Carlsberg tour we got two summers ago in Copenhagen, and headed straight for the tasting room. Needless to say, it was a fine cultural experience, and after the total tasting and an extra amber, I skipped in joy back to Monsoon to pick Tania up so we could head back to the hotel before dinner.

Matthew's friend Nakaba met us in the lobby of our hotel, and gave us a walking tour through the seediest part of Tokyo, the innards of Shinjuku. Walking past a sea of "horny" places and Japanese mafia types, we took a right and quickly darted for the outards of the ward.

Once safely out, we walked over to Tsunahachi, an incredible 80 year old tempura restaurant. We ate tempura'd sweet fish, shrimp (including their crittery heads), green onions, mushrooms, eel, and many other delightful surprises. I got to eat extra since Tania wasn't too excited about the crittery options. All in all, Matthew's favorite tempura spot lived up to the hype.

We headed over to Shibuya in the hopes of dancing the night away, to have it instead start raining, so we headed home after a nice drink with Nakaba.

Once again, we felt extremely taken care of by a very generous local who showed us parts of the town we would have either never seen or understood what it was when we saw it.

Thanks Matthew and Nakaba!

We had planned to go to Izu today, but since it's raining cats and dogs (hehe), we decided to stay local and go to the Edo-Tokyo museum and catch a movie.

Happy anniversary Sabby!!! We're so proud of all you've accomplished over the last year!