1.18.2012

Tokyo

We leave for Melbourne tonight and while it'll be nice to be in a summer climate again, we'll definitely miss Japan! This is the most welcoming and friendly place we've been during our travels. If you have even a slight question mark written on your face, someone is guaranteed to come up and offer help. Just getting off the metro we had an older couple offer to help us find our hostel, getting on the phone with reception and walking us the whole way there. Even the ambulance drivers are polite. They come down the street with a nice easy siren and wave while saying "arigato" (thank you) for getting out of their way.
We stayed in Asakusa which is a very lovely area of Tokyo. We were close to a famous temple, Sensoji, which is surrounded by many shopping streets. Here are a couple photos taken at Sensoji temple.



We spent our time in Tokyo exploring the many different districts. Tokyo is a very large and fast paced city. Here's a photo from Shibuya, a popular shopping district. This intersection is said to be the busiest in the world.


We also got to spend a day at the Sumo tournament. We were there for day 9 of the tournament and even with general admission tickets, we and a really good view. It was entertaining to watch and interesting to learn about the sport. There are so many rituals involved and the wrestlers are all so proper and composed. It was different than I expected, I'm really glad we went.


While we were here we got to see (and I got to meet) a couple of Oli's old friends. We also met a lot of fun people at our hostel bar. We tried great Japanese food and drinks (I'm a big fan of plum wine, sake still not so much). We even did some karaoke. I hope that we'll be able to come back and see more of Japan some day, one week wasn't enough!

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