Story time...I dare you to read every single word.

Okay, so here's the skinny on what exactly went down in Tokyo...

Day 1, arrive at Ueno station and walk around a little while in Ueno park only to see that the museums we want to go to are closed on Mondays and so we make an executive decision to return on Wednesday to see them right before we leave.


Tokyo Tower was on the way to our hotel so a special photo session was in order.

We then decide to head to our hotel, get checked in, drop off the bags, and head to the Harajuku area. This is the part of town where the youth of Tokyo hang out, shop, and dress like Little Boepeep because they appreciate her taste in fashion.

After haning out there and shopping (looking around at things) we decided to splurge on supper and eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. We had a blast there just eating and talking and watching old 80's music videos on the televisions.

After that we decided to go walk around a part of town. So for about an hour we wandered aimlessly through the busy streets of Tokyo near a train station. Just walking around in Tokyo makes you feel like you're actually doing something. Along the way of course we had to do Puricura. This is just a place where you can go get booth pictures taken with friends. They're a ton better than the ones in America. Here, after you take the pictures you get to decorate them with words and shapes and designs. It's fun stuff.

Day 2 We took our time getting up that day and checked out of the hotel around 11am and headed straight for Disney Sea.


We spent 10.5 HOURS there and had a great time.

So we booked a hotel for the first night, but decided to wing it for the 2nd night because we were pretty sure we could find a place cheaper than 6,000 yen a night PER person like the hotel we stayed at the first night. So we start looking for a place to stay at the capsul hotel we found in a travel book Janet had. Unfortunately they were booked for the night. Our plan A was to find a capsul hotel and we really didn't think this would be difficult, but it was. Luckily we had a plan B. Plan B was to go to a Karaoke place and just buy a karaoke room from midnight until 5am and pay 1,000 (a little under 10 bucks) yen a piece. This sounded adventurous enough to all of us and we were up for it. However, there was one last capsul hotel to check on before resorting to plan B. Well, little did we know that God had something a little cheaper than a karaoke place for us to stay. I should tell you that none of us wanted to pay for another hotel and we were pretty sure all the capsule hotel's would have been full for that night and so we were fully expecting to have to pay 1,000 yen for a night at karaoke which was great b/c 1,000 yen is way better than 3,000 yen which is what the capsule would have been. So we were thinking 1,000 isn't as great as free, but it's way better than 3,000. here's where the rambling takes a turn for the better...
We were standing on the sidewalk looking at this capsule hotel, trying to figure out which floor of the building it was one when three japanese people walked by us. They walked a little slower and they were almost past us when the woman piped up and started speaking english to us. They asked us if we needed help and where we were from and if we needed to find a place to stay for the night. We answered all their questions and just kept on talking. Well, after about 20 minutes of talking, the old japanese man said that they all had this friend that lived near by and that we were welcome to go to her house, so they could help us find a place to stay for the night by calling some hotels for us. The three of us looked at each other trying to decide if the other two were cool with going with them. Luckily I was with the two coolest Americans ever and they were just as cool with it as I was, so off we went with our 3 newest friends in the world. Come to find out, they all work together and the woman's house were walking to is Korean and is a friend of all three of them. So we arrive at her apartment and sit and talk for a while. They can all speak a little english so we sit and talk until about 12:30 that night. To try to make an already long story a little shorter, we end up being invited to spend the night there and once again we all look at the other two trying to find out if the other two are cool with it using only our eye contact to have a conversation to make sure the other two with cool with spending the night. So 3 americans, 3 japanese, and 1 korean all get ready for bed in a tiny 2 room apartment. We get the bedroom and the four natives get the living room. All that is seperating us from almost complete strangers is a sliding door kept slightly open as to let cool air into our room. So we all lay down and try to get to sleep, but there's one problem. The japanese woman has had a little too much to drink and starts to cry. The other three try to calm her down b/c they know this must sound horrible to the three strangers they've invited to spend the night who are probably well awake, and after some time finally get her to stop crying and go to sleep.

The next morning we all woke up, said thank you, left a small gift, took a picture together,


(I'm standing by the Korean woman, Janet is by the young guy, and the older Japanese woman is behind Rebecca b/c she's still in her pajamas. The older Japanese man had already left for the day.)

exchanged phone numbers/email and headed out to start the 3rd day.

Day 3 We headed straight to Kabuki Za Theatre.

Kobuki theatre is old, traditional, representational, Japanese theatre. It was 900 yen for 2 hours of not knowing what in the world was going on on the stage. Fortunately they had english translation ear pieces to listen to while the play was going on. SO for two full hours, we stood in the nose bleed section (you get what you pay for) and listen to the actors whine on stage while listening to the story line with ear pieces. I loved the whole thing and wish I would have brought binaculars. We viewed the whole play at around a 50 degree angle from about 40-45 yards away. I'm seriously glad I went. It's part of old Japanese culture so it needed to be seen, even though most Japanese people really haven't ever seen it. Oh well. It was fun to me.

Then we headed back to Ueno park to go through the museums. The first one was Janet's pick and it was an interactive museum where you got to walk through life size replicas of Japanese houses and shops from back in the Edo era. Really cool. The second museum was my pick. It was the National Museum of Western Art. They had a special exhibit from Dresden, Germany. Good stuff.

Then, it was back to the train station to head home. I had a great time with Janet and Rebecca in Tokyo, but I was glad to finally sit down again and relax on the way home. I had a great time with the two coolest americans in Japan.

Well, you've done it people! You've read the longest post in history. Sorry it wasn't the most fasinating reading you'll ever do, but you can't win 'em all.