Keio Presso Inn Otemachi Chuo

... to the other I took up their offer, smiles & giggles all round, and half-way along meeting a Japanese businessman doing the same in the opposite direction we gave each other a big hug too. Farewell to Shibuya...for now...;)

I met a couple of Aussie girls back at the hostel - Jess & Ash - who had just arrived. Jess had never been abroad before & Ash had only ever visited Bali once. I laughed at what a total head-**** Tokyo was going to be for them both, wishing ...

... be it day or night, and it’s easy to get lost within it all. We are so fortunate that Sawa is here, a friend of Eric’s from business school, who has been an excellent tour guide for the past few days. I took one semester of Japanese in college, so I can ask what time is it, where are the toilets, and most helpful of all "Are your socks cotton?" (Granted I can’t really understand their answers, but the nod-and-smile work well here. Eric ...

... barbeque place). We settled in for a few beers and some great little barbeque. It was funny though because we were sitting next to a japanese guy who was also eating the same stuff as us, and when we asked the japanese woman who was preparing our meal how much it was going to cost in japanese (ikuda des ka - i probably spelled that wrong), she proceeded to get out a calculator and show us the price - 1100 yen each. The japanese guy watched what transpired and ...

... were still hungry after raw tofu and grilled giblets so we stopped at a soba house and had some "real food." Bellies full, and the night getting late, we thought it best to top off our Ueno adventure with a solid hour of Karaoke at one of the hundred or so karaoke bars in the area (really, there are about 5 per city block!). It was about 1200 yen ($12)/one person/one hour at the place we chose- which ended up being a good deal. Some other people in our ...

... the next plane back to JFK...and that's 17 hours in each direction! Why didn't this revelation appear earlier you might wonder...well, I don't know...it just didn't. Certainly I am quite familiar with the concept of needing a visa and that has affected travel decisions up to this point. I've checked the visa website many times. But I guess I just thought that there are lots of folks from India in the states and travel back and forth seems to happen ...

... to my favorite mom and pop ramen shop in Ark Hills, located near Akasaka (where I formally lived when I worked here for GE). Poor Ray was starving and kept asking "you know where you are going, right?" Of course the answer was "yes"....I just didn't realize how long it would take to get us there. So about 30 minutes later....Ray was about to pass out and we finally made it to Ark Hills. As we came up the escalator to the second ...

... in the front seat. :) They took a picture, which we purchased. From there, we backtracked to Mysterious Island to do Journey to the Center of the Earth, but it was broken down. :( So we went around the corner to the castle and found a restaurant for dinner, Magellan's...made reservations. Then throughout the castle and Spanish galleon is an exploration area. All four of us enjoyed it. It was about this time that it started to rain, and was ...

... y on the field w*s better, though, including Centr*l Le*gue closer M*rc Kroon's 159 kilometer per hour f*stb*lls. He holds the Nippon Profession*l B*seb*ll's record of 161 kph. The CL be*t the P*cific Le*gue 3-1. The second All-St*r g*me, something M*jor Le*gue B*seb*ll did once upon * time, w*s r*ined out. G*me 2 will be pl*yed Sund*y in Miy*z*ki. I'll *sk Stephen, The J*p*n Times' b*seb*ll writer, wh*t Miy*z*ki w*s like when he returns to Tokyo...

... Hachiko, the dog statue (if you don't know the story behind it, look it up), in countless anime series, I figured it would be logical meeting place for someone who has never been to Shibuya. Hmm...I walked a full circle around the station through thick crowds of teens to reach that damn statue. Dave and Marita had just come back from a session of Taiko Drum master, so I was just in time for print club. I had never done print club (those photo sticker machines) before, so I ...

... I asked one of the bank workers and they explained we needed to go next door. At the next building, we went up to the 7th floor where we were told to find the bank, but when we got there, there was no bank whatsoever. Asking an office worker on the floor, she again told us we needed to go next door. Back at ground level, we took the third door to the building, and on the 7th floor, finally found the right place. We asked for the woman whose name we were given ...