New Izu Hotel Tokyo

... with the bus behind us, we loved to have a hot shower and freshen up. Hostel was booked in advance so, we paid up and ...........................No Key..!!?? What´s this?? "" Check-in only at 1500pm"" she said.....<br>But the Check-out is at 9am..?? " You need 6 hours to clean my room?? " How big is it?? " No Khao San Tokyo policy.."" the Jappie robot said ( without a smile )<br>Well....welcome to Tokyo....the " finest"......<br><br>So nothing to do for ...

... packed Karaoke bars to badly dressed adolescents. And I think its safe to say we have enjoyed every bit of it. Tokyo is constantly on a caffeine high. Nothing ever stops. Not even the people. You can walk around at two in the morning and there will still people about; anything from midnight joggers to drunken businessmen. No one seems to sleep here. Which makes everything so much more amazing because you'd think it could so easily crash and burn, but good 'ol Tokyo just keeps on ...

... by each Temple's unique beauty, which eventually leads to you spending two hours or so staring at a giant statue of some obscure Shinto God.<br><br>Somehow, we had found ourselves outside a temple complete with plant life beginning to spawn Plum Blossoms; the humble cousin of the famous Sakura. The Plum Blossoms of Japan bloom at the beginning of Spring, marking the end of winter and are an introduction to the Cherry Blossom season. Sadly, they are overshadowed by their flamboyant ...

... islands of Japan that we have visited. Oh, and did I happen to mention that it was the northern most freaking island resulting in an intense, non-stop, thirteen and a half hour shinkansen marathon, train hopping from one to the next with all our luggage and not so much as a twelve minute transfer period in between each? All in all, though, the train ride there and back was more than worth it. When you're residing in a city that sees six months of winter per year, you know you're ...

... the all too ambiguous title 'Hungry Jacks'. I mean, what is that? These guys are the kings of burgers. Give credit where credit's due. Needless to say, once the euphoria of seeing that glorious franchise name, wedged humbly between those yellow buns had worn off, I took to ordering from it immediately. The menu, was even more beautiful than any mortal could possibly imagine. Picture, if you will, bacon and eggs. Now picture them in a burger. Did I mention that the burgers buns were ...

I have been travelling since December 17th and I won't be back in Tottori until January 2nd. I am now in Akishima in Western Tokyo staying at my college's roommate home. It has been nice to see my old friends and visiting some new places but I kind of miss my place in Tottori. Of course, I will be travelling for a month in Thailand and other countries in January. I have decided not to go to Vietnam as I had orginally planned as I couldn't ...

... for his opinion and post his response in my next blog. The biggest thrill for us came in about the 7th inning when we were prominently featured on the JumboTron (a first for both of us). After the first two innnings or so, we felt we had a good chance of making it up there...due entirely to the fact that the camera-men seemed to make a point of only putting white-folk up on the big screen. Either way, we were quite excited...but somewhat regrettably did the ...

Al and I headed out early (despite the odd ache and pain from the Fuji climb!), and made our way back to Ahiabara so that Al could scope out a few souveniers he was interested in. We headed to Hirijouku for lunch. There was much less happening on the bridge this time - perhaps because it's a Saturday rather than a Sunday. Nearby Yoyogi Park had considerably more activity; one guy was practicing Kendo with wooden sticks, various musicians were ...

... to buy earphones but testing all the ones available would have taken 2 lifetimes. Sometimes too much choice is not a good thing. * Ginza - a posh shopping district. High end stores of all sizes. From Tiffanies to LV, there are here. Bright neon signs line both sides of the broad streets. A nice place to just stroll around. * Roppongi Hill - An overrated new shopping mall. Outside in the courtyard, Christmas lights were set up for the enjoyment ...

... of temples, as it was the capital of Japan for a brief period around 1100. We saw a very small and quiet one and a very big and busy one. We also got to go inside the big Buddha! On the way home we stopped at Chinatown in Yokohama. The Chinatown in Yokohama is pretty comparable to the one in San Francisco. Of course, we had some Chinese food. Who would have thought that two of our first three dinners in Japan would be Chinese food!