Osumi Sanso Isehara

... previously seen in Japanese comics seemed to spring to life in this district too. I swear I saw AstroBoy about 10 times! On one particular street there was a gaunlet of Japanese cross-dressers, all wearing fluro yellow coats like they were either a) advistising something or b) protesting a cause. I couldn't really tell. One guy was especially confused though, because he wasn't even Japanese and was dressing like an Asian woman. So after two days in Tokyo, my intial ...

... of the banks didn't open until 10:00am (what happened to that crazy Japanese work ethic??) By 7:45 we were starving and decided to eat at the only place that was a) open, and b) would accept American credit card. And that was Denny's! I must say that I could not have felt any worse for Phil. Here he is expecting to eat at the foodie equivalent to Disney world (the fish market), and he is stuck having his first Japanese breakfast at Denny's. The food ...

... proceed to the Temple on our own using our Frommer's walking tour guide. We first passed a gate with a 200 pound lantern and statutes of Gods on either side to protect the Temple. Suddenly we were in a mass of people with souvenir shops everywhere! There were hundreds of them selling everything from chopsticks to change purses. We ate our way through the festival-like market, trying crispy rice sweets, some kind of fried dough filled with bean paste, more meat on a ...

... HUGE glass windows that overlooked the city. Heidi also made me recreate MTV Cribs and give a tour of our hotel room, which I fear will come back and haunt me at a later point in my life. Today's Observations * Everyone carries around a personal wash cloth to wipe their sweat and dry their hands since many restrooms don't have paper towels. * I did not hear one car horn the four days I was in Tokyo. * 80% of the women wear really high heeled shoes that clickity clack all over the place.

... having difficulty. After a long day of be bopping around we headed to the airport to check into our room. We are staying at the Hilton, which we were a little bit excited about. When we think Hilton we think pool, hot tub, luxury. Plus it was the cheapest room we could find and the same price as our other ghetto room. We think the name of this hotel should be Hilton a la carte. Every time we try to do something fun they inform us that we will have to pay for ...

... with each other and as a result each has expanded their stores into huge mega uber complexes. Only in Japan could two complexes that could each on their own fill the shopping needs of everyone in Missouri, be only a few hundred feet apart and make enough money to EXPAND. It's crazy...Japan loves to shop, and this presents itself everywhere I go. While in Ikebukuro we hit up the Toyota AMLUX complex which has six stories of Toyota displays. After doing that we dropped 600 yen on ...

... rice, fried fish, some sardine and a horseradish dish among other things. My family explained that they had planned a trip to Tokyo to see the Sanja Festival at Asakusa shrine. After we finished breakfast, we headed down to the train station and into Tokyo. Asakusa was quite crowded but somehow my host mother used her miniature stature to wriggle her way to the front of the crowd so that we could get a good view of the festivities. The Sanja Festival consists of various groups of ...

... they called it a "basement" but that doesn't make you want to keep reading about ramen). In their "basement" they have recreated a replica of a town square from Japan circa 1958. Within the square are a number of small ramen shops that have ramen you can sample from all different parts of Japan. There are also a couple of little stands where you can buy candy, ice cream and toys that were popular during the era. It was pretty interesting! We tried ...

... I'm not sure if the police were called because of the drinking or if it was because their karaoke skills were lacking (like I said, they're quite serious about karaoke here). On Sunday I met up with my old high school buddy, Linda, in Tokyo. She's spending the year studying Japanese there and wanted me to come view the sakura at a park near somewhere in Tokyo near the imperial palace. The site is supposed to be the best place to view them in all of Tokyo and did not ...

... injured or arrested or suck at karaoke, the last of which is quite an offense here (okay not true, but that sentence was boring). After the orientation we were introduced to our buddy students, who then lead us around campus and showed us where all the important buildings are. My buddy's name is Kaori (she goes by Katherine). She's extremely kind! I feel quite lucky to have her as my guide here. One part of the tour consisted of walking a long a stretch of path that was ...