Wow has it been a busy past two days! Yesterday we met Nick's co-workers from the CK office in Sano, Ishibashi-san and his wife Keiko, Mukul (who is in Japan on a 3 month assignment from Nick's office in Michigan), and Koyasu with his three children. The first place we went after arriving in Tokyo was into the Electronic district. First, we walked through an area that was full of vendors selling any kind of electronic component you could ever want, then we went to a store that had many levels and sold all different kinds of electronic items, and some non-electronic. They had everything from cell phones, to cameras, to Ipods, to designer purses, to perfumes. After some browsing there, it was lunchtime and we hopped on the train and went to the Tokyo Hard Rock Cafe in Roppongi.

Everyone was excited to eat some American food. Ishibashi-san, Keiko, Koyasu and his children had all lived in the US for a few years and had grown somewhat fond of our food, so they were craving it as much as we were. I chose a BLT, while Nick went for a cheeseburger and Ishibashi ordered us nachos. After a little shopping in the HRC merchandise shop (I had to get a pin of course!) we walked to Tokyo Tower, which Mukul informed us, is actually 2 meters taller than the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, because of the 3 day weekend, the line was just as long as the Tower, and it was going to be a 40 minute wait to go up. So we decided to save that for another time, and got back on the subway and went to a historical district called Asakusa.


Ishibashi insisted that Nick, Mukul, one of Koyasu's children and I all take a tour on a human-drawn wheeled cart. Once we found two tour guides that spoke English we were off! The tour was really good, and we felt like celebrities since all of the tourists (Japanese included) were taking pictures of us as we went by. After our cart tour, we split up and went shopping. There were tons of people in this district and tons of shops! There were a lot of shops that had great souvenir-type items, so we will be going back there when it is time to buy presents! After an hour, we met back up with everyone and decided that we were all tired and had done enough walking and sight-seeing for the day. Mukul, Ishibashi, Keiko, Nick and I headed for Shinjuku for dinner and Koyasu and his children headed home.

Shinjuku is where we needed to catch the Express Train back to Machida and then a Local train back to Zama, and what an amazing part of the city it is! There were big neon signs everywhere and lots of shopping and people. We went to a very large bookstore, with many floors, where I bought a Japan bilingual atlas (to match my Tokyo one), and an origami set. For dinner, we went to a Japanese restaurant, which was fantastic, and then headed home.

Today, we got a late start, as we had slept in late from being exhausted from our day in Tokyo. We decided to do some exploring in Zama. From our apartment, we walked a different way than we normally do, opposite from how we go to the train station. Just down the street from our place we found Zama City Hall, which is fantastic because we still need to get our alien cards, and that's where we need to go to get them.


We continued walking and eventually came to the next train station on the line, Sobudaimae. Soon after passing the station, we became hungry and stopped for some KFC, which is a little different than in the US, but it was good. We kept walking after that, and stopped in a Pachinko place, which is a lot like the slot machine part of a casino except 10 times louder. Eventually we came to another station, which is not listed on my map, so I couldn't tell you what it's called, and grabbed a train to Ebina for some shopping. We ended up not buying anything but two cups of coffee and got on the train again and went to Hon Atsugi to go to the Virgin store. There, Nick found a Japanese import for his favorite band. I found nothing there, but later found a bag I had been searching for at Mylord. After two days of walking, we were exhausted early and took the train back to Zama. We ate at our favorite restaurant by the Uny (I'm sure it has a name, maybe I'll find out what it is someday). I had a bowl of Unagi (eel) and rice, and Nick had the pork fry and a few pieces of sushi, which he said were really good. For dessert we split an ice cream, which I thought was going to be vanilla. I think it may have been some form of vanilla, but it wasn't what I was expecting, although it was still fantastic. We'll get to bed early tonight as Nick will be picked up bright and early for work in the morning, but it was nice that he had the day off today so that we could go exploring together!