Helloooo Peeps! We just returned from Japan a few days ago and I can finally share some pix with you. It's been crazy busy since we got back. This was my very first trip to Japan and my hubby's 4th. We stayed at the Hotel Metropolitan in Ikebukuro in Tokyo.
I was warned that there'd be LOTS of people but OMG it seemed more like millions. On the night we arrived, we decided to go to Seibu, a huge multi-level store at the train station. Not knowing when "pauhana" (end of the work day) time was, we got to the train station at about 6:45 pm. WOWZER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There was a MASSIVE AND UNBELIEVABLE number of "men in black" in their black suits and women in a constant flow scrambling thru the station. A couple of guys were full-on sprinting. I told my hubby they look like an army of human ants. LOL. Yikes! I hung on to my hubby's arm so tight so we wouldn't get separated. I must've cut some blood circulation in his arm. LOL. What an experience.
We did soooooooo much walking that by the 3rd day, I needed to take Aleve for my sore left knee. We just had to cut out the night time walking which put my legs over the edge. About the 3rd day, we caught the train to Ueno as we were headed to Asakusa. After getting off the train, hubby said, "Oh, I think we can walk to Asakusa. It's not too far from here." YEAH RIGHT. No way Jose. I told him, "We're catching a cab." WHOA, that was quite far. If we walked it, my legs would've fallen off, plus we'd probably get lost too.
Speaking of getting lost, we had to ask for directions so many times and shared some Mauna Loa Macadamia Nuts (tetra packs, those little triangular pkgs.) to whoever helped us. Boy, were they happy. One security guard continued thanking us as we walked away. When we were about 40 feet away, I could still hear him. I turned around and he kept bowing and saying, "ARIGATO GO ZAI MASU." I smiled and waived to him. Glad we could spread some aloha. :-)
Shortly after getting out of the cab, a guy approaches us and "sold" us a ride on the rickshaw. HOW FUN!!! But poor guy, he was perspiring. Good thing we took the shortest ride. And here we are with the Hawaiian "shaka".....
OK this next picture doesn't look too appetizing but at Nakamise Dori we both ate the pumpkin age-manju. Jenny, you weren't kidding. That stuff was so good that after we made our round shopping and munching on other goodies, we went back and bought one of each of the other types and took them back to our hotel to eat though it's better to eat them fresh. They were all yummy though I didn't really care for the cherry and this other one with green specks. Don't know what that one was.
That's me in front of the temple. This is the largest temple I've ever seen. ENORMOUS!!!
One morning, my hubby looked out of our hotel window and saw snow-capped Mt.Fuji. Isn't that awesome? We heard it's rare to have a clear day and see the mountain. We were very lucky.
Hubby loves to watch Ultimate Japan. On this show he was introduced to the Matsuzaka Beef. Being a meat eater, he wanted to go to Satou Restaurant in Kichijoji that was featured on the show. Here's the owner showing him his steak before it was cooked. I had the sliced Sirloin steak that was $10.00. You don't want to know how much my hubby's meal costed. I almost fell off my seat.
Here's a shot of my hubby's meal. Looks ono yah?
There was a 7-11 near our hotel which we went to everyday. We had to try the ice creams we don't have here in Hawaii. Ummmmm, they were deeeeelicious!!!!
Lookie here. These were almost too cute and nice to eat. They were from the bakery in our hotel.
This last pix was taken as we were riding on the bus heading back to Narita Airport to return to Honolulu.
Hope you enjoyed the pix. I'll be posting my blogaversary candy within the next few days. I need to get my act together first.
Thanks for stopping by and HAVE A SCRAP HAPPY DAY.
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