Day 1 - Western Tokyo

We both slept! Jet lag conquered. Sorta. I'm sure it'll take another day or two.

This morning we had onigiri and coffee/hot chocolate in the lobby of our hotel overlooking the Tokyo Tower. Jon had read that it was nearly impossible to board a train between 7:00 and 10:00 a.m. as all of Tokyo needed to go to work. Therefore, we planned our day and put the finishing touches on our gamification.

Our day started with a visit to the Meiji jIngu (shrine). Honoring the emperor Meiji who is considered the first modern emperor, the shrine is in a densely wooded area with its own garden, park, and three huge torii gates. We'd like to say that we got our first donation credit, but all we have are large bills and donations for shines are typically 5 yen. All we had were 10,000 yen notes. Haha!

For lunch we visited a shio (salt) ramen shop. Lisa gets her first set of points because she's never had shio ramen before and had yuzu shio ramen, but also because she tried a new food that we're still trying to identify. A fluffy green topping you could optionally add to your bowl of ramen. We think it’s a type of seaweed we’ve never had before. Jon had a spicy garlic chicken shio ramen with a thick broth. He sweated most of the way through the meal. It was excellent, although Lisa loves any opportunity to add yuzu kosho and fermented garlic into her food.

After lunch we walked Omotesando, a large shopping area in Shinjuku. It’s Tokyo's equivalent of Fifth Avenue, Savile Road, and the Champs Elysees. In Japan there are lots of store clerks and attendants. It's like having your own personal shopper. In the Max Mara store, one attendant took us up in the elevator and walked with us through all four floors of the store just in case Lisa wanted to try something on. Jon went into Onistuka Tiger, and almost bought a pair of shoes. It was so crowded that we're going to try again in Kyoto or Osaka.

One of the most popular and photographed tourist attractions in Tokyo is the Shibuya Scramble, a large multidirectional intersection. People cross in all directions while videoing themselves and the crowds of people making the journey. This was on Jon's top 10 list to visit, and it didn't disappoint him. We even went up to a Starbucks that overlooks the intersection so he could take a picture of people crossing.

In Shibuya Station, the world's busiest train station welcoming 3 million people a day, we stopped in a food hall. I don't know where this has been all my life, but it has everything a person could want or need in Japanese food and pastry. We picked up a cream stuffed taiyaki (pancake) and a red bean paste mochi ball. There is no walking and eating in Japan, so we stood against a wall with Darth Vader's picture on it and enjoyed our treats before catching the train to Shinjuku.

Climbing 45 floors to the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Benter, we arrived in the observation lounge of the South Tower. At this point in the day we each had 20,000+ steps so it seemed appropriate to get a couple bottles of water, Jon a beer, and share a vanilla soft serve. Japan is really proud of its ice cream and soft serve. Its cows come from the Hokkaido region. These cows apparently produce some of the best milk in the world.

After we gave our feet a much needed rest while enjoying the views of the never-ending Tokyo cityscape, we walked back to the downtown area of Shinjuku. We were welcomed with an onslaught of LED signs, neon lights, and loudspeakers playing music throughout the streets. So many people to navigate around. We entered Yodobashi Camera, a multistory electronics department store with pretty much everything from the latest beauty and skin-care tech, massage chairs, high tech pillows, and yes tvs, phones, and cameras, oh my.

We explored downtown Shinjuku for a bit, enough to find Godzilla’s head looming high overhead, but by this time we were both 25-30k steps into the day and had spent most of the past 11 hours standing or walking. We were beat, so we faced Shinjuku station once more and made our way back to the hotel. But not before buying the morning’s breakfast, onigiri.

And so it’s off to sleep. Tomorrow brings sushi making and museums.