Our trip to Yokohama & Tokyo

Before coming to Japan my dad had planned a parks meeting with some Japanese parks employees in Vancouver's sister city Yokohama. We all decided to tag along and make a mini-trip out of it by visiting Tokyo as well.

We took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Yokohama city on Monday morning and it took about 2.5 hours. The weather was quite different then it was the day my parents arrived. It was cloudy, rainy and cold. It felt more like fall then spring. Oddly enough we saw more cherry blossom trees in this area then we had seen in Osaka... considering the blossoms start in southern Japan and move their way up north. We spent the first bit of time trying to find a hotel. Once we found one, we got settled in and then headed to Tokyo to meet up with a couple of former students I taught at CSLI.

The ride from Yokohama to Tokyo is about 30 minutes. It seemed to go by fast because we met a guy from the states who chatted our ear off! Nice guy -- he even tried to give us directions as to how to get out of the crazy train station. CRAZY was right! I knew Tokyo was busier then Osaka, but to experience the different stations in real life was surreal. Soooo many people and their route/fare maps are triple the size of Osaka's.

Thanks to our good directions, we met up with Shin and Mana fairly easily. It was so great to see them again and hear how amazing their English still is! They led out out of the station to the Shibuya intersection. That is the famous and insanely packed intersection you can see in many movies.

The first "touristy" thing Shin pointed out was a statue of a dog. Basically, years and years ago this dog would always meet his owner at the station after work. Unfortunately one day the owner didn't arrive at the station (because he had passed away), yet for the next 11 years the dog continued to go to the station waiting for his owner, until he himself passed away. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.....I know!!! If you are a dog lover...you are probably shedding a tear!!!!!!

After taking a million pictures of the intersection, we walked around Shibuya and made our way to Harajuku. Harajuku is definitely a cool area and I really wish I would have had more time to spend there. The stores are funky and the style of the Japanese people is far-fetched from the mainstream.

**this is a truck promoting Beyonce and the back window is a TV screen showing her videos**

**spot the gaijin**

We made out way to a super nice izakaya in Harajuku and that is where Jamie and Shin introuduced my dad to their favourite drink, shochu. It was great food, drinks, and conversation! The only entree that we had never seen nor tasted before was tako-wasabi.....tiny bits of octopus in a wasabi sauce. It was ok, but since I am not a huge lover of wasabi anything...I didn't chow down......neither did anyone else....so Shin was in his glory.

After a few hours of hanging out, we headed to the station to make it home before last train. The train ride home was twice as packed as it was coming into Tokyo. People we pressed together like sardines for the full 30 minute ride home. I would hate to do that commute everyday

Even though we didn't get to see much of Tokyo, what we did see was amazing! Thanks to Shin and Mana for showing us such a great time! You guys are awesome!!