Worst video blog ever

So after the blog theres a pretty crappy video blog. It turns out I had a lot less to say than expected. But there it is anyway!


So Friday night Mom and Dad got in to Shinjuku at around 9:00. After getting into their room, we went out to find dinner. After a really long walk trying to find somewhere to eat (I didn't know this area of Shinjuku as well as I thought I did), we went to a back alley full of izakayas that serve yakitori. So I ordered us a bunch of different things...including the pig liver, heart, and cartilage. It was all really good...but mom and dad were pretty tired so we went back to the hotel right after and went to sleep.

The next day we started our sight seeing. First in the morning we went to Tsukishi for some sushi breakfast. This whole tourguiding thing has been a bit more difficult than I thought it would be since I only really went to a lot of these places once ever, and some of them not at all. A lot of our tourism has been a bit impromtu, but thus far successful.

anyway, after that we rode a boat up Sumida River to Asakusa, which is where a large old school flea market style shopping area is, as well as Sensoji Temple, probably the most popular temple in Tokyo.

From there we finally went home, even though it was only about 3:00. Mom and Dad were exhausted and not really in the mood to go see anything else.

But that night we went and had dinner in Shinjuku with my host families. The dinner was fantastic. It was this whole elaborate seven course mean done in Kyoto style. Mrs. Kin and her daughter dressed up in kimono, and we drank quite a bit of beer, wine, and sake. I was glad my parents were able to meet the people who took care of me the whole time. And despite Mr. Takahashi's best efforts, my host families weren't able to embarass me by telling any stories.

The next day we first went out to Shibuya so Mom and Dad could see the famous busy interseciton, as well as Hachiko Statue (the famous dog statue...Richard Gere just did a movie about the dog).

From there we went to the Meiji Jingu Shrine at Yoyogi Park. It was a pretty beautiful shrine, and we even saw a couple getting married there! (Shout out again to Melissa and Brian! WOO HOO!)

After this we went and saw Tokyo Tower, where we didn't ride up to the top, but rather I met Pikachu at the bottom and we figured that was enough. After that we walked about a half an hour because I got us a bit lost tryign to find Ramen lunch. After a lot of aimless wandering, we finally found the college that I worked at and were able to find a ramen restaurant near by since I knew that area. I accidentally ordered us waaaay too much food because serving sizes are usually so small out here. We weren't able to finish our meals, and i was pretty embarassed.

But after this we went to Ueno to go to the Tokyo National Museum. We saw a ton of exhibits with art, statues, and artifacts from all sorts of different time periods throughout Japanese history. The samurai stuff was bad ass.

Finally after all this, we headed back home, took a break, went back out for a tonkatsu dinner, and then finally called it a day.

Its been an exhausting weekend, but we've still got a lot more to do this week! I'll keep you all posted. Jyaa ne!