Japan Thanksgiving '08: The Epic Tale

I've been working, I'm still a little laggy, and Fallout 3 is beckoning me, but I felt it prudent to chronicle our Japan Thanksgiving '08 trip. As many of you know, Kate and I engaged in Japan Thanksgiving '04 -- literally, as we actually got engaged then.

Our trip started as most do, with the flight. Kate hasn't had a 12-hour trek in a while, so it was a little rough on her. She also fell ill at one point, but I'll leave the details to her discretion. I was bummed to see exactly the same in-flight entertainment as my home trip from Japan last month. While I re-watched all 4 episodes of The Office, some new movies would've been nice. I read my new game mags, and started up the new (and pretty damn difficult) DS Castlevania game.


Act I
We spent our first two nights in Ginza, the high-end shopping district area of eastern Tokyo (and my favorite subway line). In hindsight, it wasn't a very good place to stay. We walked the strip -- full of Gucci, Tiffany, etc. stores -- but there wasn't much to eat. The cold and often rainy weather took some time to adjust to.

Our first hotel was pretty minimal. The room was like a shoebox diorama, though not unpleasant. It was probably the least gaijin-friendly of the three places we stayed at. There were three convenience stores in spitting distance from the hotel. By the way, we came out of this trip viewing FamilyMart as our favorite convenience store (even if we couldn't find the pork buns with smiley pig faces on them).

Our big first-act jaunt was to Ueno, the more historic district. There's a massive park there, which contains several landmark statues, a zoo, and many museums. We hit up the biggest museum, Tokyo National Museum. I definitely dug it -- swords, cool art, and a nice circular layout. Thanks to ferricide for the recommendation!

We balanced history with technology, as we had a brief stop in Akihabara. We got ramen at the massive Yodobashi Camera department store, a favorite of mine. We then wandered around for a while -- I bought a Picross-esque DS game and fruitlessly searched for Giant Gram 2000 on Dreamcast -- until we were almost hungry enough to eat again. This time, it was at Indian Curry, which is a favorite of Arnaud, the French-born, Japanese-living THQ employee. Kate didn't enjoy it too much, and I admittedly ordered us too spicy a dish. I'm sure she would've been happier to have one of the convenience-store crustless peanut-butter sandwiches she fell in love with.



Act II
Our next stop was Hakone, an area famous for its hot springs and close proximity to Mt. Fuji. Kate wanted to stay in Gora because it reminded her of Gorons, the rock-shaped, bath-loving race in Zelda. It was definitely a rustic trip, in stark contrast to modern Tokyo. The Hakone Suishoen was easily the poshest, fanciest place either of us ever stayed at. We had a private hot-spring off our room, which also contained a giant TV, massive bed, and complimentary mini-bar. We felt like VIPs, from the free breakfast to the free luxury transport.

The first full day in Hakone, we went to the Hakone Open Air Museum. This place was insane: countless exhibits, loads of real estate, and amazing views. Why it isn't a famous, must-see spot is a mystery to me. Neither words here, nor the pictures we took, can do it justice. Two museums in one trip -- both of which we really dug? If that isn't a sign we're getting old, I don't know what is…

On our second night, we partook in the hotel's special dinner. I'm not sure which adjective best describes it expensive or weird. There was plenty of both, I guess. My last post already detailed consumption of fish penis, but that was only one of a nine-course meal. The other super-strange part was in what we thought would be the tamest course: rice. The thing is, it had baby sardines in it -- baby in that they were tiny, undeveloped and white, looking almost exactly like rice. The main difference was that they had eyes, which watched you eat them. Kate referred to it as "rice with friends." Grilled sea urchin over whole shrimp, squid sushi (which I vow to never eat again), and a massive oyster that tasted more like a sausage were other memorable dishes. It was definitely an experience.

For the rest of the time in Hakone, we luxuriated. I think we took 5 baths in the 48 hours or so we were there. It looked like a mere two-person outdoor hot tub, but the water was just different somehow. It was also super hot, which had us hopping in then jumping out defeated countless times. There was a public bath with sauna on the premises, but we couldn't break away from our little private tub. It really defined vacation for me.


Act III
The final act took us to Shibuya, a thriving, hip southwestern Tokyo area which I've only briefly experienced. We stayed at a towering hotel, in a very nice room with a great view. Our only real plan was to walk around -- a Leeper vacation staple -- and that we did. I bought some used Japanese hip-hop CDs, and Kate got some fun socks.

My laptop, which crashed and hadn't worked since I got there, either miraculously healed itself or got over its jet-lag about this time. I was able to connect with the above-mentioned Arnaud and we got to have lunch with him. Kate got to speak a little French, and I got to be entertained by Arnaud as always.

We then spent an evening in Shinjuku, cruising the red light district (okay, that sounds wrong). Only in Japan can they have something as discriminating as a door marked "Japanese Only" and get away with it. Side question: Why do you think Japanese are so elitist about their liberal sex industry?

We were both ready to go home by our final day -- as evidence by our lack of pictures and lack of motivation to do too much. Shibuya's pretty cool -- I hear weekends there are awesome. I was happy with our nomadic last act, even if there's not much to report on.

The trip home was uneventful. Again, the in-flight entertainment was identical (grrr…), but coming home only takes 9 1/2 hours. I simply can't sleep on planes, by the way; I got in maybe 30 minutes of pseudo-napping. Arriving home around noon, we proceeded to sleep for about 3 hours. We got up, watched some TiVo, I played some Fallout, and we stayed up until about midnight. 10 1/2 hours later, we got up and have had a rather typical Sunday -- except for what sounded like a catapult nailing our alley-side wall, which we still haven't figured out.

For once, we took a ton of pictures. I'll find a way to post them once I actually get my desktop PC working (or buy a new one). If you read this entry in its entirety, thanks for your time.