Asia Trip: Touring Tokyo

I was able to do a little bit of touring around Tokyo during my short stay there. Ryo (Japanese student of Steve's) took us out to eat near the Tokyo equivalent of Times Square, Sheboya square (shown below), the second night that I was in Tokyo. This wasn't too bad, but it was one of those times during my trip where I was reminded that I really like non-crowded places. The dinner was pretty good...I had some kind of Duck/Noodle/Soup thing in the cheater sitting on the floor restaurant for Westerners (below the table was a whole which allows us to sight normally at the short table)

Sheboya Square in Tokyo.

The following morning I got up early (like I always did in Asia...I think 5am was the latest I ever slept in there) and went running. I wasn't sure where to go since I didn't have a map of the area and needed to be able to find my hotel without being able to talk to anyone. Fortunately there was a river that ran along the back side of our hotel (see picture below). So I just ran along the river mostly. Once I broke away from the river path and circled a block. When I did I saw a guy laying on his horn driving behind a truck. When he finally passed the truck he got in front, slammed on the brakes, stopped, and got out of his car to yell at the truck driver...that is a good way to get shot in the US.

River (blue arch is a bridge over the river) that ran behind our hotel in Tokyo.

After some breakfast and getting ready Ryo arrived and took Steve and I touring around Tokyo. We saw several locations with the main sights being a famous Buddhist temple, the Tokyo Tower (as seen in Godzilla), and the Emperor's Palace.

Steve and I in front of the Buddhist temple.

Tokyo Tower...location for numerous famous battles with Godzilla, King Kong, etc.

Emperor's Palace

One great story from our touring around involved Ryo running to get something. Basically since we were touring around Tokyo right before leaving for Seoul we stored our luggage in a locker in one of the many, many subway stations. We were at a different station after making a number of subway changes and Ryo took off to get something leaving Steve and I in the middle of this very busy station. It's at this point I noted that if Ryo has any hidden animosity for us this would be the perfect moment to exact his revenge...we didn't know where our stuff was (even if we found it Ryo had locked it himself and we didn't have access to it), had no idea where we were or how to get to the airport from it, and neither of us know Japanese. The only insurance we had in that moment was that Ryo doesn't have his degree yet.