Tokyo takes Emily

For REAL, people. Took me out in a single afternoon. Is it any wonder, with the size of the intersections?

Josh and I had been meaning to go to Tokyo for some time now. It's not far by train, but between househunting, me being sick for a while, and just general craziness, we hadn't been able to make it. August 30 was the last day our friend Natonya from New York was going to be there on tour, so we decided we had to go.

I love that nature lives within the metropolis. It's like Central Park, but bigger, holy, and clean.

We hopped a train in Yokosuka, transferred once, and were at the door to the theater where Natonya's group was playing in less than an hour. How cool! We joined her and some of her cool friends for lunch at Pepper Lunch - you order from a machine, and the cook presents you a 500 degree (Fahrenheit) plate with steamed rice, sauce, and raw beef or salmon. The plate cooks the meat while you eat, and the flavors are great.

Natonya, Josh and I walked around for a bit, before she had to leave for the second show of the day. So cool to see a U.S. friend in Japan! Josh and I had planned to spend the afternoon sightseeing, and we started at the grounds of the Imperial Palace. It is so beautiful! Here's a lawn outside, with impeccably manicured trees and lawn.

Don't step on the grass! There's also a big moat with swans and ducks, and ancient, beautiful gates and bridges. We loved it.




Then this happened:

...and a couple minutes later it started to POUR on us. Buckets of big fat rain fell, and Josh struggled to avoid admitting that bringing raincoats had been a good idea. We bundled up and headed for the subway.

No more pictures though; it was too wet out! We spent a couple hours in Akihabara, a technological district with miles of TVs, cameras, DVDs, even mopeds for sale. We stopped for refreshment and Josh had some kind of cold, sweet green tea drink with ice cream on top - ew! I got luckier with the picture menu and had plain yogurt drizzled with honey and blueberries, and a scoop of blueberry sorbet. Yum!

We were tuckered out from the rain and my feet were dyed brown from my leather sandals, so we came back to Yokosuka at 7:30 and stopped for dinner. Guess what we had.


Tokyo can kick my butt, but it can't take away my ramen.