Beginner Slope: Tokyo Day 1

Day One (Tokyo):
We arrive to Narita Airport at 5:30pm, ride the Keisei line (1000JPY) for one hour to the Nippori Station, then transfer to the JR Yamanote Line. At Ikebukuro Station, we exit from the west gate & first glittering landmark we see is a large KFC. We follow a map filled with reference points (KFC, tobacco store, Pasela, etc.) only to get lost in small alleys. After asking some employees at a Korean BBQ restaurant, we get lost some more, then visit a Lawson to ask for direction again. Finally, we find Kimi Ryokan. The dark hard wood floors here are spectacular, but the rate is low. We'll speak on this ryokan in more detail in a later posting.

[At the end of our trip, as we did with our honeymoon in Turkey, we will be evaluating each place of lodging. Nearly all of these places are ryokans listed in Frommer's 9th edition guide to Japan.]

Day Two:
We wake up early & spontaneously decide to head toward Tsukiji Fish Market, but find the ryokan's front doors locked until 7am. So we go back to bed & practice Japanese phrases & numbers.

The subway experience is mind blowing. Streams of people spill out in & out of turnstiles. Tokyo's subway map is complicated, so taking the JR (Japan Rail) is easier, though the subway reaches more areas in the city than the JR. We take a subway to Ginza & pop out of the station to find a map that will help us orient ourselves. "Your position" is a red arrow. Hibya Park is to the right, so we figure we are west of the park & need to walk through it to get to the fish market. By the time we get there, we stumble upon a large grassy area full of carefully trimmed trees. Past that, we find a guard standing in front of the Tokyo Imperial Palace. We ask for direction & he points in the direction from whence we came. It turns out that we had walked in the wrong direction. The station map was flipped upside down so that north faced downward!

Lesson #1: Public maps are oriented from the perspective of the viewer. If you're facing eastward as you view the map, north will be at the 9 o'clock position.

We make it to Tsukiji Market & roam the small shops, staring at exposed clams & prone octopus. Our sushi meal is delicious. Robby eats a bowl of rice covered with grainy, light pink tuna, sliced pickled radishes, shredded seaweed & ginger, onion, & other stuff that he cannot identify. He claims that it's the best tuna he has ever had. Because I am not a lover of raw fish, I order a few nigiri rolls: sweet shrimp, unagi (eel), & seaweed. The wasabi-soaked shrimp is barely pink & fleshy. The eel is lean & tender as well. The seaweed is mediocre & lacks flavor.

Uh oh - they're closing the lounge now, i.e., Internet goes away. That's it for the recap. Hope we can fall asleep!