Japan

Ahh...Japan. Land of supposed weirdness. My first trip to the country and Lo-Lin's second. The flight was an overnight from Thailand, but once we arrived - I knew I loved Japan: Mass organization and politeness. Our first experience with this was right out of the gate at the train. The attendant told us the price of the tickets and we were hesitating - maybe thinking about other options for a good deal. She then said something along the lines "well, there is a slower train, about 45 minutes longer, for half the price." - perfect! Especially since it was 7:30 AM and we couldn't check into our hotel yet.

The hotel was quite nice and in Kamata, just south of Tokyo proper and north of Yokohama. A couple of friends commented that it was "way too far" to experience Tokyo. Yeah, the 5 min. walk to the station and the 10 min. ride into the main areas - definitely not too far - especially considering the roughly $100 USD difference in a per night charge for hotel.

We did some touristy stuff: sushi, Imperial Palace, Senso-ji Temple, etc. Also, just walked around and checked out some different areas. Overall, very pleasant.

On the last night we were there, Yokohama had a huge fireworks festival, so we headed down there. wow. the people. I don't even know how to estimate the number of people, but we found a spot about 1.5 blocks away from the harbor - the closest spot with no people....and the harbor is about 2 miles long. All filled with people - that didn't include the surrounding harbors. Great street food + beer + fireworks. lovely.

55 photos. Enjoy!


btw - this is the Asahi Beer Building