Up 2400m on windy windy Mount Fuji.

The tea sensei at work in the old Happoen Garden tea house. Every careful stroke and delicate gesture is required to perform the art of tea making. 

Japanese BBQ at the Four Seasons’ Chinzan-so restaurant.

For all the folks who love electronic doo-dads, video games, model building, and kinky S&M sex shops, Akihabara is THE place for you! Also known as “electronic city”, it’s the part of Tokyo where you can satisfy all of your electronic needs and other um…needs. We found it so strange by how many 18+ shops were mixed in the slew of this nerd nation. At first it was fun checking out all the animé porn, “hentai” is the correct term but then it just got weirder and then a little disturbing. I won’t get into any details, but you get the picture.

Later, we went to fulfill our most anticipated activity of the week, the Oedo Onsen (onsen meaning natural hot spring). We wished we had known about this place sooner because it was literally an adult amusement park for relaxation and spa treatments. It was quite an ordeal getting in here at first because about 98% of Japan’s onsens prohibit people with tattoos from entering since it is considered Yakuza affiliated. Lucky for us, our lovely friends back home A and S didn’t let us leave Canada without a ton of bandaids. So we taped up all of M’s gangster worthy tattoos (I heard the Butterfly gang is not to be messed with) and snuck into the onsen without a scratch. At first, we were a little irked by having to bathe in the nude and it was almost impossible to ignore the Amazonian jungle sprouting from everyone’s cootch (apparently Japan isn’t as advanced in the personal grooming area yet). There were multiple pools to choose from, each ranging in different temperatures and depth but we opted for the outdoor ones because it was nighttime and we couldn’t risk exposing M’s true identity. But that was probably the best choice for many other reasons. Somehow just sitting outside in a mineral hot spring in the dark surrounded by lush flora and the sound of crickets made you feel so zen and carefree. It was amazing and I truly recommend this experience to anyone who ever gets the opportunity.

It really looks like an adult amusement park!

Those “smooth” looking stones embedded into the ground are meant to stimulate to soles of the feet to relieve fatigue. That’s because the stones are actually the most painful thing to walk on, it was no wonder, it can wake anybody up!

Me in one the many choices of yukatas provided at the onsen.

We even tried a fish foot treatment. The Garra Rufa fish from Turkey is the biggest craze in strange Asian beauty treatments. As soon as dipped our feet into the little pond filled with these little fish, the water around us began to vibrate as the they made their way to our feet. It was the weirdest sensation ever because you can feel all their tiny mouths gnawing at the dead skin on your foot. It took us a while to get accustomed to the awkward feeling but after a while, you just got used to it and you’d have to ignore the fact that there are fish exfoliation your feet. The results? As M said, “they could’ve done a bit more”. I believe it was because we only signed up for 30 minutes which may not have sufficed.

My satisfying bowl of Japanese curry topped with cheese at Sukiya restaurant.

Roppongi Hills is another “must see” destination that is worth visiting if you’ve got a luxury shopping bug. This affluent part of Tokyo was recently built to cater to the main demographic group that live there, foreign expats. This area which consists of the large Roppongi Hills mall is supposed to simulate Los Angeles’ Beverly Hills but with a more modern approach in terms of architecture and shopping selection. My travel counterpart and I didn’t spend much time here as the shopping didn’t really appeal to our tastes. The stores were mainly boutiques of Japanese luxury designers that were geared more to the older 40ish crowd. There was also a contemporary art museum there that housed Japanese modern art worthy of Kanye’s pad. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the chance to go there since they closed at 5pm.

An ultra touristy thing that we did get to do was lunch at the Gonpachi restaurant made famous by the film, Kill Bill. This was the restaurant that inspired the set design of the restaurant fight scene in the first installment. Upon arriving at its location in Roppongi (it was definitely a sight for sore eyes), I felt like we were warped to an ancient Japan where geishas and ninjas roamed the land. Inside the monstrous restaurant, it was absolutely breathtaking because it looked so old and very realistic. The ceilings were high and open giving it an illusion that we were outdoors. We were greeted with a loud “welcome” by all the staff there as soon as we walked in which created a very friendly atmosphere. Anyways, I can go on and on about the visual appeal and unique ambiance of the restaurant but unfortunately, we cant say that we were anywhere close to being impressed by the actual food. We ordered a set lunch meal that cost $30USD but definitely didn’t have the quality that we were expecting. The food was mediocre and mostly bland in taste. I had to send my chicken skewers back because they were undercooked and when I got them back, they were burnt. But in the end, we were glad we had the experience.

Cold natural tofu with salad

Ebi shinjyo-fried shrimp dumpling with sweet chili sauce

Tempura - Roquefort cheese, baby tomato, and avocado

Charcoal grilled chicken

Negima skewers

Miso glazed salmon

Cold soba

The best part of the meal

Gonpachi had previously served the likes of Lady Gaga, Johnny Depp, Stevie Wonder, and Sylvester Stallone

We later ventured off to another shopping complex found in Roppongi called Tokyo Midtown. The selection of stores here weren’t much different than Roppongi Hills but there were a handful more familiar stores such as Marni, Burberry, Harry Winston, and Hugo Boss. The design of this place was beautiful and it even had a Ritz-Carlton!

After a long day of walking around, we ended the day with a very delicious bowl of ramen at Ichiran. We wished we had known of this place sooner as it was located just 5 minutes away from our hotel in Shibuya and the price was just right (we actually ate here again two days after). I strongly recommend anyone visiting Tokyo to come here for a meal as it is truly tastebuds satisfying and the experience shouldn’t be missed either. First, you pay and order the ingredients that you want from a vending machine (must get the egg, best hardboiled egg ever) and then it prints out these tickets for you. Then you fill out a sheet indicating how you want everything done including the spicy and fatness content of the soup and the firmness of the noodles. Then you sit and wait while watching a light up map of the restaurant that shows the length of time until your table is ready. When spots open up, you take a seat in a little cubicle and a set of hands place your food in front of you. I guess you can call this “solo dining” as you sit by yourself and enjoy your food in solitude. It makes sense because they also want to get you out of there as quick as possible for the next customer. It was quite neat and we left with full tummies.

In front of the infamous Shibuya 109 tower.

Next stop: Shinjuku, one of the largest business districts in Tokyo. There, you will find huge department stores, Kabuki-cho (Tokyo’s red light district), as well as Golden Gai, a narrow street packed with bars and more bars.

We strolled through Kabuki-cho and was shortly bombarded by boys and men dressed in suits and donning crazy hair styles. Snooki ain’t got nothing on the teased look compared to these guys. Since we couldn’t speak English and these guys couldn’t say anything more than, “Are you Korean? You are beautiful”, we had to ask someone why these guys were all just standing around everywhere. Turns out that they are “hosts” the male equivalent to an “escort”. You would pay them about $40USD to hang out with you and party with you, but you would also have to cover all their expenses…drinks and more drinks. We learned that you definitely need to be careful around here and to use your best judgment. We met a Gentlemen’s Club owner from Jamaica who was adamant on getting our numbers so that we could hang out after he finished working that night…our one thought: HELL NO! He was helpful in trying to find us a stripshow though, not that we wanted to spend $80USD to watch unattractive girls. We were then introduced to these other guys that owned Key Club, a reggae and hip hop bar. After following them down some sketchy stairs, the club was found to be empty and a little too empty for our liking. We fled the seen as fast as we could without a scratch.

These “Gentlemen’s Clubs” were EVERYWHERE!!! People will run out to get you to come in…if you were a man of course. They wouldn’t want girls like us in there, we aren’t considered well paying customers.

We turned off the main drag to walk through a peaceful and serene back way through the residential area named Shinjuku-Yuhodo Park.

The rest of the night was spent strolling through Shinjuku while experiencing our first bento box and visiting a local Shinto shrine, Hanazono-jinja Shrine.

I apologize for the lack of updates but would you be on your computer that often if you were in Tokyo, the shopping and sightseeing mecca of the world? You don’t have to answer that. I do however feel that that at this point, I must cease the procrastination and actually begin with some real updates. Since my last post, we spent the day in Harajuku which was probably one of the places that I was most excited to see. We’ve all heard about Harajuku and for some strange reason, I feel that we can owe it to Gwen Stefani and her Japanese minions for putting it on the map. Our first stop was the eccentric and always eclectic Takeshita Street, a shopping strip lined with kitschy and ultra girly stores as well. It kind of reminded me of Sirens and LaSenza Girl on steroids. Every shop was crowded with a multitude of people dressed in crazy garbs. We saw gyarus that looked like they just tiptoed out of a Barbie dollhouse and lolita gyarus who probably just flew out of a bat cave. It was definitely a worthwhile and unique shopping experience. Never before have I seen this kind of real life oxymoron, I guess I could call it “normal insanity”? As we walked out of Takeshita Street, we strolled into Harajuku Street which is a quieter and much more subdued version of Takeshita Street. The stores here mostly consisted of vintage and secondhand stores that strictly sold “American” brands or anything resembling American wear. To get a better idea of this trend, think artsy hipster mixed with grunge and punk. We really enjoyed this area as you see more men and very stylish men at that.

We came across a store International Gallery that sold Helmut Lang, Lanvin, Alexander Wang, Valentino, Alexander McQueen, Givenchy, and other independent designers. The store also included a section for men that sold exclusive and limited edition tees for men. We spent quite a while here, not because we were interested in the clothing, but mostly because it offered free Wifi. Man, you do not realize how excited we got whenever we encountered a free Wifi zone. You’d think that Japan with its advanced technology would have it everywhere but it’s a very rare thing to find. These areas are especially handy and useful whenever you’re missing your significant other.

It’s completely normal to see tiny girls like this screaming their lungs out to get you to come to their store. I wonder how they do it because my voice would have gone hoarse after the first two minutes from the way these girls go at it.

After all that walking and exploring, we treated ourselves with some much needed sweets…delicious crepes. M had strawberry and banana while I had a black sesame crepe with mochi filling. Yummm!

We ate these deliciously SAUCY octopus balls from Gindago. Warning: Do not eat more than four per person, if you exceed my recommended limit, you’re going to feel hella sick. Trust.

I thought this looked hilarious. A bunch of guys lined up in suits chilling in front of Zara.

We ended the day by oogling some adorable puppies in an uber cute pet store. The sad thing is that the dogs were probably bred from a puppy mill…I sure hope that people know better than to purchase dogs from places like that.

Toodles!