Yesterday in Tokyo

Our hotel room is equipped with blackout shades. These things really work. In the heat of the afternoon you can make your room look like the dead of night. We decided to give the suckers a try. They worked all to well. We awoke at 12:30pm. We were a bit disappointed that we wasted half of our day sleeping, but damn, it was nice to sleep in. We decided to make the most of the remainder of the day, and boy did we ever!

The guide book suggested that we head to the highest point in the city. Off to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building's observation deck we were. Much to our chagrin the TMG is located in Shinjuku. We had our fill of Shinjuku the previous night. As I mentioned earlier I am grappling with Tokyo. I am really trying to get my head around this city. I thought going to the observation deck would be a big help. The TMG observation deck is on the 44th floor. That is half the height we were when we visited Taipei 101. From floor 44 in TMG all you could see was city. There was nothing and I mean nothing but city in every direction. I have never seen anything like it in my life. Tokyo is just immense.

After a quick, but very good lunch at the top of TMG we decided to visit the Park Hyatt Tokyo made famous by the movie "Lost in Translation." Rooms at the Hyatt run about $600 a night. It was nice, but not worth one months mortgage.

After our visit to luxury we decided to head south towards Harjuku. We followed the path right to Yoyogi Park. What an absolute delight this was. The park is a completely tranquil retreat right smack dab in the middle of utter chaos. A majority of the park is just natural forest. A walk through Yoyogi Park was an unexpected treat. Halfway through the park we came upon Meiji Shrine Inner Garden. This is the largest shrine in Japan. It is a breathtaking sight
We exited the park and entered Harajuku (yes, these are where Gwen Stefani’s girls are from.) Apparently, this is the hipster district of Tokyo. And let me tell you, I have NEVER seen so many hipsters in one place, not even at Lipgloss. Along with the hipsters was a lot of upscale shopping. It really didn’t make sense to me either (hipster + upscale shopping = Harajuku.). James and I both fell absolutely in love with Harajuku. It is an absolute and absurd pure eclectic collision . It is Absolutely delightful. Oh, and it's so clean you could eat of the street, if that’s your thing.

We snaked south through the narrow streets of Harajuku which lead us right to Shibuya. This is were the tourists go the get the quintessential Tokyo experience. Shibuya is like Times Square on steroids. Shibuya is like the neon capital of Tokyo. Shibuya also features that famous all directional crosswalk.

We were growing quite weary after our long walk through Tokyo's district's, so we decided to catch the JR train back to Harajuku and get some dinner. We found this sheik little back alley bistro. We sat on the patio and enjoyed some really good drinks followed by a very good meal. After dinner we headed back to our hotel. As we rode the JR train back we both wrestled with the idea of going back to Shinjuku (which is something we said we were not going to do) to experience some night life. We gave in.

We freshened up and grabbed the last JR train bound for Shinjuku. When we arrived Shinjuku, at around 1am, we realized that the trains were shutting down for the evening, so we would either have to wait until 4:30am for the first train or spend around $50-70 to taxi back to the hotel. I was hoping for option A. There we were walking around Shinjuku in circles looking for this bar we read about called Arty Farty. With a little gumption James spotted the sign for Arty Farty. Arty Farty was dead, but we went in and ordered two mint beers anyways. We walked around the strange little bar then settled on some bar stools at the end of the bar. James started up a conversation with the bar tender, Hideto, who spoke beautiful English. We spent a good hour and a half chatting with Hideto about Japanese and American culture and life. We both enjoyed Hideto's company very much. After Arty Farty closed we headed back to the street. We walked around the corner to see if Dragon, another local bar, was still pouring. It was still open. We chatted, for a brief moment, with a couple of black drag queens from New York who choreograph for Beyonce. We bellied up to the bar and ordered a couple of draft beers. This is when we met Kenji. It turns out that Kenji is obsessed with Colorado and cowboys (apparently he thinks the two go hand in hand.) He owns an apartment building in Shinjuku. We got the idea that Kenji is very well off.. Owns apartment building in central Tokyo = rich off ass. We closed Dragon. James, Kenji and I headed across the street for some late night Tokyo grub. As we sat chatting at the table over pizza and coffee we realized the sun was coming up. I was happy because this meant I was going to experience a Tokyo morning, and this meant the JR trains were running again. We headed back to the hotel for some quick sleep. It turns out those blackout shades really do come in handy.