Japan Part 2 - Tokyo

The latter part of our trip to Japan was spent in Tokyo. It was a beautiful city, with tons of culture to behold. It felt much like I'd imagine NYC to feel - crowded, bright, loud - but with bits of culture tucked into the city. We had a great time exploring.

Here's what we did in Tokyo, Japan.....

This is the view from the Tokyo Tower, a huge tall rendition of the Eiffel Tower. Which I would have a picture of if Blogger wasn't going crazy. So Julie, if you can post a picture of Tokyo Tower that would be great. Anyway - this is the view of the city from the tower's observation deck at dusk. It's much like being atop the Chicago Sear's Tower.

We went out one night for drinks and dancing, and had a great time! Tokyo has an, ahem, interesting night life.
Julie and I did manage to squeeze in a little shopping. What's vacation without shopping??
We navigated the subway system quite well, despite not being able to read most of the signs. You wouldn't believe how helpful the Japanese are in general; several people stopped and asked us if we needed help getting to where we were trying to go! This is us on the way back to the hotel after a long day of sight-seeing and walking and shopping.
One of the many busy intersections. I love all the tall buildings and jumbo-trons on the street corners. It was fun to walk through the crowds and feel like part of a big city!
Our signs read, "Hampostle." They are written in hiragana, a phonetic Japanese alphabet. We had them painted by a street vendor in a very eclectic part of Tokyo, which was really fun.
Mike and Noa indulged in lots of sushi. This picture is from a place called a sushi-go-round. And basically as the different sushi plates go by on the conveyor belt that runs through the restaurant, you select which ones you want. Kind of a cool idea.
Thank goodness for McDonald's in Japan! It saved me from the many sushi options!
Julie and I got some new gloves, having not prepared well enough for the 40 degree day we had while in Tokyo. Thankfully it was only one day!
Mike and Noa, mastering the subway.
Julie gets close with a friend at the Museum of Emerging Science and Technology. It was such a cool place....we spent hours wandering around inside to escape the one cold, rainy day we had.
This is a robot that responds to touch. It's used in hospitals and nursing homes and places where animal therapy is not allowed, and actually has proven to have the same effect on patients as real animal therapy! I agree - I couldn't stop smiling when every time I petted the seal he cooed and moved around!

This is one of the many parks in Tokyo that's just in the middle of a downtown, high rise area! It was really beautiful to walk through. I love the trees there.

Julie and Noa outside the Imperial Palace grounds. They were closed so we didn't get to walk through them, but just the front park area was gorgeous.

We saw a wedding taking place near one shrine. Really beautiful, traditional Japanese dress.

Mike and I at the same shrine. This was one of my favorite parts of Tokyo; the culture behind it was just amazing. We saw many people dressed traditionally here (kimonos, etc), which we didn't see as much of in the big, busier city areas. It was great.

I can't believe our trip went by so fast, ten days didn't seem long enough. It was really a perfect vacation, spent with people we love, exploring a new part of the world.