We spent one week in Japan and visited the cities of Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hiroshima. With our Japan Rail Pass and a lot of determination, we saw as much of Japan as humanly possible in 7 short days. John, Gavin and I put together and ambitious itinerary that had us zooming at bullet-fast speeds across The Land of the Rising Sun.
Our adventure started out in business class on an United Boeing 777, where we drank copious amounts of sake and were treated like rock-stars. Upon arrival in Tokyo-Narita we were overwhelmed by that feeling you get only when you travel to a new country. On the plane, I tried my hardest to brush up on my Japanese, because I knew that my two companions would depend on me to make things happen on their first trip to the Orient. It had been over 15 years since I last visited Japan as a teen-ager and I wanted to show the boys a great time.
We easily found our way from the airport to our hotel overlooking Shinjuku Station, the busiest commuter rail station in Tokyo. High up on the 27th floor, we were treated to an amazing view of the Tokyo skyline. I've been to some big cities in my life, but Tokyo has got to rank up on top of the list in size. What a metropolis!
The three of us were excited to see what Japan had to offer in terms of food and drink, and we were not disappointed! We were on a mission to try experience as much of Japanese cuisine as possible. This included shabu shabu, izakaya, sushi, ramen, sukiyaki and yakitori.
In the 3 days that we spent in Tokyo, we went to the Fall Sumo Tournament, toured the Fuji Television Building, saw the world's biggest wholesale fishmarket at Tsukiji, checked out the funky district of Harajuku, went to the Tokyo-Edo Museum and met up with our friend Mark for a wild night on the town.
Check out my Tokyo Album at the bottom of the page.
Gav and John upon arrival at Tokyo-Narita.
Shinjuku by night.
Sumo!
The world's freshest sushi at the Tsukiji Fish Market.
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