Saturday, April 14, 2012

Japan - First day

Hey guys! Thank you so much for the sweet birthday wishes :] It really means a lot. My birthday was great. It was nice spending time with loved ones and eating good food. Brian bought me a BA book by the Monkees called the Monkees Go Mod :] I will be getting to all of your comments from the past few weeks shortly, promise! I missed all of you so much. It is so weird being out of the blogging loop for awhile. There is so much to catch up on!! It is just so hard getting back in to the groove of things.

Anywho, let me show you a bit of my trip. I plan to break it up in chunks. I took soooo many pictures. To view them all click on one of the images below and you can view the photos I have uploaded thus far - I only have the first 3 days up - eeep! Let's get started... (there are a ton of pics so just feel free to breeze through them fast or not at all, haha)

Headed to Japan

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On my 13 hour plane ride I didn't sleep in order to avoid jet lag once I arrived. The view from my window was so pretty. Above is an image I took while we flew over Alaska, and below is of the ocean once we were a half an hour from Japan.

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Tokyo - Day one

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We started our day just outside Asakusa to visit the new Sky Tree. It is the tallest tower in the world and will open to the public this summer.

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We did a ton of walking this day (of course I didn't bring my tennis shoes :-/). After sky tree we headed on over to Asakusa to check out the shopping and temples. It is so pretty there.

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For lunch we had one of my favorite dishes - shrimp TEMPURA!! Yummm. It came with vegetable tempura too but I ate that up quickly and forgot to take the picture half way through, whoops. I could probably eat tempura, ramen, and sushi every single day.

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After Asakusa we headed to Ueno park. Uneo has a beautiful park full of shrines, a kiddy park, zoo, and food stalls.

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It was a wee bit too cold this spring so the Sakuras (cherry blossoms) were late to bloom. Thankfully I spotted a few.

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Below is a Takoyaki stand. Basically they are dough balls with octopus in them. Everyone over there loves them. I was too afraid to try them since I was afraid they would be too chewy (can't handle strange textures).

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These are ume blossoms (plum blossoms) similar to sakuras - but they bloom earlier and have a pinker color to them.

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After the park at Ueno we walked around the city. They have some great little shops in the area. I am saving the toy shops I stumbled upon for Toy Army Tuesday, so stay tuned. After Ueno we headed to Akihabara - aka - electric town. This part of Tokyo has all the gadgets and technology.

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I know I wrote a little bit about it before, but while we were here we went to a maid cafe. At maid cafe's the women dress in little maid costumes and cast spells on the cutesy drinks and food you order. They also lip sync and dance throughout your stay. You can also pay to take photos and play games with them. It is pretty strange. I wish my scanner worked so I could upload my photo of my friend Mike and I with one of the maids from the cafe.

So...I plan to write about each day (probably combining a few in one) for the next few days and finish by the end of next week. After that I will get back on a regular schedule - promise!

Have a lovely weekend everyone :]

44 comments:

  1. Some absolutely gorgeous photos. I'd love to go to Japan, it's definitely on my list! xx

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    1. Thank you! I hope you get there. It really is wonderful :]

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  2. Those photos are incredible!

    The red octopus is insane.

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    1. Thanks! Yeah, it looks as though they were dyed almost.

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  3. Holy crap that view over Alaska is insane! These are great pics - I'm excited for you to post more so I can travel vicariously!

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    1. Some man told me to open the window because he thought we were over Alaska, and he was right, haha. It was beautiful. Thanks :]

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  4. Waaaa this made me happy! Me and my husband just looked at this whole post. I am so excited for us to go. I'm glad you had such a great time. You have to put up Blythe pictures!!!!! :O I am really looking forward to more posts and any tips you have or things to avoid while there! :)

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    1. :]

      I am so excited for you two to go! You will love it. I promise. I will put up the Blythe photos tomorrow :]

      I don't have much on things to avoid other than the non-western style toilets. Yikes.

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  5. These pictures are great! I probably wouldn't have tried the octupus donut thing either (I cringed thinking about it) Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip!
    xx
    justyn
    thoughtsbyapetitebrunette.com

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    1. Haha. Yeah the texture I think would take some getting used to. Thanks!

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  6. Looks like so much fun, amazing photos. I cant wait to see day 2.

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  7. I can not wait to see more of these posts! My mister and I just found out we might get to travel to Japan this summer! We don't know a thing about Japan, so I'm super excited to see more of your pictures :) Looks like you had fun!
    xo Heather
    http://ahopelessnotebook.blogspot.com/

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    1. Thank you so much.
      OMG! I really hope you guys get to go. It would be an incredible and fun opportunity - promise!! I had the best time :]

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  8. ahhh looks so amazing. it is too bad the tower didn't open yet when you were visiting. the flight pictures are so amazing, i always want to touch the clouds whenever I am on the plane and walk on them but scientifically speaking i'm guessing people would fall through it. mmm tempura, ramen, and sushi, that's how i like it too. nom nom nom. i can't eat octopus/squid either. never liked that texture

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    1. Yeah it would have been incredible to look out at the view from the top. Haha. The clouds were so pretty. :] I am glad I am not alone!

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    2. btw you should def try some color on your eye i think you could pull it off or a fancy winged eye look

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    3. Thanks :] next time I am at the store I will have to pick some color up :]

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  9. These are awesome, living vicariously through them.

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  10. I love the pictures and the food looks so good, I absolutely adore tempura and ramen. I can't wait to see the other pictures to come and I can't believe you managed to stay up for the 13 hour flight, I get antsy on 3 hour flights!

    <3Honeysuckelle

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    1. Thank you! I wish I had me some tempura and ramen right now. I was pretty freaked for the first few hours of the flight...but when nothing crazy happened I sort of relaxed :]

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  11. Shut the front door! This is gorgeous! Holy moly. You are LUCKY. How much did this all cost and was it totally worth it so far?

    xo kristen

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    1. Thank you so much!

      I flew out there for free (thanks dad for your frequent flyer miles) - the cost round trip now I think is up to $1,200ish? So that helped....I also stayed with my friend for free. That also helped a TON. I just paid to get around, visit things, food, and personal shopping :] So less than half it should have cost to get there in the first place.

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  12. What amazing picures! Lady, you're really lucky!! I love that picture of the cute tiny and rustyhouses... they remind me somuch of Japan... mmmmmh ebi tenpura..oishii!!! Takoyaki is great!! Can't wait for your other pictures and stories :)

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    1. Thank you so much! The houses were so pretty. I kind of wish I had tried Takoyaki....whoops. An excuse to travel there again I suppose!

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  13. I could eat sushi everyday too and I probably would've tried the octopus balls. Such cool pictures! Did you get photos inside of the maid cafe? The pictures from the airplane are super cool. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. I probably should have tried one. I was just too afraid to waste it. Thank you! No, unfortunately I did not. Photos in maid cafe's aren't allowed - mainly so they can make money having you buy photos with them I think.

      :]

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  14. really love the photos looks like your having a really good time. Happy belated birthday btw and thank you for your lovely comment on my blog :)x

    pretty-quirky.blogspot.com

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  15. All the cherry blossom is so lovely, always love cherry blossom - so so pretty and it looks gorgeous against the blue of that sky. I agree with you about being able to eat sushi every day, shame it's so expensive over here! Can't wait to see and read the rest of your travels!

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    1. I wish more would have been in bloom, but I am glad I got to see some. It is way too expensive over here! I was buying it for $1.30 over there!!

      thank you :]

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  16. A belated happy birhtday - sorry for missing it! :)
    Thank you so much for your sweet comment about the poem I posted, it means so much you've read it and liked it! :)

    The pictures are gorgeous and the culture is so interesting! I wish I could eat sushi every day too! :D

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    1. No worries! Thank you so much!!!

      :] It was a great poem and post.


      Thank you, and I completely agree. :]

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  17. Beautiful pictures, Allison. You have a great camera, especially seen in that Sky Tree photo - wow! I like how this was an educational post too, haha, I didn't know the actual Japanese word for Cherry Blossoms...now I do. :)
    And omg those octopus dough balls wouldn't be a hit for me either as chewy or funky textures just make me gag. And gagging is embarrassing and rude. lol
    I can't wait for all the trip posts AND to see what toys you picked up!

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    1. Thank you so much!! I am glad my camera finally got some real use. :] I am glad I could share some new info with you.

      Haha, totally agree with you. I can't even handle gummy worms because you have to chew them too long and force em down - yuck.

      :]

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  18. I could stare at pictures for hours of Japan, the culture is so awesome! Ume Blossoms? I didn't know the name either. What a view from the plane!!

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    1. I love learning about their culture. Seeing it and experiencing it first hand was wonderful. :]

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  19. That tempura looks so good, seriously one of my favorite foods too! I can't wait to read about the rest of your trip!

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    1. I wish I had somewhere near me that made good tempura. I miss it. thanks :]

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  20. That looks like so much fun. The pictures are stunning and I love the shot of Alaska from the plane. Beautiful!

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    1. It was! Thank you so much. I really want to go to Alaska now after seeing it from above :]

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  21. Ha dude okay. A couple of things:
    Have you ever tried ume vinaigrette dressing? It's AWESOME. And the maid thing is sooo weird! I could only imagine a few things I'd be caught dead doing before dressing up like a maid and lip syncing for customers.

    Weird.

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    1. No I have not!! I am intrigued now. I will have to look around the grocery store next time.

      It is so weird. I think it is mainly for men to get some attention....but there were quite a lot of ladies too. So who knows.

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