東京！

Apparently, two weeks in warmer climates ( I spent mine Down Under and Jamie was in Hawaii) wasn't enough vacation for the two of us, so we packed some bags and headed to Tokyo for 4 days before returning to the druggery of school.

Important places on the itinerary included: Tokyo Disneyland/Disney Sea, the Great Buddha of Kamakura, Harajuku, and Yokohama/Chinatown.

Day 1. Left Fukuoka. We were two of about four people on the plane not wearing a black business suit. Checked into our hotel, and went straight to Disneyland. Bought our two day Adventure Passes. There is no park hopping in Japan. You buy the pass and have to tell them which day you want to go to each park.

Why thank you! I am happy to be here. :-D

Excellent travel coordinator that she is, Jamie had looked up the opening hours of both parks before we left. Both parks were open longer on Saturday, and we were debating which one we should spend more time at. Thankfully we decided to stick to the original plan, which was Friday afternoon at Disneyland and Saturday morning at Disney Sea. Friday was grey and misty, which definitely cut down on the number of the people at the park. The longest line we waited in was for the Winnie the Pooh ride, and that took only about 25 mins.

Goofing around in Toon Town. Everything was wet, so I couldn't really sit down!

Sadly, due to the drizzle, the Electric Ligtht Parade was canceled. As the park closed, we made our way back to the station area for some dinner and shopping at the New Year's sales.

Day 2. Up and at 'em somewhat early, since we had a lot to fit in. I was the only foreigner at our hotel's "viking" (all you can eat buffet) breakfast, but it was a nice sunny day and we were on our way back to the Disney Resort. Today we hopped on the Mickey Mouse Monorail to get to Disney Sea. This was not a free ride however, and cost us $5 round trip! From the monorail, we saw that we had made the right choice by sticking to our original plan. The ground at the entrance to Disneyland was hardly visible through the crowd of people! But when we rounded the bend to Disney Sea, we were greeted by a large swath of pavement and maybe 6 people in line at the ticket counter.

Just inside the entrance, most of the characters were out in their sparkly 25th Anniversary outfits, so we had to stop for some pictures. Here I am with the perpetually pantless Donald Duck.

We worked our way around the park counter clockwise, starting in the "Little Mermaid Lagoon", then heading to the "Arabian Coast", the "Lost River Delta" (South America?), and the "American Waterfront" before arriving back near the entrance and the "Mediterranean Harbor." Sadly, the Indiana Jones ride was closed, but we did go on a tiny rollercoaster with a 360 degree loop! I also got to experience the aquatic version of my favorite childhood ride at Disneyland--Aquatopia!

At the "Arabian Coast", before riding on the 2 story Aladdin carousel, I made my impulse souvenier purchase. Every kid we saw was walking around with either some large eared hat or a plastic popcorn bucket around their neck, and I really wanted to fit in. So I paid $13 for a collapsible, collectible, Mickey Mouse New Year's bucket filled with black pepper flavored popcorn. I really felt like my Disney trip was complete!

C'mon! Act your age, not your (American) shoe size! [This pithy saying is pretty useless in Japan, since shoe sizes range from 22-30]

Our last stop before heading out of the park and on to other adventures was a pastry shop for some sweets and coffee. We sat in some glorious sunshine and enjoyed our snack. While we may have had to pay for the monorail, I was somewhat shocked to realize that my cake and coffee cost less at Disneyland than it does at Starbucks. I guess I always knew Starbucks was a rip-off, but worse than Disneyland?!?!

Sadly we told the man at the gate we wouldn't be needing our hands stamped for re-entry and went on our way. Our last image of the wonderful world of Disney was this talented street sweeper.

We hopped back on the train into the city and got off at Kappabashi Dori, the place to go if you ever wanted to open a restaurant in Tokyo...or just wanted light up ice cream cones, industrial sized sieves and plastic display food for your own kitchen. It was fascinating!! I was a little disappointed that there were not more "sample" stores of plastic food, but the ones we did see had some amazing offerings.

Resistance is futile, you just can't ignore delicious looking plastic food! The displays outside have lured me into many a restaurant here in Japan.

Tiny sushi to hang on your cell phone!

Large illuminated soft cream cones!

After walking up and down the block, we got back on the train and headed to Harajuku for more shopping! Harajuku was definitely crowded, but not quite the fashion parade I had expected, due to the winter weather. Friends have gone in June and said it's a much crazier place.

The main street, whose sign is obscured by the holiday balloon display. (Which, if Harajuku is anything like Kurume, is still up. The giant Christmas tree outside Nishitetsu Kurume station is still up in mid February as I write this!)

Apart from people watching and crepe eating, our main goal in Harajuku was to visit one of Japan's two new H&M stores. (For those of you who don't know, H&M is the IKEA of clothing, and since it's not a Japanese company it actually carries sizes that run into double digits!) The fact that it took us a while to find is kind of sad, when you actually see the size of the building:

But to be fair, we were on the same side of the street. Like my first ever trip to H&M in Pasadena, CA it was a little overwhelming. The Harajuku store had 3 floors of just women's clothing. Not a whole lot was on sale, but it didn't have to be. Compared to other Japanese clothing stores, it was pretty cheap. I took a whole pile of things into the dressing room with me, but ended up only buying a pair of black pants suitable for work.

We shopped 'til we dropped, ate some delicious champon near our hotel and went to sleep.

Sideways champon. I uploaded it twice, yet it insists on defying gravity.

Day 3 we left the Tokyo city limits in search of a giant Buddha and mouthwatering nikuman.

First up was the Daibutsu of Kamakura. The train to Kamakura was really crowded, as were the small streets near the station. We walked along with the crowd until we realized they were not heading where we wanted to go. We circled back to the station and got on a bus. Disembarking and the appropriate stop, I was sort of expecting a bit of a walk into the hills to see the giant Buddha. But no, once you are thru the gate and turn the corner, there he is about 100 yards of neatly raked gravel away from you!

Contemplating the little visitors.

Not so giant now, are we?!?

Frankly, as large statues go, this famous Daibutsu ranked 3rd on my list. The big wooden Buddha in Nara is much more imposing, and having lived in the shadow of the giagantic white Narita-san for 18 months, the Kamakura Daibutsu looks puny. He hardly shows above the trees and could never be used as a navigational beacon like my Narita-san.

On our way to our next stop, we partook in some excessive snacking that pretty much rendered lunch unnecessary. In retrospect, one beni-imo croquet would have been a sufficient snack (no need to add the dango and the ice cream).

Next up, Yokohama, a giant city that serves as a suburb of Tokyo. We arrived in Yokohama a bit earlier than we had planned, since after viewing the Buddha, there wasn't actually that much to do in Kamakura. And since we had just eaten a lot of snacks, we weren't quite ready to hit up Chinatown yet. Conveniently located right outside of Yokohama station is Landmark Tower, the tallest building for miles around, full of shops, restaurants, a hotel and of course, and observation deck! Oddly enough, it was sunny and we decided to go up. To get to the observation floor, we rode on the world's fastest elevator. It was a lot like every other elevator I have ever ridden, except I did notice that my ears popped!

From the top, one can see the harbour, some mountains including Fuji-san in the distance obscured by clouds, and miles and miles and miles of concrete jungle filling all the space between the water and the mountains. Incredible.

Slightly out of place chandelier and miles of cityscape.

After descending the tower, we hopped on the quiet subway to Chukagai, or Chinatown. We were greeted by some large gates.

Only about a block in, we stopped for our nikuman (steamed pork dumpling) at one of the places with the longest line. They were a bit expensive at $5 each, but they were huge!! And so fresh from the steamer we could barely hold them.

Clearly we weren't the only people looking for steamy, flavorful goodness.

We checked out the cheap-ish Chinese imports and tried to decide where to eat dinner. Every restaurant looked about the same, so we had a little difficultly choosing. I think we ended up at the one we ate at mostly because we were tired of walking. The food was pretty good, but since I had already eaten sooooooo much, it kind of just added to the misery. It was straight back to the hotel for us!

Day 4. Our last day, and given the packed agenda and overeating of the previous three, we opted for a morning at the Tokyo National Museum before heading to the airport to catch our plane back to Fukuoka. The National Museum is very reasonably priced and houses a massive collection of artifacts from Japan and other Asian countries.

The main gallery which houses a series of rooms that chronicle Japanese art through the ages. They rotate the displays regularly to show off the many, many pieces in their collection.

And the parting image from our Tokyo trip is this elaborate kadomatsu, (New Year's decoration made of bamboo and pine fronds) at the National Museum.

Happy "Moo" Year!!!