hanging around tokyo

let’s be honest.. i loved tokyo. it wasn’t exactly what i thought tokyo would be.. probably better than what i expected, which is always a nice surprise! tokyo is HUGE and comprised of many districts.. reminded me A LOT of new york, which was fine by me! :) the first couple nights we stayed at the marriott in ginza, which is a popular shopping district. it is compared to new york’s fifth avenue, which basically means window shopping :) i did buy some clothes at H&M though! it had just opened in october.. good timing for us! i was sad there weren’t a lot of accessories like in the states, but the clothes made up for it.. a lot of cute stuff to try on! while walking around, we realized that almost everyone was in dark suits (for the men) and dresses with boots/heels (for the women). i felt a tad underdressed!finding dinner in ginza was an adventure within itself. every restaurant we found only had japanese writing on the menus.. we weren’t used to that! after looking and looking, we finally ended up at quizno’s haha.
friday morning before we switched hotels, we went to this adorable little coffee shop called tully’s.. yummy breakfast bagels! AND cute holiday cups.. they always put me in the christmas spirit :) we then did a little more shopping by going to gap.. in the dressing rooms they give you these face masks so you don’t get makeup on the clothes.. good idea! i found out what is was AFTER i tried on my clothes though haha. as we were walking around the district killing time before we needed to get on the subway to our next hotel, we noticed this ginormous line outside a department store.. there was a sign that said christmas fair and it was the day after thanksgiving, so we assumed it was for that (the long line looked like the ones in the states). NOPE. we of course had to go peek and see what all the fuss was about and found out it was for a little window next to the department store. turns out it was for the lotto!!! it was crazy.. i seriously should have taken a picture of it.
after laughing from shock (i’m still in awe thinking about it now!), we picked up our luggage from the marriott and made our way to.. drum roll please.. the ritz-carlton. it was my first time staying at a ritz hotel and now i’m spoiled :) adrienne got a really good deal because her brother works for the hotel in the states, so we got to live in luxury for a couple days without spending all our money haha. the subway was literally right next to the hotel and there was a starbucks between the two.. good location :)the hotel is in the biggest building in tokyothe lobbywhen we first walked in the building, we realized we had to go all the way up to the 45th floor (my ears popped every time!!!) to get to the lobby to check-in! it definitely makes sense because the view was gorgeous!! we were enthusiastically greeted by two ladies after we checked in.. one was even wearing a kimono! we went up to the 50th floor to our room, and after they asked if our room temperature was okay and left, one of the managers (i think for rooms) came in to personally greet adrienne and her guest (alison had to wait so they didn’t know three people were staying in the room, and she was on her own little adventure trying to find our room haha). adrienne thinks that they thought she was an employee for the ritz in the states since she did get the employee discount.. it was funny to see all the attention she was getting from the staff! our room was lovely. the bathroom was HUGE (with a tv!), the view was breathtaking, the bed was heavenly, and the slippers and robe were delightful :) we had fun trying to get the three of us in a picture with the view in the background.. didn’t work out too well haha, so we ended up having to take individual pictures too. the background looks fake doesn’t it?!the bathroom! there was another little room (like the shower) for the toilet (oh japanese toilets.. so many buttons!), and even space for a huge tub, and a little flat screen tvbetween the two beds was a little control panel to control all the lights and shade on the window.. think of the movie, the holiday.. the shades were just like that!after having some fun seeing all the goodies in our hotel room, we explored the district to find some food for lunch. i was excited when we found out there was a hard rock café that was walking distance!! food was good.. we were more fascinated with the music videos though haha.. music on tv that is in english?? it’s been a while!! :) we even had the pleasure of watching aerosmith’s video for “janie’s got a gun” while we were eating.. watching the blood splatter was a perfect addition to our meal :)we browsed some shops on the way back to our hotel.. there are some random stores! i kind of already knew that though haha. one store i did love was the pet shop.. all the adorable little puppies looking out the window at you! i of course fell in love with one of the puppies (well i fell in love with all of them, but this one more than the others haha) and if i had $1600 i would have taken her home with me!! she was sleeping the first time i saw her, but the second time (and third haha.. i’m not obsessed! the restaurants we went to for lunch each day passed the pet shop) she was playing around and loved getting her picture taken! isn’t she a cutie!! i need to find out what kind of dog she is so i can get one when i come back to the states!after lunch on friday and saturday we went to tokyo disneyland and disneysea. that will be in another blog because i won’t have enough room for that too!
saturday for lunch we went to outback! yay for american restaurants! i had scrumptious lamp chops.. soo good! we saved room for dessert at… GOLDEN SPOON! yes.. we found a golden spoon in tokyo!! we were sooo excited!!! they probably thought we were crazy for taking our picture in front of the sign haha. they even have these cute little to-go bags to keep your frozen yogurt cold!when we came back to the hotel, we found out our room was still being cleaned.. let's just say we had some fun in the hallway while we waited :)sunday we were planning on getting up around 8 am to get ready, repack our suitcases (they were a mess!), and hang out at starbucks before we had to leave on the subway for the airport. alison was our little alarm clock because she never sleeps in, so adrienne thought we wouldn’t need an alarm clock. well, with the shades down and NO LIGHT coming in, it always felt like it was still super early when i would first wake up. it wasn’t! haha.. it was almost 10am! alison got up at 7:30 am and went back to sleep, but because of those shades, she slept longer than 8 haha. it wasn’t a problem though.. still got everything packed and went to starbucks to enjoy christmas music and debrief on our trip. realized all the christmas stuff and familiarity (like disneyland.. even though it wasn’t exactly like california’s) made me homesick. glad it’s almost christmas! :)
after a little confusion on the subway (we would finally have a problem on the subway when it is time to get to the airport haha) we made it to the airport (by the by.. japan doesn’t check IDs!! and you don’t have to take your shoes off through security!! it’s crazy) and had a relaxing flight home. i was excited to see mt fuji from the airplane because it was too far/cloudy to see it from the hotel and tokyo tower.goodbye mainland japan!tokyo was amazing and full of memories and laughs. a trip i will always remember :) okay.. one more post left about tokyo.. disneyland and disneysea!!