asia - day 3 - a bite of the city
our first full day in tokyo started out with a gorgeous morning view of tokyo tower. i could get used to waking up to a view. a view and a nespresso.
we headed up a few floors to enjoy a buffet breakfast overlooking the city and helped ourselves to plates and plates of food. i have a real thing for dainty miniature sandwiches. i could have eaten a truckload of them.
as we left the hotel, i spied these umbrella lockers. the style in japan is to use those long umbrellas - everyone has them!
we walked and shot and walked and shot. how i miss sandal season.
eventually, we got to where i wanted to go: the tsukiji fish market. i had wanted to go early, like at 6 a.m., but of course it didn't happen. i think we got there at around 10 a.m., which was pretty late considering i had been awake since 4 a.m. we missed most of the action but still got to see the fish vendors. of all the fish we saw, i liked the big eyed fish the most. we tried looking for fugu but it was nowhere to be found.
we were a little peckish after walking around so we tried a little sushi place in an alleyway just outside the fish market. this is what vince had been waiting for all year - sushi in japan. we had high expectations. the sushi was good but nothing too special. until we realized the price. i should have clued in when i ordered and the sushi chef very pointedly pointed out the price to me but i was a newbie and my conversion was rusty. we had 11 pieces of sushi and paid about $50 CDN. yikes!
after our snack, we headed to ginza, a super busy shopping district, which was far from super busy that day. on our way, we tried a new drink from one of the many vending machines and a sesame flavoured donut from a fancy donut shop. with a little moisturizer, vince could be a hand model, don't you think?
when we got to ginza, we window shopped the glitzy stores. i was eager to go to mikimoto, as i had gotten it in my head that a pair of simple pearl earrings would be a perfect souvenir for our trip. thank goodness i looked at the prices before going inside because i nearly screamed when i saw them. 
we headed over to the international forum, which reminded me a little of bce place, now brookfield place.
then we did a whole bunch of random stuff that got us really tired so we had to have a nap in a nearby park. eventually, the heat and our thirst drove us to find cold drinks. oddly enough, at this time, there was nary a vending machine in sight. we thought about heading back to the hotel because we were so tired but we (i?) decided to press on. there was a japanese garden that i wanted to check out and since we had come so far already...
the garden was beautiful but mosquito infested! i was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. can you count how many bites i have on the back of my legs alone? i will reveal the number of bites vince and i counted the next morning in my day 4 post.
the strange thing about this garden was that it was right next to an amusement park. so as you pondered your existance, you could hear kids screaming on the roller coaster right next door. plus in the pretty ponds, you could see reflections of ugly skyscrapers. hardly my idea of a zen paradise. even still, the garden was lovely. after the garden, we got another drink from yet another vending machine. this one was yummy too.
for dinner, we had curry again but this time chicken or pork curry with brown sauce and rice. we ordered from a vending machine inside the restaurant - took us a while to figure it out - and sat at a bar upstairs to eat. i had no idea what we were eating because the menu was entirely in japanese but it was good. vince in particular loved the food.
after dinner, we walked to the electronics district and vince drooled over cell phones and cameras. then it was finally time to head back to the hotel. this weary traveller took a photo of the lighted trees outside our hotel but just of the bokeh and then we retired to our rooms to enjoy our half bottle of free champagne.
