March 22, 2009 Day 4: Rainy Tokyo

Sunday we woke up at our normal time of 4:45 a.m. We woke up again around 8, this time to rain. Cold, drizzly rain.

We managed to get to the Asakusa district for the historic temples and such. We kind of found ourselves smack dab in the middle of the Tokyo Marathon -oops - so lots of streets were roped off.

I went to Starbucks (U-S-A!) to get American ko-hi. There are coffee shops all over Japan, especially in the big cities. And thank GOD for that. This was a major concern before we embarked on our trip. So if you want "American" coffee, just ask for ko-hi (ko-hee).

We saw the pagoda's and the Buddhist temples. We saw a street vendor selling chocolate covered frozen bananas. We saw an advertisement that reminded us of our best friend we left at home. who does this look like?

That night we met up with Rikki and had dinner at a traditional izakaya. Shoes off, sitting in the floor (kind of?), lots of fried meats, seafood, jumbo garlic.

Rikki also introduced me to Uniqlo, which is kind of like the Gap and H&M combined. I actually think one is opening up in New York City, how about that? So I was determined to find this Uniqlo in Ginza (the 'flagship').

Ginza is nice. I guess we could have skipped it since my closet has met it's Louis Vuitton and Chanel quota of '0'. I'm sure this is an interesting place to stroll around in the dry daylight, but it was late and pouring. And we didn't have an umbrella. So we were left to hop around like the Frogger... from awning to awning. I think some of the Japanese girls felt bad for us. But we did find that Uniqlo and I ended up buying exactly 1 shirt.

P.S. Trying on clothing in Japan is stressful. I received a stern look when I went into the dressing room with my shoes still on my feet. So make sure to remove your shoes before you enter the dressing rooms.