On The Go – Day 11 & 12

I know….

I’m cheating again..

Doing two days in one post.

Sorry, but this “walking around Japan” thing is exhausting. I know this might not be a big number for some of you, but averaging about 19,000 steps a day, burning an extra 1500 calories leaves a man a little run down by the time I hit the room at night.

And then it’s up and out the next morning.

But we are having a good time.

The best part is:

Amelia and I cohabitate real well. We have a similar sense of humor, like similar foods, enjoy similar things.

For example: we were getting some pastries for later in the day, and she realized that this one was filled with custard. So, she gets one and then realized that it was still warm.

Suddenly she started laughing out loud, right there in the middle of the street.

“What?” I asked.

“Hot Custard. That’s my stripper name.”

Then she started making jokes that were just as inappropriate which had us both laughing even harder.

Later, we were heading back to the room and she reminded me that she wanted me to try octopus balls (which has been an ongoing joke on its own).

Now, although I said I would, I admit to not being all too excited about it.

So I asked:

“Do the balls come with sauce? I think I’m going to need sauce”.

To which she answered:

“Yes! The balls come with sauce.”

And then added:

“…that could be your stripper name: ‘Saucy Balls’”

And we started laughing all over again.

Like both of my girls, thankfully, we’re a good match together.

Naturally each one brings a little something different to the table, and I love each of them for who they are.

So these two days were spent doing two entirely different things.

Monday was an official rest day. Which means we went shopping and looking for newer and better things to eat and then took a nap, followed by more shopping and eating. Still just as many steps, and just as exhausting, but we get a nap.

The second day we spent going to see the imperial palace.

Unfortunately, by the time we got all the way there we discovered that it was closed for the day.

But what was interesting about our trip to see the palace was how different the areas of Tokyo turned out to be.The area that we’re staying In is nice, but it’s more focused on tourists.

There are restaurants everywhere, and convenient marts everywhere, and flashing lights and signs and advertisements everywhere.

Prostitution, I’m told, is legal and there are those areas where you could guess what some of these establishments do. There is a common practice I’m told where you can pay a fee and a person of your choice will be a ‘host’ for you. This involves accompanying you walking around, paying attention to you, saying nice things, etcetera.

Suffice it to say the area we’re staying in is on and active constantly.

When we took the train to see the imperial palace that took us to the center of Tokyo. This is also where all of the Japanese government buildings are housed.

On this side of town there are no flashing lights or billboards. On this side of town there are no hosts. On this side of town everything is pristine and clean all the time. There are no convenience stores and very few restaurants if any. Whereas our side of town is constantly on and alive, this side of town was extremely laid back and conservative.

It was a shocking difference.

In spite of the fact that we didn’t see the palace we had an interesting experience seeing another side of Japan and having the opportunity to explore and to learn more about this very interesting country.

So we took the train back to our hotel, took a quick break, and then headed out for another adventure.

Our afternoon Adventure was a bit more successful and exciting.

I was looking for a specific gift for a family member. I thought it would be nice to find some antique vintage clothing which I thought would be perfect for this person I wanted to buy something for.

It just so happens that Tokyo has a whole section of town that specializes in vintage clothing shops.

Needless to say I had a good time looking at all kinds of interesting little shops selling all kinds of what they considered to be classic clothing.

We ended up finding exactly what we were looking for and more, and found the perfect restaurant for dinner on the way home.

After stuffing my face with this amazing fried noodle concoction that Amelia recommended, we went back to our room, fat and happy and called it a day.