Tokyo Recap - Part 1

*yawn*

Hey guys! Excuse my tiredness, I woke up at 3:30 this afternoon. Not because I'm lazy, but because I am trying to get my wacky sleep schedule on track.

Our flight from Tokyo on Thursday left at Noon, arrived at LAX at 7:30 that same Thursday morning. We totally went back in time!

The flight from LAX to SeaTac left at 10am and we arrived in Seattle around Noon-ish. Then our friend picked us up and drove us all the way home. I think total travel time was something like 16 hours (including the layover in LA). Aaron and I took a power nap, but didn't actually go to bed until the wee hours of Friday morning.

Enough about sleep, though, I want to show you some of the pictures we took! These Tokyo Recap posts are going to be picture heavy, so please bare with me.

Our hotel was located a few blocks away from Senjo-ji Temple and it's gates.

Kaminarimon is the first thing you see when going to Senso-ji. It's biggest feature is the red lantern in the center. I just love how big the lantern is!





The details on the gate and statues are incredible. I'm so glad we took these pictures the night we arrived in Tokyo because the next morning this area was packed full of people taking pictures.

When you pass through Kaminarimon, you arrive at Nakamise-dori. It's the street located in the middle of the two gates, and is full of shops. During the day this street is lively and full of fun sights, sounds, and smells. At night it is brightly lit so you can see the beautiful Japanese paintings on each of the stall doors.




I "leveled up" my Japanese speaking skills at one of these shops. At a cute toy shop I found a Totoro pin I wanted to buy my sister. The two little old ladies who ran the shop were very surprised with how well I spoke when I asked to buy it. "Jouzu!" (great job!) they said with surprised and happy looks on their faces. Then I proceeded to knock things over with my American hips and dropped by coins over and over and over again. They kept telling me "daijoubu, daijoubu" (It's ok, don't worry about it) with gentle smiles and a comforting tone. Good times.

After Nakamise-dori is Hozomon, the inner gate that leads to Senso-ji Temple.



Again, the detail on the gate was incredible! I'm pretty sure we stood and stated at each of the gates for and easy 10 minutes. They are just so beautiful.

A short walk from Hozomon is Senso-ji Temple. The brilliant colors on the temple are a sight to see. The red, gold, and black are lit up at night and are just a marvel to look at.





We didn't end up going up to the temple because we were nervous and didn't know the proper etiquette. Temple etiquette is a very serious thing in Japan and we didn't want to be disrespectful. Plus, there was fairly long line to get up to the temple so we figured we'd do it some other time.

*yawn* I think this is going to be all the pictures I can muster up for tonight. Time for some dinner and a movie I think. I'll be posting more pictures and more about our adventures over the next few days. Nite!