Week 5

 Week 5
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Where We Went: Tokyo and Kyoto

First Moment Here:  Leaving Shibuya Station you’re dumped into the busiest pedestrian intersection in Asia where everyone crosses in every direction.  It’s called the “Times Square” of Asia.  This was our first moment here, and looking back it’s hilarious to think of our overtired selves, dragging suitcases back and forth as we searched for our airbnb during rush hour.  Check out the video I took crossing Shibuya Crossing.

Funniest Thing We Did:  Going through immigration at Narita Airport you have to write your destination, aka hotel address, and all we have are Japanese characters…so Chelsea redrew them on the immigration form and after having taken us out of line, the official laughed out loud and waved us through.  Still wondering what I actually wrote.

Craziest Thing We Did:  Riding bikes through Kyoto, luckily we made it out alive.  No rules, weaving in and out of pedestrians and other bikes coming your way fearlessly while busses rush by.  X 10 miles.

Best Thing We Did:  Robot Restaurant…BY FAR!  This was the craziest hour of our trip so far, which left us both totally speechless.  Can’t even describe it, other than to say, you must go.

Tastiest Thing We Did:  We went to a Ramen place without cash, had to leave to go find an ATM, come back and “fed the machine” where you select what you want, pay and receive a ticket before being seated in your own booth.  Then, you’re served the best ramen.  We had ramen for breakfast and can’t wait to go back to this place when we pass through Tokyo on our way to China.
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Dumbest Thing We Did:  Right road.  Wrong direction.  Chelsea took us on a wonderful bike ride in the absolute wrong direction of our destination.  3 1/2 hours after we left our airbnb, we were back at our airbnb without having reached Monkey Park.  

Biggest Thing We Learned:  The standard Japanese bike is slightly smaller than Adam requires.

Biggest Surprise:  How much the Japanese SMOKE.  More than once, we saw a dude with his mask pulled down sucking on a cigarette.

Mystery Solved:  We finally figured out what the jelly looking paste served with various types of bread at breakfast was…any guesses??…red bean paste.

​Other Updates:

• Chelsea hasn’t worn makeup since we left Atlanta five weeks ago
• Adam got to have his first cup of noodles in Japan and since then, we’ve eaten about a dozen
• We’ve already thrown out 10 of the things we brought with us to lighten the load
• Clothes line is coming in handy as we do laundry about every two days (with no dryer!)
• Travel yoga mat has been used each and every day.  Today was the first day Chelsea woke up after the sun… a record 6:09 am!
• Adam’s still complaining about being fat and tall in Japan