Arigato! Arigato!

We arrived in Tokyo safe and sound and right away realized how organized and intelligent these people are. If only the world could be like Toyko, it would be such a great place!

We checked in at our hotel at around 6pm and had aspirations to go out and see the town, but were super jet lagged and ended up crashing!

The next day we had a tour booked to visit Tokyo. We went to the Meiji Shinto Shrine this was quite a nice experience, we felt so much at peace walking away from the urban metropolis of Tokyo into the Shinto shrine (which is surrounded by a man made park with extremely tall trees). Next we went to see the Imperial Palace, commoners are only allowed into the palace twice a year, so we could only visit it from the outside. It was really nice. Next we went to the Sensoji Buddhist Temple (in Asakusa) our tour guide had really good english and was able to give us lots of historical information about the Shinto religion vs. the Buddhist religion. The Shinto religion is indegineous to Japan (only exists here) Whereas the Buddhist religion came to Japan through India, China and then Korea. After visiting the Senso Ji Temple we walked through the market and had some teppanyaki chicken and noodles (this was very yummy!) I also bought a kimono! it is really pretty.

The tour ended in the Ginza area where we did some window shopping, checked out the Sony Showroom (where they had the newest Sony electronics that we could actually test out). Then we headed to Akhihabara which is the electronics district in Tokyo. We went to this crazy store called Yodobashi, which is like 9 floors of electronics. It was a little too overwhelming for us, but still intersting to see!

The next day we decided to escape the hustle and bustle of Tokyo, we headed to Mt Fuji & Hakone. This was a very relaxing day. We went up to the 5th station of Mt Fuji (which is approx 8000 ft altitude). Unfortunately it was too cloudy and foggy and we couldn't see much. We then went on pirate boat cruise on lake Ashi, took the hakone sky gondola (where we saw breathtaking views of Mt. Fuji and the volcanic Hakone mountains). We took some great pics with our new camera, which both Nads and I are thoroughly enjoying.

Today is our last day in Tokyo. This morning we visited the Shibuya district which is like a youth area. Meena we checked out Shibuya 109, but the styles were way too teeny bopper for me. LOL. We also we to Shinjuku the busiest train station in the world (apparently) It was crazy busy.

We are now waiting for our shuttle bus to the airport from our hotel.

Some interesting observations from us about Tokyo:

1) We are the only brown people here and get stared at often.
2) Nadeem believes he is the tallest and largest man in Tokyo, besides the Sumo wrestlers of course.
3) We are too scared to try the sushi, we have stuck mostly to the grilled foods
4) People here are always dressed "smart" as my mom would say. People are always in suits and always look great.
5) I never realized how many of the best brands come from Japan! We found out that Canon is named after the Japanese goddess of Mercy.

We're off. Will write next from Thailand!! Bangkok is our next stop!