R&R

Today we just lounged about Bon and Lupo's apt. We've been on the move every day since we left so we needed the rest :)

We watched a movie, played with Samjin (so cute!), did some laundry, went grocery shopping and cooked dinner. We're about to eat it! :D

We're going to go out to a bar tonight to hang out*, and then maybe go to a beach tomorrow somewhere east of Jinju for the day. 

As for now, good morning New York, and we'll post again soon!

*No bar, just chillin at the apt! We had a good dinner and drank a LOT of beer :)

We met Ana and Mike's friend Alexis. Here are some photos!

p.s. Egg is going to blog too!

Groceries!

Dinner!

Drinks + Super Dog!

Eggie even gets guitar lessons!

Keepin' up with the Jones'

So the past several days have been pretty jam-packed. We hiked up (part of) Mt. Fuji after a bus took us up just shy of 7,000ft. When we returned back to Tokyo we hung out in Shinjuku for a bit then hit the sack.
Yesterday we all split up to do our own thing, being the last day we were in Tokyo. John went back to Akihibara to buy some electronic goods, Evan, Linda and I went to the imperial gardens where we walked around for hours. We only walked around the east garden, as it took several hours just to get around it. The entire imperial grounds would need at least one day of non-stop walking.
Afterwards we went to Shibuya to do some last minute shopping (mostly for Linda to go back to some record shops). We had some dinner, went to a punk bar (no live music though) and then went back to the hostel around midnight to pack.

This morning was amazing - we went to the Tokyo fish market to get some fresh fish for breakfast. The size of the market would put any in the states to shame. Row upon row of fish vendors, fish heads, octopus legs, eels, squid, giant tuna... whatever you want you could easily find.
We stopped off at one of the market eateries for some fresh tuna - wow - I don't think i'll ever have fish as good again! For 1,400Yen (about $13.50) we had a giant bowl of tuna and tuna roe on rice with miso soup and pickles - a typical Japanese breakfast. So good!!!

Then it was back to the hostel to shower and check out - off to Kyoto!
The train was pretty quick, only 2 hours from Tokyo. When we got to our new hostel we were pleasantly surprised - swanky! We have a Japanese-style room, so we sleep on mats on the floor. The AC works wonderfully (not so much in Tokyo!) and the internet is much faster. Everything here is pretty hi-tech.

We walked around the city for the remainder of the day, getting acquainted with our new neighborhood (for the next 2 days) and surrounding areas. We went to Gion, the Geisha district first. VERY touristy, "Gaishen" as they say here (it means "foreigner"). We've actually learned some pretty useful Japanese words so it's getting easier to order in restaurants and ask for directions.
We went to one of the famous theaters to see some traditional Japanese theater and music. It started out with a tea ceremony which I was picked to be in! I got to eat some tea cakes (sweet wafers) and was served freshly made green tea by a Geisha. We saw a puppet show, dancing, comedic play and some flower arranging. Really beautiful!

We left Gion to walk around downtown. Let me tell you - after Tokyo, nothing will ever be as big or bright. Downtown Kyoto looks like a watered-down Shinjuku.
Kyoto has a overwhelming amount of shrines and temples, and it's easy to get so called "temple-fatigue". We've picked 4 that we really want to check out, so we plan to rent some bicycles tomorrow and explore.

I can't upload any pictures right now, but rest assured, they will come soon!
For now, we're off to bed!

Can you take me to funky town?

Today we went to Togo Shrine which has one of the more well known flea markets. Tokyo has some great flea markets every week; individual markets run at different times of the month, so you can usually fine one or two to visit during your stay. Togo Shrine flea market runs every 1st and 4th Sunday of the month - unfortunately it didn't run today! :(
But! It was ok because we went to Hirajuku!!! :D

Hirajuku is like the St. Marks st of NYC, just way bigger and way cooler! There were some AMAZING clothing stores so I was definitely in my element! (We won't discuss how many bags I left with :) ) Most people here where clothing with english words on them, and it's pretty funny to see what some of them say... like "get back dad"! haha

Evan, Linda and I shared this great dessert while shopping: a crepe, topped with whatever topping you choose (we had whipped cream, strawberries and cheesecake), rolled up into a cone like ice cream! It was deeeeeeeeeeelicious!

After all that shopping we went looking for some real food and took the train over to the Shibuya district. One great thing about Japanese restaurants is that they all have fake dishes outside the restaurants to show what foods they serve. Unlike Japanese restaurants in America, these restaurants have specialties, so certain restaurants will serve only sushi, while others will serve noodles like Udon and Soba, and others Tempura, etc.
Also, I used my first Japanese-style toilet today... it's just a hole on the floor that you squat over!
Shibuya has some great music stores, so we stopped by RECOfan, a store one of Linda's friends said we should check out. I'll let her tell you more about that.
I picked out some Japanese band's records to check out. Hopefully they'll be good!
I left a little present behind, if you can catch it in one of the photos... ;)

Anyhow, We just got back from the bar downstairs next to our hostel. We met some people and had a few drinks. Now it's time for bed. :)

"you're just like the teacher at storytime!"

Evan keeps showing us pictures of mines in this book he's looking at. Marble and Granite and Limestone oh my!

We drove around LA for the most of the day today. John had to run some really boring errands so he took his cool car and did them without us to spare us the monotony (thanks john!) so the rest of us took to the rental car and did some exploring.
We drove to Amoeba Records, Mann's Chinese theater (where they were setting up for the X-Files movie premiere tonight), and through some really awesome neighborhoods in the hills until we fortuitously stumbled upon Mulholland drive. There was a turnoff into a national park / trail area that lead us to the peaks of the Hollywood Hills where we could see all of LA. It was quite scenic, unfortunately pictures can't capture the grandiosity of it. I feel like we're going to run into that problem a lot.
We dropped Danny off at the train station a little while ago after grabbing some dinner. He's going to San Diego to visit his brother! He'll probably still be applying suntan lotion every 20 mins or so. haha whitey. (yea, whatever, I'm not that white.)
We're going to bed pretty early tonight and are going to try and wake up early, around 5 or 6am, to go running, shower, pack and eat so we can get to the airport by 9am or so. Our flight for Tokyo takes off at 11:40am, and we don't actually arrive in Tokyo until 3pm on FRIDAY! AHHHHH!!!!!
But it's actually only 11 hours or so across the pacific. We will hopefully sleep on the plane for a bit and just stay up until 10 or 11pm on Friday, Tokyo-time (they're 13 hours ahead of NY).
Probability of blogging is low these next couple of days. I will hopefully be able to share some pictures of Japan if I can log in at the hostel. Until then, here are some pics from the later part of today!

Everyone smells like the beach!

We landed in LA last night around 8:30. Our plane had disco lights throughout the flight, and dance music played in the bathroom! Anyway...
John, Danny and Evan picked us up from the airport! John took us out to the best sushi restaurant in LA... and it was super good!
Afterwards we went back to his place and dropped our stuff off, then John took us for a drive in his Jeep Wrangler around LA. (Linda was scared! haha)
We drove up Mulholland drive to a lookout point where you could see the entire city of LA. It was pretty awesome, and we obviously took a lot of pictures :)
He drove us through Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica... parts of it look like Miami, other parts like Long Island. It was pretty late so we only stayed out for a bit, then we headed home and crashed. I think it was 5am NY time when we got home (2am here).
Today we're going to check out some super touristy stuff, maybe the Hollywood walk of fame? And run some errands before we fly out tomorrow. Fun!