Christmas Eve we hopped a plane and flew 2 hours north to Tokyo! I haven't been off of this little island since we arrived 5 months ago, so I was certainly ready for a vacation! There is a travel agency on base and they put together all sorts of tours to wonderful places around here, so since we couldn't be home for Christmas, we decided to take a little trip. We did ALOT of things while there, so I think I will make this a 3 part series! 
First of all I have to make a comment about the toilets in the airport! For one, they are heated, not too hot, but the perfect temperature, then if you wish, there are quite a few options for you in your short stay in the stall, to include a button for music-y flushing if you need a little extra privacy! Ha ha! John will probably kill me for writing about this, but I am still fascinated!
OK, moving on...we had an early flight, so we wound up arriving at our hotel around noon, giving us the rest of the day as a free day. So off we went to the Imperial Palace (the home of the Emperor). 
The subway system there is great. It looks overwhelming when you see a map, but everything is clearly marked (and also in English) so we mastered it in no time! In front of the Palace, there are huge gardens that you can tour.
After we went through the gardens, we stumbled upon the National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo and had a quick look! 
We hustled back to the hotel to meet the tour leader and one other couple who wanted to go eat sushi. The sushi restaurant that we went to was in Shibuya, a very touristy area that looked a lot like Times Square in New York City! I have never seen so many people in my life! 
We had an opportunity to cross arguably the world's largest intersection. Here in Japan, at a large intersection, all of the cars get a red light and the people cross at the same time. At this particular one, it wasn't just crossing four corners, or even diagonal, this was madness. When you walked across the street, there were people coming from you from every way! There is really no way to explain, I can only show you. I took this video from youtube and it best exemplifies the insanity! Check it out: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OGgfT4TG_k0
Now on to the sushi. This place is apparently one of the best so we had to wait a while in line to get in at 5 o'clock! This is what we got. We had no idea these rolls would be so huge! I seriously have never seen anything like it! They were really good! 
So after stuffing ourselves silly we still had a little room to get a drink at the world's largest Starbucks! We had to just to say we did! We walked to the second floor of the Starbucks and watched the craziness of the city below. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to get a good nights sleep for Tokyo Disneyland in the morning...
First of all I have to make a comment about the toilets in the airport! For one, they are heated, not too hot, but the perfect temperature, then if you wish, there are quite a few options for you in your short stay in the stall, to include a button for music-y flushing if you need a little extra privacy! Ha ha! John will probably kill me for writing about this, but I am still fascinated!
OK, moving on...we had an early flight, so we wound up arriving at our hotel around noon, giving us the rest of the day as a free day. So off we went to the Imperial Palace (the home of the Emperor). 
The subway system there is great. It looks overwhelming when you see a map, but everything is clearly marked (and also in English) so we mastered it in no time! In front of the Palace, there are huge gardens that you can tour.
After we went through the gardens, we stumbled upon the National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo and had a quick look! 
We hustled back to the hotel to meet the tour leader and one other couple who wanted to go eat sushi. The sushi restaurant that we went to was in Shibuya, a very touristy area that looked a lot like Times Square in New York City! I have never seen so many people in my life! 
We had an opportunity to cross arguably the world's largest intersection. Here in Japan, at a large intersection, all of the cars get a red light and the people cross at the same time. At this particular one, it wasn't just crossing four corners, or even diagonal, this was madness. When you walked across the street, there were people coming from you from every way! There is really no way to explain, I can only show you. I took this video from youtube and it best exemplifies the insanity! Check it out: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OGgfT4TG_k0
Now on to the sushi. This place is apparently one of the best so we had to wait a while in line to get in at 5 o'clock! This is what we got. We had no idea these rolls would be so huge! I seriously have never seen anything like it! They were really good! 
So after stuffing ourselves silly we still had a little room to get a drink at the world's largest Starbucks! We had to just to say we did! We walked to the second floor of the Starbucks and watched the craziness of the city below. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to get a good nights sleep for Tokyo Disneyland in the morning...
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