Welcome to Tokyo! One Glance Will Turn Your Eyes Purple

I asked my parents if I could go to Japan when I was in 7th grade...and then I held my breath for 11 years. Last week I finally made the 2 hour flight to Tokyo, and though I fulfilled my dream to visit the country, I feel like during my six days there I only got a a small taste of Japan. 
Tokyo was a great place to start my relationship with the country. This city is immense (over 13 million people), which means it has a lot to offer but can also feel extremely overwhelming. Since Mike and I chose to go to Tokyo instead of Osaka or Kyoto, we made sure to actively seek out as many traditional Japanese experiences as possible. 


Three Year Old Tako...Can't Get Any Fresher
The most obviously place to start was to get ourselves an incredible sushi dinner (oishikatta!) at Fukuzushi in downtown Roppongi. We ate the freshest sashimi of our lives while we chatted with our chef about Japanese and Korean cuisine (sorry Korea, even though I am acquiring a taste for fermented cabbage with chili sauce, nothing you have can compare with a slightly seared and delicately seasoned slice of fresh tuna). Gochisosamadeshta!


Baby Battle
The next big thing on the list was the sumo match. Ryogoku Kokugikan stadium is THE place to watch a sumo. The stadium is huge but fails to dwarf the size of the wrestlers. There is a lot of build up and suspense leading up to when the two wrestlers actually start bumping bellies. Before they fight, the rikishi (wrestlers) fill up a fair amount of time throwing salt, stomping, clapping and squatting. The crowd would go nuts during some particular squat which really confused Mike and I. When both rikishi have their fists on the ground, then the match starts. It was pretty scary to watch since there is so much power and muscle hidden under that flab. They would slap each others faces and pull up one another's thongs, but the best when one would get chucked into the crowd. Worst place to get front row seats.


Now, Thank Me for the Tea
One of the last traditional Japanese experiences that we had, that was particularly important to me, was attending a tea ceremony (Hotel Okura if you're interested). It was just Mike and I and this sweet little Japanese women in a kimono who spoke broken English. (I want to take a second to mention how surprised I was to see how many people actually wear kimonos and use fans like what you read about. The great thing about Japan is that they really hold tight to these traditional elements of their culture. They find ways of preserving tradition by seamlessly integrating those ancient cultural aspects within their very modern society.) But anywho, TEA! Great green tea, great sweet treats, but what really made the experience was watching this women perform such an intricate, detailed ceremony flawlessly. There were so many moves and she did them all so delicately! (I also couldn't help but think of America's Next Top Model and how easy it is to totally botch up the process.)


"Irashaimase! Can I help you? What size? Look at this!" "Run!!"
Tokyo is one of the best places to go if you want to be surrounded by rad fashion. Unfortunately, all of that style comes with a wicked steep price tag. Let's just say we did a good deal of window shopping. Department stores in Tokyo aren't like heading over to the nearby Sears (or Fleet Farm for you Mom). The clearance racks were filled with $100+ T-shirts. It was fun seeing how hip all of these Japanese kids are (you see a lot of electric school girls and essence of anime in almost every outfit). The creepiest part of shopping were the sales girls who seemed to be on a constant loop of chanting "Irashaimase Irashaimase!" (welcome). Even though everything was super expensive, at least we got to stock up when we hit the anime book shop!


Me Sleepy
There is so much that I must leave out otherwise this post is going to endless. I'm so lucky that I was able to take this trip (and hopefully future trips) to Japan. It was an amazing relief to discover how much of my Japanese I could remember after so many years. I think that if I devoted two months of intense studying to relearning my Japanese, I could get back to where I was at the end of high school. 
We saw so many surprising and strange things in Japan (Kabuki theater, monkey pet store, girls with giant purple contact lenses, sushi conveyor belts, women only train cars, big yellow Pokemon plains) that now I am even more excited about this year of traveling around Asia.  
Special thanks to our couch surfing host Ankit Gupta. We loved staying in your traditional Japanese apartment and especially drinking shochu with you at the boat bar.