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On the 23rd Jonathan and I went to Tokyo. That evening we went to see Christmas lights in Roppongi. I had read about different illumination displays in Tokyo and this one sounded neat. I didn't expect such a crowd though! We actually had to wait in line. Luckily we only waited about 15 minutes.

I'm glad we didn't wait very long for it because it wasn't really that impressive. It was pretty and nice, but not worth waiting in line or dealing with crowds. If we had just been walking around and randomly came across it I would have thought it was really cool, but waiting in line kind of made me expect a bit more.



There was a really nice park nearby though and there was hardly anyone else there. It was a nice surprise to find it.




As we found our way back to the station we went into a building where there were some booths selling Christmas decorations. I really loved these sparkly streamers! I think I was more excited about these than the illuminations outside!


Then we went to dinner at La Jolla, a Mexican restaurant. After eating delicious chimichangas we went to Shinjuku to get frozen yogurt at Menchies. Mmmm!


I just thought that window display was really pretty! :)


We stepped in Bikkuro for a couple of minutes just to look at the cool Lego displays.




We ended the evening at Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara. They had a puzzle on display (that I had seen in a store in Hamamatsu but they sold out) but didn't have any in stock either.




So I ended up buying this puzzle. I had also seen it in Hamamatsu and really liked it. It had been about 3400 yen in Hamamtsu but Yodobashi had it for about 1000 yen less so I thought it was a good deal. Yeah... like 2500 is cheap for a puzzle... Japan has changed what I feel is an acceptable price for a puzzle lol.

However when we went back several days later they had the Disney princess one in stock and I ended up buying that one as well. I just finished making it! It was soooo much fun to work on. The puzzle pieces are white plastic and the colors are really bright and clear. The pieces fit together really well and now that it's done I was actually able to transfer it to another table just by picking it up. Such great quality! It's part of the "Pure White" series and so far I think there are only a few designs. I hope they make more eventually.

We wandered around a bit and found stuff that I never even knew they sold. Like DJ equipment.



We played around with some really expensive DJ turntables and hoped that no one would come over thinking we were seriously interested in them. They were really neat though!

Friday, December 31st

On the morning of New Year's Eve we went back to Roppongi Hills to go to the observatory on the 52nd floor of Mori Tower. It's a little expensive because the ticket also includes an art museum, but we decided to do it anyway. I'm glad we did because the view was fantastic!

So Tokyo Dome City was pretty much a waste of time. Next we went to Ginza to go back to Itoya so Jonathan could buy something he had liked there before.


That evening we went to Zozoji Temple to countdown to the new year. Many people got balloons, attached a wish to them, and released them at midnight. We wanted to get balloons, but the information I read online wasn't really correct about the times (or we were just confused) so we didn't get balloons. :(

There were a lot of foreigners there. Most Japanese people celebrate New Year's with their families. Plus, whenever I searched online for New Year's events in Tokyo, the countdown at Zojoji Temple was the only big thing that came up.


We had gotten there around like 8:00, so we had quite a bit of time to spare. It was busy, but not packed yet, so we left to go eat dinner. The restaurants near the temple were busy and once we got a bit further away we had trouble finding one that was open. We eventually found an Italian restaurant that was open. I was excited because they played Backstreet Boys music the whole time! Haha!

When we returned to Zojoji, it had gotten a little more crowded, but it was still pretty easy to move around. We even found a place to sit down for a while.




It didn't get extremely crowded until maybe about 45 minutes before midnight. At that point it was really difficult to move through the crowd. So we spent the last little bit standing in one spot waiting for the countdown to begin.

Here's a video of the countdown!!! Tokyo Tower was sparkly!

Tuesday, December 28th

On the 28th we left Kyoto and headed to Tokyo. By Shinkansen it would cost 12,710 yen and take about two hours and 20 minutes. However, we took local trains and it took us about 8 hours and 40 minutes. We took advantage of the Seishun 18 Kippu.

The Seishun 18 Kippu costs 11,500 yen and it's good for 5 days of unlimited travel on JR local (non-express, non-shinkansen) trains. Each day you use it, it gets stamped like this:

Two people can use it in the same day. It just counts as two days then. It took a long time to travel between Kyoto and Tokyo, but it was really cheap. It was only 2,300 yen!

Without the ticket, the local train ticket costs 7,980 yen, which I don't think would be worth it since it takes so long. Normally I think the shinkansen would make more sense. The Seishun 18 Kippu is only available at certain times. Luckily, Christmas Break was one of those times! :)

You can find more information here: Seishun 18 Kippu

It was overall a pretty boring day, but it wasn't horrible. We had to switch 5 times so our trip was split up a lot. It helped it not seem quite so long.

At one station I bought this Strawberry Oreo bar.



I also bought an Aquarius (sorta like Gatorade) out of a vending machine. I put in a 1000 yen bill and the machine ate it! I wanted to hurry onto the train so that's why I put in 1000 instead of counting out change. I really needed a drink though so then I threw a handful of coins into the machine and got a drink. It was a 1150 yen drink. :(

That's the first problem I've had with a vending machine in Japan. In the US I would never ever put a 10 dollar bill into a vending machine. I trusted Japanese vending machines a lot more. Not anymore. :( Well, I guess I still trust them a lot, but not as much as before.

Wednesday, December 29th

The next day we went to several places in Tokyo.  We went to Shibuya, Ginza, Harajuku, and Roppongi.

But first, here is a picture of our hotel.

We went to breakfast at McDonalds. I had an Egg McMuffin... it tasted just like the ones in America... yay!

In Hamamatsucho Station we stopped to take a picture with Arashi. They are a really popular boy band here in Japan. And I really mean POPULAR. I see them on TV a lot. They even have their own game show called Vs. Arashi (yeah, I've watched it, lol). Their ads are everywhere in the cities. I've seen them advertise tons of things including Wii games, cell phones, beer, and more.



























Next, we headed to Roppongi to find this cool karaoke place we had seen online. However, it wasn't open yet when we got there and we figured out that you had to buy dinner there too (which was expensive). So we didn't spend much time in Roppongi, but here's a picture.



















Lauren was really wanting some light saber chopsticks she had seen online. We really had no idea where to look for them though. We hadn't been in any stores that seemed like they would sell them. After wandering around Akihabara for a while we headed back towards the station. We stopped in one last store along the way. It had a lot of anime and character merchandise. As we were about to leave the store Lauren spotted the chopsticks!!!! It was very exciting. I hadn't planned on buying any but it was so exciting that she actually found them that I decided I wanted some too. So I bought a pair of Darth Vader light saber chopsticks. I later ate my yakisoba from 7-11 with them. :)


After eating konbini food in the hotel room we headed back out to do karaoke. Karaoke in Japan is a lot different than in the US. You rent a room and just hang out with your friends. You don't have to sing in front of random people. It's a lot of fun!