I totally new a movie. Sure you will want one also...

John Hodgman: "Barack Obama Is the First Nerd President"

Japan: Tokyo: Imperial Palace & Gardens

Here is a look around the Imperial Palace & Gardens in the center of Tokyo, Japan...

Japan: Tokyo Tower View at Night

Tokyo Tower looks a lot like the Eiffel Tower, only orange. Here is the view from the top at night...

Japan: Tokyo: Akihabara: Yodobashi Camera

Yodobashi Camera is a huge, and I mean huge electronic store in Akihabara. Here is a quick look.

Japan: Tokyo DisneySea: BraviSeamo Show

Here is an edited look at Tokyo DisneySea's BraviSeamo Show...

We made it... home.

Good news. We made it home. I have a ton more video to post from sites around Tokyo. More in the next couple days.

Japan: Almost Over

We are just minutes away now from going down to the bus to head to the airport for our return 9 1/2 hr flight to Los Angeles. We have had an amazing time overall in Japan. Joe and I really pushed ourselves to go out and see as much of Tokyo and Tokyo Disneyland Resort areas as we could. It has been an amazing experience. We both are talking about when we can come back for more. There is so much more to see and do in Japan.

Anyone thinking about coming to Japan... I would highly recommend a trip. I found it to be fairly easy not specking any Japanese at all. Joe spoke some, but overall we could have gotten away with out any if need be. Everyone here is extremely friendly and helpful. Most signs are in English and Japanese, so getting around was easy. We got an awesome map book that showed the entire city, very helpful.

Joe isn't really ready to go home yet. I could stay longer also, but I'm really looking forward to a couple of days of no walking. We have probably walked 100 miles in the last 2 weeks. My legs and feet and really tired and ready for some R & R.

My only real complaints are that there aren't enough benches, garbage cans or ATMs that take international cards. 7-11 has international ATMs, but around Disneyland Resort we never found a machine that took cards. With so many people walking, I would expect more places to sit down, but hardly any benches. Tons of vending machines, but hardly any place to put the garbage. But really, besides that, we had a truly amazing time.

If anyone has questions about traveling to Japan, I'm open to answering them.

Click here to check out all of the picture I took on Flickr.

Click here to see all of the blog posts on Japan only.

Japan: Cat Living

This was a store and also a bit of a walk through zoo kind of thing. They had sort of a house setting with a bunch of free cats you could go in and play with. They had toys and suck and you could pet them. It was ¥800 per person, so we opted to not do it, due to we have cats at home we can play with. But it was a super cute store, with tons of cat stuff. Very fun.

Aprille: I'm guessing you would need an annual pass. I could here you giggle with delight when I was in that store and looking through the windows at the people playing with all the friendly cats. :-)

Japan: Odaiba Kaihin Park

In the bay next to were Joe is standing above...






Nifty looking boat...


Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Skylight at Sunset...

Japan: Rainbow Bridge & Statue of Liberty

They have a very small (compared to the original) Statue of Liberty outside the Aqua City Mall in the Daiba area. The bridge is huge and fun to go over via the train we took from Shimbashi to Tokyo-Teleport.







Everyone in Japan does this in photos...




Fuji TV Building...

Japan: Starbucks Coffee Jelly Frappuccino

It's back... Coffee Jelly Frappuccino. I know you have been waiting. It wasn't really bad. Big blobs of Coffee flavored jelly on the bottom with a normal coffee frap on top. Mixed together. Joe liked it and wants another. I can live without having another ever again :-)

Japan: Ueno Park Area: Shinobazu-no-Ike Pond/Boat Pond

Japan: Ueno Park Area: Free Range Cats

Lots of cats, very friendly, in Ueno Park.

Japan: Ueno Park Area: Park & Shrines

More photos here.

Japan: Ueno Park Area: Yanaka Cemetery

Joe wanted to check out this Cemetery, so here are some pics...











This dude was shooting birds with his bee-bee gun. Why I have no idea, there were so many, it didn't really seem to matter. The one he is chasing was injured and went over to a group of ladies. Kind of sad...


More pics in Thursday's photos of Ueno Park area here.

Japan: Ueno Park Area: Trains, Trains and More Trains

Thursday we started off in Ueno Park area. There are so many trains, going so many places in Japan. This is a medium size train station. The big ones are 2-3 times this many tracks.

Japan: Ueno Park Area: McDonalds

Joe didn't want to eat at McDonalds, but I wanted to try the shrimp burger. It was fairly good. The fries tasted different, probably a different kind of oil. That bacon potato pie was really gross. I only eat one bit.

Japan: Japanese Spa

The last thing we did with Hideto and Suzuki was spend 1 1/2 hrs at a Japanese style bath. Very nice and very amazing inside. It was very relaxing. No photos of course of the inside. But outside was this fun water fountain and roller-coaster that went through the middle of a ferris wheel. This was all next to Tokyo Dome, the indoor baseball stadium.











All of Wednesday's pics are here.

Japan: Eating with Hideto & Suzuki

These guys are awesome... They really showed us around parts of town and things we won't have known to do on our own. We eat at 3 yummy places. Noodles, Desserts and finally a bar that had dinner items also...

Japan: Jinja Shrine in Asakusa with Hideto & Suzuki, Fortunes

For 100¥ you could take a stick from the fortune stick holder and then open the corresponding draw to receive your fortune in Japanese and English. I got a "Good Fortune." Joe got a "Regular Fortune" and Suzuki got a "Bad Fortune", so he left his in the shrine by tying it to the rack of bad fortune so it would stay in there and not come true.











More pics of Wednesday's adventure are here.

Japan: Jinja Shrine in Asakusa with Hideto & Suzuki

Nakamise Shopping Area outside the Shrine...

Japan: Hideto & Suzuki Took Us To Tsukiji Fish Market

Free samples of this amazing Tuna...

Japan: Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

Japan: Tokyo Tower

Check out all of last nights pics here.