(Day 1) Tadaima

Less than two weeks after escaping from Italy unscathed, Japan came calling. In case it hasn’t already been made apparently clear, I ♥ Japan – and no, not in the otaku, anime way, though I can’t say this has always been true. Frankly, I know some truly wonderful people and adore the shopping there. So, off to Tokyo, I again headed. Me speak-a like Yoda.

The first thing anyone needs to do when heading to Japan is to load up on cash, or yen, as it were. Prepare yourselves – we are about to embark on a journey significantly different from our last – this time I go alone and in search of inspiration and a belly full of delicious food.



Thanks to Aeroplan’s increasing suckiness, I can no longer get a direct flight to Tokyo on a Saturday, so this time I left on Friday afternoon. This works out to my benefit as I now get the Sunday to spend time with Maya before the week begins, but poor Janelle had to take off of work to drive me to the airport. I love you B!







Lunch at the airport always leaves a little something to be desired.

After B left me at the security gates, I cleared and then began some shopping. My Japanese hosts are always incredibly gracious and I want to give them some great stuff in return – so I picked up some ice wine, PGA accessories, chocolates, etc and then wandered straight away onto the plane.





As I plopped myself on the plane, it finally hit me – the moment I wait all year for was here! I’m really off to Japan again. Perhaps this set of blogs will finally convey why I love this country so much…I’ll try to articulate it.

The flight was uneventful – I attempted sleeping, jamming down some dry cardboard for food, and focusing on how flabby/non-flabby my stomach is/was.






Impromptu mini photo shoot in the toilet.





I’m usually quite restless on my flights to Japan because not only am I excited, but it’s also daylight the whole 10-hour flight over. It’s also the next day, which isn’t great because one day of your trip is already done! But I’ll get it back in two weeks.


Is that you Fuji-san!?! Mount Fuji and I play a game of hide-and-go-seek. Fuji-san wins, usually.



Isn’t this world a cool place? In a two-week span I go from a street in Italy to an “Italian Street” in Japan:



The airport was like a sauna, as per usual, which was further enhanced by my adrenaline pumping as I wanted to make a certain NEX train. I tried to buy a ticket for that train, but the agent didn’t believe I could make it down to the platform in three minutes, so I was stuck waiting a half hour until the next one rolled on by. But – I’m happy to wait here and start my people-watching.




The new Narita Express trains! Stylish and comfortable.



With my giant suitcase and hiking backpack, I did pretty good in negotiating the crowds at Tokyo station and finding my way onto the Keihin-Tohoku train to take me up into Saitama, where I would meet Maya. The first day is always a jetlaggy-blur, but time seems to be an endless rushing river already. I’m swept away.







I was thrilled to find Maya easily, and just as lovely as when I left her last. I was equally pleased to once again become acquainted with her Mother and dog, Chobi, on the ride back to her house. Staying at their house is always a really special treat as I get to eat all of Tomoko’s delicious cooking! Ahh….おいしかった.






Urk! Not such a fan of these small friends…very bitter and gritty.



So I’ve made it to Japan. You may be wondering what else I can blog about since I’ve been there twice previously, but frankly, I don’t believe you remember the places I blogged about then, so it won’t seem redundant to you! Muahahahaha. Tomorrow Maya and I will head into the big city to partake in normal activities such as visiting shrines, eating ramen, and getting mildly lost in the inexplicably luminous Ginza. So, please join me again if you have nothing better to do… :)

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(Day 16) When In Rome

Our last day of vacation has finally arrived. I hardly even remember what my house looks like anymore, I’ve been gone so long. The cruise seems like years ago and the Romans are starting to take their toll. I can totally understand how they were a conquering people, what with their attitudes and all. But – I’m going to be positive though the weather outside seems a bit angry. Today we are kind of doing excess things as we’ve done all the major touristy things, so we decided to start in Rome’s public execution square, Piazza del Popolo.

Panoramics! (Click to enlarge):






Perhaps it should be called Piazza del Poop-olo.







There wasn’t much there, so we decided to start walking towards the Spanish Steps in search of some souvenir shops. I had also discovered a bee in my bonnet for some designer shoes and I needed to check out my options.







After perusing Via Condotti and trying on countless pairs of shoes, I came up dry on finding my size in a pair I liked. Worst! I decided that the bee could only be let out if I bought something. For those that know me, this won’t surprise you. I decided that my array of accessories was lacking something Miu Miu, so to satiate myself, I ended up making a small purchase for myself there.



Am I cured? Time will tell.

Our next point of adventure was to explore the (apparently) lush and beauteous Villa Borghese. It was a bit of a hike uphill, but we had bought cookies to enjoy once we’d reached the park, so we were motivated.





Maybe it was the time of year, the gray clouds above, or something else entirely, but we were wholly underwhelmed. Were we in the wrong part of the park? Did we miss the sign pointing to the nice areas? I guess this is it.









It wasn’t worth wasting our short time in Rome trying to see more greenery in this drab place, so we jumped on the nearest bus and rode back to Piazza del Popolo to catch the metro to, once again, Colosseo. But this time, we are heading in.










From the inside looking out…

The inside of the Colosseum was not quite how I imagined it. Is it foolish of me to think that it would like a replica from the movie ‘Gladiator’? Probably. But what else did I have to go on? It was like a skeleton of that arena from the movie. Here’s my panoramic (click to enlarge):



Some youtubes:


















So if you’ve seen the movie ‘Jumper’, you’ll be familiar with these ruins underneath the ground-level of the stadium. These are the rooms where the gladiators and wild animals were kept before emerging on the surface to fight.

I was really surprised at how small the stadium actually was! I kept trying to reconcile the movie to the real thing and was having a heck of a time! It was really amazing though – like nothing else when you consider the history of the place alone.



Entrance to Palatine Hill was free with the purchase of a ticket to the Colosseum, so that’s where we headed next. We were pretty road-weary and so our attention level to the actual sights were close to nil. It really kind of seems like a shame, but…c’mon. We’ve been on the go for the past two weeks. Give us a break.












The view of Capitoline Hill.


I’m climbing these steps very seriously.

Okay, I’m done! Done with sightseeing, done with history, done with reading paragraphs upon paragraphs of information about places…I just want to relax. I accomplished this by heading to another Coin department store to unwind. There is nothing like retail therapy.








!!?
Okay, so I did end up getting my pair of Gucci shoes after all…who knew there’d be a full-scale Gucci store at the airport? Bless those Italians.

And so brings to a close our blitz of Europe for 2009. Did we see enough? If I said yes it would be an understatement. Proof positive should be that it took me exactly months after the trip to finish these blogs – the content was incredibly overwhelming, but now I’ve shared it with you. I hope you had a nice journey with me, but now it’s time to go home and rest up for a while. Actually, two weeks to be exact, at which point I will run off to Japan. Please join me again! My adopted homeland is never boring, so please look forward to it! Arrivederci!

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