The Final Days of Japan

After climbing Mount Fuji for over 10 hours, we made it back to our hotel exhausted, sweaty and sore. My knees had taken a beating on the steep climb up Fuji and again on the switchbacks on the way down so sleep was a nice break from the pain. The next morning, Saturday, we slept in late and then did some sight seeing in Tokyo.

First up was the Imperial Palace, the residence of the Emperor of Japan. Although the Emperor holds no governmental power, it was still cool to see (at least a part of) this figurehead's home.

Then we went to Asakusa which is also well known for the Thunder Gate (Kaminari-mon) which hangs in the entrance to the street which leads to the Senso-ji Temple itself. If you can't tell, this lantern is HUGE! Behind this gate is a long line of shops which is were we found one of our prints of Fuji (which now hangs in our home). Here is also were I first tried Ramune, a sugar-y soda in a hourglass shaped bottle with a marble as a cap. The marble is pushed into the bottle by the vender and then you can enjoy the yummy soda inside. This was one of my favorite treats in Japan (besides the yummy warm bread).

A train station on the way to Tokyo Dome for the Yomiuri Giants baseball game! You can see how crowded the stations can get during rush hour! At least we never had to be pushed onto a train by the Japanese Train Pushers (Google it ;).

Here we are at the Yomiuri Giants game! So much fun to go to such a popular sporting event in Japan! We saw baseball fields and stadiums almost everywhere we passed on the trains. After not being able to talk to anyone around me or understand what people were saying, I wanted to try my hand at getting by on my own with no Japanese language. So I got up the guts to go and get some food at the game all by myself. I just wanted to order some ice cream. And my mission was a success! I even was able to order one Chocolate ice cream and one swirl! Yay for me:)

The cheering section of the stadium. even though I did not understand what I was cheering, it was fun to sing along with the crowd.

Matt and I in front of the Tokyo Dome where the Giants play. Sadly, we did not get to see them win but it was fun none the less. Thank you to Ryan and his brother Matt for getting us tickets and coming with us to the game!