Sun and blue skies

Amazing the power of the sun to lift the spirits of an entire city. And a blue sky too, haven't seen that in weeks!!!

We awoke to sleet and even greyer skies and decided to stay in bed. By noon though, the sun was peeking through the clouds and we felt energized to brave the city once again. We headed out to Roppongi, my old stomping grounds, and midway there decided it was so nice out to instead walk through Harajaku and Shibuya. Both are eclectic, young, fashionable neighborhoods built on broad boulevards and tucked into alleyways alike. We meandered for hours and had a fantastic time.

This is the Tokyo I remember and this is the Tokyo Justin was imagining. Cool shopping and great restaurants and major crosswalks teeming with Tokyo-ites. Never in our lives have we seen such a collective group of people so hip! Everyone seemed like they had been individually stylized and were just walking around waiting for the cameras to start rolling. Not even in NYC or Paris or Rome have we ever noticed that EVERY SINGLE person was incredibly hip. Sure, we were in the most fashionable district, but still, everyone? It was a little surreal, they had all obviously taken so much time in preparation for going out today.

The mood of the people around us seemed to have lifted as much as our had, I'm sure it helps that it is Saturday. I wouldn't exactly called them effusive, but they were a bit less restrained than we had seen earlier this week. Still, there is a major difference in how we are received in Japan as opposed to in China. In China, we couldn't go anywhere without drawing a crowd that oohed and aahed over the kids (and sometimes us), and everywhere people were highly enthused to welcome us and to try and talk to us. In Japan, no one even gives us a second glance. Which has actually been nice...

For dinner we wandered in to a very traditional looking Japanese restaurant back in our neighborhood. We were stopped and held at the door while something was checked. Finally, we think after confirming that someone could help us in English, we were let in. We were led upstairs, made to remove our shoes (this is very common here in Japan at restaurants and at all homes) and shown to our table. We had a great table on the floor, with a cut out for our feet, and tons of playroom behind us for Liam to hang out. The menu was in Japanese and sure enough a waiter with a bit of English knowledge came to help us. There wasn't much choice for me or Elle, but Justin had some excellent sashimi. Poor Elle, I think she is going to turn into a grain of rice. She's so sick of rice, and it used to be her very favorite thing. At the table next to us I noticed they had been served lobster that was standing straight up, and its legs were still moving!! Justin then noted that the meat had been scooped out raw and the people were eating it while the poor lobster lay slowly dying in front of them. They poked and laughed at it. It was horrible! (sorry for the visual Leah) The table behind us had a turtle, the shell had been removed, and they were eating away at it's meat. I'm not sure we'll be going there again.

The forecast for the next two days is 60 degrees and no rain. We are feeling a bit better about our remaining two weeks on the road, although still happy to be on our way home.