Ginza Ballers!

Okay, so I missed yesterday and I am going to try and do two days in one night. So if you are reading this, you had better sit down :)

Alright, we decided over Starbucks (you heard me... Starbucks) in the morning to get a 1-day metro pass and check out Tokyo proper. Our first use of our pass was toward us going to the Imperial Palace which is in the heart of Tokyo. It is similar to the idea of central park in the middle of New York, but it has its own unique features. For instance, you can't walk through large portions of and they are under constant patrol. While walking through, I was able to learn that they still have an emperor here and he's about as powerful as the royal family in England.

After that, we went to go search out Shibuya and do a little shopping. All of these places are starting to look the same to me :) In Shibuya, however, we were able to find an amazing sight: the only public trash can that we have seen in Japan. I guess they just don't produce waste here. I left Praveen and Janusz in the middle of their joint kimono quest due to the fact that I had made dinner plans with Mark's "cousins in laws." It's easier to just refer to them as Leland and Carolyn. Even before I met them, they were very helpful in email form with suggestions on sightseeing. We all went out to this great seafood and beer place that actually spoke english! The food and conversation was great. They even recommended a great place to eat in Nikko. In all fairness Leland was pushing for the Sumo, but we are short on time :) Overall, they filled me in on a lot of stuff that I was clueless about.

Earlier that day, Tatsu had emailed me in reaction to us staying in Ginza, "You baller!" I had no idea why this place would be baller-esque. We could find nothing going on during the weekend. However, as Leland and Carolyn explained, Ginza becomes a very happening place during the week, because rich business men come after work to come and share a drink with very beautiful girls. And the streets are fill with beautiful girls and expensive cars on week nights let me tell you. It's hard to even get back to the hotel.

After coming back Jon had this great idea to drag us out to Shinjuku for a great bar. It started out as Roppongi part 2. We were getting swarmed by people who for some reason wanted us to take a look at these strip clubss. We finally found a simple bar that had some people in it. Fortunately, this met Jon's requirements and he was happy on his last night in Japan.