Japan Day 4: Part 2 - Tokyo

Going from Kyoto to Tokyo is like day to night. Kyoto was much more relaxed and easy to get around, while upon entering Tokyo Station, I could feel this was going to be such a different place. Looking at the metro map at the station was already confusing, since it was not really on a grid system, there were multiple rails we could take to get to one place, and the English equivalents were not as apparent as Kyoto, Osaka, or Hong Kong. Not to mention we had to go to Shinjuku station, which is one of the world's busiest stations.

Rick and I had to get to the Westin to drop off my stuff and meet Wendy for dinner with her friends at 7:30pm that day. We got into Rick's hotel around 5:00pm and figured we had enough time to take a short nap, and leave at 6pm to go to Wendy's. We didn't leave time for getting lost though! We scrambled to find the right direction towards the hotel, and when we finally did get there around 7:15pm, Wendy opens the door and says our reservation is at 8:30pm. Doh!

We all showed up in the Ginza neighborhood to meet Wendy's friends, Yoshi and Yuko. Once again, VERY glad we had a host in this city, because they knew where to take us for chicken sashimi. It was basically what you think it would taste like -- raw fish. Only it was chicken. We tried breast, thigh, and stomach (?). In that order, it went from least chewy to chewy. We had several other appetizers, like (cooked) chicken wings, tempura mushrooms (none of that button-mushroom stuff), a type of potato with fish cake, skewered chicken, and a plate of greens. To top it off, we had a hot pot/shabu shabu dish. It was probably the healthiest meal I had since arriving in Asia.



Chicken skewers, chicken sashimi,chicken wings...oh yeah, I'm year of the rooster!

Afterwards, Wendy and I were going to meet up with some Couchsurfers I talked to online at a club in Roppongi, but dinner ran a bit late, so we missed them. Plus, it was about USD $30 to get into the club, and with only an hour til the metro stopped running, we decided to pass. We walked around the area anyways to check it out. Roppongi was filled with foreigners and expats. It was so international, it could have been a night out in NYC. As neat as it was for the diversity, I didn't really want to go out to the bars/clubs there, because it didn't feel like Tokyo.
We ended up going home before the trains stopped running, because the next day, we had to get up super early (5:30am) for the Tsukiji fish market.