Day 14 Rainy Adventures Around Tokyo

We went hard yesterday. According to my fitbit, I walked a grand total of 22,213 steps which equates to 10 whole miles. Writing it down it doesn't seem like that much, but I was wearing a dress and sandals, and trust me my feet are feeling every single step I took. Poor right foot has a blister on the side of my heel the size of my thumb. I'll spare you gross blister pics. No one wants to see those.

I was kind of glad that I woke up to rain this Sunday morning. It meant a mostly inside day, and a chance to rest my poor feet. We did borrow some umbrellas from the hotel, then take a train in to Tokyo. Our goal was to check out Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, eat some wagyu beef, and buy a suitcase.

The Shinjuku National Garden is a huge park inside the city that features a traditional Japanese garden, a French formal garden, and English landscape garden. We thought the rain was letting up, but when we got to the park it started to pour! We were only able to explore the Japanese garden and the greenhouse, but it was all very beautiful.

After our rainy garden tour, we were hungry! Before we ever even dreamed about coming to Japan, both Ethan and I wanted to try Kobe beef. A lot of places in the US say that they serve real Kobe beef, but in reality, unless you feel like you need to take a mortgage out on your dinner, it's not real Kobe. Or even real wagyu for that matter. That's because Japan exports a very small quantity of this beef and it's actually not best served as a steak! We always assumed Kobe was the best. Turns out that that is not necessarily true. Kobe is a region that in Japan that is famous for their impeccable cattle, but wagyu beef is the type of beef raised from a specific breed of cow. That's what is advertised as "Kobe" beef in Japan. Basically, you're confused America. 

What makes the meat so special is the intense marbling throughout it. The cows are bred for their fat content, and are fed special diets to ensure the best quality meat. Rather than being served in steak form, the meat is typically served raw in the size of a credit card. The meat is then grilled immediately before consumption. These types of restaurants are called yakiniku.

Hot briquettes are placed in a cast iron bowl with a grill placed on top. Raw meats are then provided for the patron to grill to their own liking.

For the love of God was this the most delicious thing I have ever in my life put in my mouth.

After our amazing, life changing, totally awesome lunch, the rains stopped. And we explored Shinjuku. I think we stumbled into some kind of red light district. There were sketchy basement entrances with scantily dressed people calling you in. And then there were all of the billboards advertising different types of girls. Idk if they were strip clubs, actual prostitutes, or just porn shops, but it was weird and uncomfortable.

But shopping in Shinjuku was great. Totally awesome and weird at the same time. Seems to sum up a lot of Tokyo. We were able to get a suitcase (one of ours was overweight on the way in) and some cool souvenirs to bring home, like speakers that light up and shoot water to the beat of the music. I thought about buying  a little doggie kimono for Penny, but it was actually pretty expensive!

Day 13 (Part 2) Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise

The second part of our Saturday adventure was spent at an aquarium. We have a thing of going to theme parks while we're traveling. We went to a zip-line park in Jamaica on our honeymoon, a waterpark (with scary, rickety slides) and swam with tigers in the Dominican Republic, and an exotic petting zoo in Mexico where they charged you per animal you wanted to pet. It was just natural that we had to do something unique in Japan. We threw around the idea of going to Disney Tokyo, but it ended up just being too expensive. And I listened to the advice of my friends, Disney is really Disney everywhere. Instead of Disney, we decided to check out the Yokohama Sea Paradise, a seaside park featuring an aqua museum (aka aquarium) and Pleasureland, a typical amusement park with rides and coasters.

The place was pretty cool. They have 6 Beluga whales, a whale shark, a couple great whites, a couple hammerhead sharks, and something called The Umi Farm: an aquarium featuring the natural sea, and the Fureal Lagoon: an open concept aquarium. I've never seen any of those things. 

First off, go here! At the Lagoon part of the park, you can pet the animals. Also known as getting to come home and tell all your friends that you got to pet a baby Beluga. BOOM! Also, we got to pet a wittle bittle penguin. Absolutely awesome experience. They also have dolphins and otters and sea lions that you can touch, but we ran out of time after stalking a Beluga for like 2 hours.

It's always cool to see how other cultures interpret the amusement park. Like Mexico was all about the money. The Dominicans were super relaxed and all about whatever is fun which may or may not be safe, like letting you swim with tigers. And the Jamaicans were super laid back, but also really really concerned with safety. The Japanese seem to have adopted a lot from America. Everything was in Japanese, but we knew what to expect because it was laid out in a way that was familiar. The only confusing part was trying to buy tickets for just the Aqua Museum. We knew we weren't going to have enough time to get our money's worth out of a ticket for Pleasureland.

Corn dung?

We ate our lunch at the park, which consisted of corn dogs and fries. The corn dog the weirdest hot dog I've ever eaten. It tasted like a hot dog, but it was brown and looked nothing like a hot dog. Corn dung was pretty appropriate.

A fantastic example of Engrish

Aquarium big enough for a school of sardines and a couple great white sharks

Whale Shark!

Crab legs anyone?

Such a pretty leopard seal! I want one!

Oh hey, I'm a whale shark, nbd.

The ferry run by Sea Paradise. How cute that it's a dolphin?

"I'm a pir-ahn-a" *chomp*

Silly Ethan...Whale sharks eat plankton, not humans!

Bonus story! So E and I got lost. Somehow we came to the end of the Aqua Museum, but we still hadn't seen the whale shark exhibit. The only signs that were in English enforced that the attractions were one way, and to please not go backwards. But we really wanted to see the whale shark! So we found a sign for the handicap elevator, which we blindly followed to a hallway behind a door that said staff only. But we took that elevator! It was tiny, and smelled like fish, and we were about 98% sure that we were somewhere we weren't supposed to be. Obviously that meant TAKE A PICTURE! Although we did get ushered out by a grumpy looking Japanese man, we didn't get in trouble, and the whale shark exhibit was right off the elevator. Success!

Day 13 (Part 1) Kamakura

We debated on what to do this weekend. Should we travel to Nagano to see the mountains and castles, or should we explore something more local? We decided that traveling to the mountains was fairly expensive, and to do the trip justice you really need more than a day. That meant that we were going to explore Kamakura and Hakkeijima.

We saw this wonderful site on the walk to breakfast.

Just a woman and her 6 pugs. That's not a baby in that stroller, it's another pug!

Before we set out on our explorations, we needed breakfast. And I was CRAVING eggs and pancakes. I read that Bill's has one of the best non-traditional breakfasts in Japan. So naturally that's what I needed to eat. E and I shared a plate of their famous banana honey butter ricotta hotcakes and a traditional Aussie (Bill's is an Australian export) full breakfast. The full Aussie came with scrambled eggs, bacon, grilled tomato, sausage, roasted mushrooms, and a piece of toast. Take my word for it that the hotcakes are where it's at! Bacon and sausage in Japan are just not the same as bacon and sausage at home, even if you're eating it at an Australian restaurant. But those hotcakes...yum!

Photo credit Bill's

After breakfast, we hopped on a train and traveled about an hour south to Kamakura, a small beach town popular with locals and tourists alike. The town definitely feels like a beach town, a little slower pace, with paddleboards on porches and people wandering about in board shorts (not many though). But we weren't there to see the beach. We were looking for the Great Buddha statue. Someone had mentioned to us last weekend that it was really a must see. I'm glad that we sought out this opportunity.

Before we left Yokohama, we had decided that we would walk from the train station to the temple as it was only about a mile walk. Looking back, it sure would have been great to have taken a nice air conditioned bus. It was HOT! Also, Google maps took us on a route that led us through a residential area, where we were really uncertain of where we were going and we got some odd looks from locals. But we got there in one piece and a little sweaty. Ok, really sweaty.

Rehydrating with Pocari Sweat. Not actual sweat, it's like Japanese Gatorade and it's actually pretty tasty.

Pretty hydrangea spotted on our walk

We were rewarded with a nice shady temple with views of this handsome guy.

The statue was built to honor Amida-butsu and is also known as Kamakura Daibutsu (Great Buddha of Kamakura). The statue is made of bronze, is 43.8 feet tall and weighs a whopping 121 TONS. The first statue was built in 1243, but was made of wood. In 1248, that wooden statue was severely damaged in a storm. So it was proposed that another statue was built, but this time it was to be cast from bronze. Kind of a big deal and expensive undertaking back in 1248. At this point in Europe, the Crusades are still going on, the 7th one to be specific. The statue that sits in Kamakura now was built in 1258. It was originally covered in gold, but all that remains of the gilt is in the Buddha's ears. It truly is a masterpiece and even with modern technology it can't be fully determined how exactly it was cast and built. All of the structures built to protect the statue of been destroyed. But The Great Buddha has survived all of the storms, a tsunami, the great Kanto earthquake, World War II, and 700 years of being exposed to the elements. 

If you're headed to Japan, this is something not to be missed!

Buddha's slippers

Did I mention that he's hollow? You can go inside the statue!

Standing in the belly looking up at the Buddha's head

Told you, tsunami's happen here. These signs are all over Kamakura.