TOKYO!!! for work

Sunday - Day 1

Landed and priority baggage got us out of the airport super quick. Pretty things in the airport were a nice reminder we made it.

Didn't have instructions for how to get to the hotel so we took a cab. Turned out to be about $200 and there was a cheaper bus we could have used. >.<

Got to the hotel pretty wrecked and checked into our rooms. Mine was tiny as hell because I booked late.

We all managed not to fall asleep and went out looking for dinner. Walked about 1k away to what looked like a restaurant district. Wandered past a few places and found a basement barbecue joint. We had a bit of difficulty ordering and got the waitress there that spoke a bit of English. But once the food came, all was forgotten. It was DELICIOUS!!! we had several random beef cuts, some shrimp, chicken and onion/bell peppers. Was a great end to an exhausting day.

Monday - Day 2

First day on site. It's an incredible view from 30 floors above Tokyo. I tried to get a bunch of shots of it both day and night. Yes, that is a small replica Eiffel tower. And some excellent tea in the office vending machine. I was actually good with cutting out the massive amounts of Diet Coke with all the caffeine.

Most of the day was taken up by racking the equipment and cabling the servers so we could get started configuring them. Lunch was a nice Tonkatsu place in the food court by the office. Dinner was an EXCELLENT Indian restaurant recommended, also near the office.

Fun fact of the day... Japan has the best toilets anywhere. Yes, that's a butt-wash button.

Tuesday - Day 3

More racking and switch configuration. After everyone left, we stood up the VPN tunnel and tested office connectivity. Everything went really well so we were able to leave around 10:30pm. Sad to say, we had McDonalds for dinner. Everything tastes less overpoweringly flavorful, which I thought was probably a good thing. Lunch was a fancier meal at the Oak Door near work. I had a tower of a burger, but it was tasty. Pretty sure today was the awesome sunset night. If not, here's some pictures that I needed a day for. :P

Wednesday - Day 4

Got to the office and set up one of the security appliances. Went to lunch with Bong while Ed worked on an issue and while walking through the food court, we happened across a three year old just wandering with no parents nearby. Bong went into hero mode. I asked the 3 year old where his mom and dad were. No response of course. Bong helped the kid down to the security guard at the pickup and I managed to convey that his parents were not around. They showed up and took care of him.

Ordered food at the restaurant this time with the guy speaking almost no English. We muddled through without it and got Ed's takeout email. The waiter was nice enough to compliment me on my Japanese in Japanese. :)

Thursday, Friday - Day 5,6

Never took notes for these days. It was all work and food. Several places now have served drinks in Ball mason jars. Not sure why that is.

Saturday - Day 7 - FIRST SIGHTSEEING DAY

Went to the fish market with Rick. We didn't see them auctioning or slicing pieces off the giant tuna, but we had delicious food nearby. Outstanding sushi and we tried whale! It wasn't as good as salmon.

Afterwards we grabbed Coldstone because yum. Helped with being too hot as well. They sang to us for tips, though the only song I could make out was "Heigh Ho" from Snow White. I was able to brave the heat for more sightseeing and Asakusa was first on the list. Turned out to be quite the tourist trap. There was a ton of shopping on the quarter mile from the entrance gate to the temple gate.

Good place for cheesy souvenirs. The shrine itself was nice. Love the architecture style and just kinda wandered around enjoying and taking pictures.

On my way out of the shrine, however, I noticed a group of people all gathered in a circle. Being the curious individual I am, I walked over and got a monkey show. A guy had a trained monkey performing tricks, running up and down stairs on his hands and jumping over things. It was cute and difficult to get pictures of. :)

Following Asakusa, I headed over to Shibuya. Home to the busiest intersection in Japan. Definitely lived up to the hype, but this is early enough in the trip that I'm not sick of people.

Since it was supposedly here, I decided to look for a cat cafe. At that moment, it happened to be 348ft away. I apparently have a sense for kitties. Got there and it turned out they were reservation only. Looked really nice though. I thought I snuck a picture of the inside, but it wasn't on my camera.

Everyone here is amazingly well dressed. (You can sort of see in the video)

For food I hit up a storefront Curry Katsu restaurant. The tricky part was you order by buying a ticket from a machine and it was all in Japanese. Gotta love picture menus.

And cute random picture of the day. This was outside a barbecue joint.

Sunday - Day 8 - Geek Central

Went to Akihabara with the network engineer and we spent several hours wandering around the geekiest, nerdiest district in Japan. They were my people...

We stopped by the Anime center, but they were exhibits for a show I did not recognize.

We tried to do shopping for his son and I hunted down some Japanese Magic cards for Smith. Random other fun stuff from this district was a giant statue for a recent manga / game series, a very strange interactive video wall where people patted a character on the head and a Gundam themed cafe.

I went from here to the Meiji shrine next to Harajuku. This is on a massive plot of land in the middle of Tokyo. Feels like getting lost in a forest. Very soothing after the craziness of the previous days.

There was a station for ritual hand washing before you enter the shrine.

The treasure exhibits were closed today sadly.

Or I just arrived too late. Still, the grounds were what I would enjoy most, no doubt.

Cuteness of the day would be the souvineer lucky cats. So hypnotic....

Monday - Day 9 - More work?

Checking in with the office. I spent most of the morning setting up a security appliance with a guy from the office who remoted in. Thankfully, that was successful and the rest of the day was spent labelling cables, putting together documentation and playing a game. Dinner turned out to be a feast at Two Dogs taproom with some of the local and visiting Rioters. Selection was random however and we ate chicken wings, bacon Mac and cheese, pizza and sliders.

Since I don't have any pictures from the day, here's some fun signs from the subway. You have to make the following face if you see someone on the tracks. And if you get your hands caught in the door, Super Panda will shame you.

Some of the ads were uniquely translated. Some just cool to see in another country.

Tuesday - Day 10 -

A bit more work to do with trying to install the wireless brackets for the ceiling. I ended up staying at the office most of the day to help remotely with issues in LA. Then hustled to the Tokyo Station to book a ticket on the bullet train to Kyoto. Met up with the guys on the way back and we said our goodbyes. They're on to another office job in Hong Kong before heading home.

Random tasty Steakhouse with a funny name.

Wednesday - Day 11 -

Managed to find the proper bullet train thanks to the helpful lady at the information desk and got on the smoothest mode of transportation ever. Also impressively fast.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nozomi_(train)

Not a wonderful view from the train since it was raining the entire time, but it was cool. This was the first time I'd seen bamboo forests in person.

The first thing I did, after walking way too far before hailing a cab, was to head to the inn. Needed to ditch as much of my backpack as I could so as to enjoy walking around. Tons of neat things to see even on the way to the inn.

And the ryokan (inn) was incredible. They greeted me at the door, provided slippers so we didn't damage their beautiful floors, knew me by name and showed me to my ridiculously large room.

After dropping off the heavier of my things, I began the hike up through some unique sidestreets. Most were lined with shops and touristy, but very pretty.

Getting to the top, you're treated to an amazing view of the city below.

There were a couple small buildings on the path up to the top, which is a massive shrine building built on huge stilts allowing it an incredible view over the valley below.

Down below, there were a few more things to see. A nice cafe had outdoor seating. There was an incredible ritual hand washing station with the streams of water flowing over the roof of the walkway and a murky looking pond that had both carp and a couple of turtles.

Walked from there to the Ryozen Kannon. Billed as a memorial to the unknown soldiers of ww2, there wasn't much to it. Just a nice peaceful square and a giant freakin Budda. The thing had to be more than 30 feet tall too. Very cool.

After this, I decided I had enough time to visit the Fushimi Inari Taisha. The English signs billed this as 1000 gates. At first I was expecting they were exaggerating, but dear god, these were almost always overhead for the trails up to the very top of the mountain.

Very nice views from the loop entrance at the top of the mountain. Also got to see bamboo forest up close and personal!

Met and befriended one of the local shrine cats. Then lured him unsuspecting into a bunch of other tourists. mwahahahah

The trickster fox is a theme or mascot or spirit of the shrine here. His images were everywhere.

I was tempted to quit halfway up and probably should have.

Got very sweaty and tiring and the top wasn't very memorable.

Not to mention, I investigated a side path that sounded like it had a little waterfall and slipped landing almost entirely on my left fist. :(

May have broken my knuckle but won't know till I get back.

On the way down, I decided to toy with the time lapse options of my phone. Didn't have that Hyperlapse app or it would have been a lot smoother. Still, this kindof gets across the experience.

Got a nice snack from one of the shops on the way back. Banana and chocolate so good...

I got some disappointing ramen at after grabbing the metro back to the hotel. It was a vending machine ordering system and this time I picked the wrong thing. Got crumbled up pork instead of the large pieces of delicious chashu pork. :(

Of some comfort was the pretty lantern display across the street from the inn. And the soaking tub after such a long day of walking.

Other random fun pictures from the day... People dressed up in traditional kimonos on the subway.

Thursday - Day 12 -

Without much left to do on the stay here, I decided to brave figuring out the bus. It really shouldn't have been intimidating at all.

I had wanted to visit this one famous pagoda that I couldn't find any info about before the trip. None of the recommendations I got gave me a clue what it was and I couldn't find that picture again. Decided to call Ryan before I headed out to Kyoto and he recommended not missing Golden Pavilion. THIS WAS THE PLACE!!!! Was so glad I got to see it in person. It's smaller than it feels in pictures, but was still very cool to see.

Other cute things, they use bamboo for everything! railing, brackets, mounts, feet... it's very impressive. There was also a nice waterfall on the way out. Also got a really nice shot of a couple in kimonos.

At this point I was looking for things to fill up the last day so I opted to see Nijo castle. Upon getting there the entrance was under repairs. Here's what it was supposed to look like.

And what I actually saw....

Getting inside though, the grounds were nice. Incredibly large main castle building, nice gardens, Koi moats.

Didn't take pictures as requested so here's some stolen online.

I did want to show off the really surprising part of the castle. I'd read about security features of old Japan buildings and I got to experience this one first hand. They're called Nightingale floors and they creak like birds as a kind of alarm system warning of intruders.

Outside the buildings, there was a large lookout station that I got pictures from the top of.

Some really impressive construction features here. These blocks are massive and incredibly well shaped. It's a smaller problem, but still it's like envisioning the pyramids being built. They also used massive rock slabs as steppingstones. (I'm hoping those were original, I didn't see any signs about it.)

One last thing I'd heard about was the Ueno koen (park). It was one of the stops on the Metro, so I figured I'd go by. There wasn't much picturesque about the thing, it was a large paved walkway park with lots of trees. Only neat part was the giant lakes of lilypads.

Was exhausted by the end of this and saw everything on my list so headed to the Kyoto station. The Bullet train back was cloudy as hell. I was pretty sure this was as close as I get to seeing Mt. Fuji in person.

And then just as we got passed it the clouds parted and looking back I could just make out the tip of the peak. Quite glad about that. Would have been sad to never have seen the thing due to the weather.

Disappointed with the lack of real Japanese food I went out looking for a sushi place. The Grand Hyatt sushi restaurant wanted over 15000 yen for a meal. I double-checked my mental calculations and it was indeed more than $120 for dinner. Fuck that. I wandered again towards the middle of Roppongi where all the restaurants were figuring I'd find something. Standing on one side of the street I needed look no further than the other side to find a Sushi sign. Went inside and this was SO MUCH more reasonable. I might die of food poisoning, but at $1.00 a salmon sushi order, I would die happy. Everything was delicious, but the last salmon dish he busted out a torch and cooked the top of it, drizzled a bit of mayo and spices on top and advised me not to eat with Soy Sauce. It was outstanding. Was so glad I opted for adventure tonight.

Friday - Day 13 -

Went in to the office to take care of a few pieces that shipped late. Then headed to Akihabara to pick up a duplicate souvenir this one for me.

Rested most of the day since I was feeling a little ill. I did finally end up going to a bar/grill called BEEFMAN. The food was fine, but didn't really live up to the name. or the OUTSTANDING logo. But here's at least proof I went inside.

Saturday - Day 14 -

So freaking tired of Japan. This place is cool. But I'm starting to feel the crowds and the constant rain and the lack of cat.

So, having crossed nearly everything I wanted to see off my list, I didn't leave the hotel room until 2 for food. Then came back and continued with my game until 6. Wanting to at least see Shinjuku before returning, I hopped on the metro and go out. Searched for a Cat Cafe to remedy problem #3 and started walking. While walking down sidestreets trying to track down an improper Google Map pin, it was hard to miss the appeal of this place. So busy and loud and bright, but beautiful in its own way.

Eventually, I did find the cafe.

It didn't smell great and the upper floor was a little depressing.

Downstairs was nicer and I made quick friends by spinning a coin on it's edge.

Grabbed some treats for them as well and then left for real food. But not before a few more pictures. So much cute.

Because it seemed too funny, I hate myself and am not smart... I ate at Yoshinoya. Surprising part? It was actually decent food. The meat was low grade and drenched in sauce as is the Yoshinoya way, but the sauce was delicious and I liked it.

Final sightseeing stop on the list was Golden Gai. This is a small city block sized area of Shinjuku that has 6 alleyways of TINY themed bars.

Was very neat and would have loved to grab a drink with the guys there, but no one was as jazzed about it as I was. The themes were cute and if I was the type to drink, I might have been tempted to grab something at Brian Bar. But $15 seemed a bit much for the novelty.

All in all a really good trip. Saw everything I knew I wanted to see and a bunch of things I hadn't known about.

Sunday - Day 15 -

While this was a normal travel day and probably not worth writing about, the Grand Hyatt, where I caught the shuttle, has a car elevator system. Drive on, car gets conveyored into place and then shuffled underground. Neaaaaaat. ^.^

So glad I learned about this on the last day of the trip too.... McDonald's delivers...

The airport bookstore has a comics section. A BIG comic section...

Had proper Japanese tempura at the airport before heading to the lounge.

Never been to one before, but this seemed cool. Plenty of space, comfy chairs and power outlets.

And the crowning jewel on this trip?... The flight back. I had a wonderful seat and no neighbor.

I was able to spread out and play games on the laptop. Never had to get up for anyone. Got the most adorable of Soy Sauce bottles and familiar snacks.

A really nice end to an exhausting, but cool trip.

Ok, I lied. The crowning jewel was having signed up for the Global Entry program before the trip. I was wisked to the front of the line at customs and I got to skip this nightmare after baggage.

Worth every penny