Day 4

Koneechewa from Japan!! After 3 days in Japan we were really starting to get the hang of the transit system and the go to places within the city. Although, there was still a big learning process, we were beginning to adapt well to the tokyolites lifestyle. Here are my favorite Japanese words. Beer = birru, apple pie = appuru pai and ice cream = aisukuriimu. They sound very similar to the English translation but with the ru at the end. That's what you call awesomeness. Although we didn't explore shinjuku during the first three days while in japan, we saved the shinjuku sight seeing for day four. One thing which you need to know about japan is that many of the stores and malls are owned by large conglomerates and major corporations. that is why most of the buildings have the advertised names on the store front. For example Keio mall, which is a big department store will pretty much have it's name advertised on all the 7 floors of the mall including most of the merchandise being sold.

The first thing which we did while in shinjuku was hit all the stores and malls this part of city had to offer. If your a girl, omg!! Let me tell you, You guys would be heaven, fashion here is like a Mecca, every style and type of style you ever dreamed off is presented here like chocolate syrup on vanilla ice cream. It just so tasty and also looks damn good. Not only are the Stores updated with the latest fashion trends but the girls and people here are very well dressed. I thought Toronto was pretty fashionable, but japan is like 5 light years ahead of the curve. Almost every person is sported with the latest lv bag, Vivienne Westwood clothes and Uniqlo styles. So jealous! Even guys here are dressed well. No homo. After observing the many malls and stores we stopped at a Japanese restaurant to get some food. To be more precise we ate sushi. If you don't know how to speak Japanese all you need to do is point at the menu with the picture of the food you want. Most likely the waiter or waitress will get the idea. Food is awesome and so good. Worth every penny. ( I'll stop here because my phone is dying but illl continue it).

Okay to continue the blog...I remember now. We didn't just stop at any restaurant to eat sushi. We wanted the real deal and travelled to the Tsukiji Fish Market area to have sushi. We wanted to go to this restaurant that was recommended in one of our books on Japan called Edogen Hontin, and we were given the instructions however it was hard to find because the address was like 4-5-1 something. We figured it out because on the street map there were these sections with numbers on it and we figured that it was block 4, building number 5 section 1. It led us into this alleyway which looked a bit sketchy only because it wasn't very busy like most alleyways that had street vendors and mini market places but only a few quiet storefronts. Anyhow, we asked this man performing construction nearby to help us out and eventually we learned that the restaurant was being renovated for 8 days and would be opened on Aug 20, aka the day we were leaving. We left the area and decided to venture out and find a new restaurant since near the fish market, there are tons of restaurants to offer the same fresh sushi. Since it was Sunday, the fish market was closed but many restaurants in the area remained open. We went to a street vendor on the main street and pointed to the photos and we were presented with our  meal. It was good, but not as great as the restaurant we went to the first time we went to the fish market. The street vendor provided us with smaller pieces of fish and the taste just wasn't as amazing. You could say it was average.

After our meal, we decided to go to Akahibara which is called the Electric District. It is known as a place to go if you are an electronics fanatic. It pretty much lived up to it's fame because as soon as we stepped out of the subway station, all we saw in front of us was a huge department store dedicated to selling electronics. I can't remember the store name right now, it started with a Y. Something like Yobashi but I'm sure I'm missing a few letters in that name. Anyway, there were 7 floors of pure electronics and anything remotely related to electronics. USBs, Memory Sticks, Computers, IPad, anything you name it was there. It was quite the site. We didn't walk out of the store with any electronics but some souvenir shirts that store had inside.

We walked along the streets after we left the store even though it was extremely hot and humid, and we came across another street market under the bridge. It was like a huge street market that sold shoes, clothes, dvds etc. It also had a good amount of restaurants inside. We walked around the market and came out with nothing. We went into the nearby department store called Matzazuya I believe. We walked into the food basement to look at all the interesting and exotic foods and came across a tea shop. We heard numerous great things about the taste of Japanese teas so we bought the number two best selling tea which had a mixture of great things. If you're wondering, the number 1 best selling was green tea, which we had enough of.

We exited the department store and felt that it was enough exploring of this area and made our way to Shibuya. We wanted to see the famous Shibuya crossing and all I can say is that it was pretty insane to see the amount of people make their way from one end to another. We walked around the Shibuya area which consisted of a lot of stores, people, music and department stores. It was one of those extremely hot days once again so after a long night walking in Shibuya we went back to Shinjuku and got ready for the next day.

Another funny note: We always came across a different area each time we were in one area not knowing where we were. So some days when we planned to go to a "new" area, it was actually the same area that we already came across or was close to it.