asia day 2--tokyo travel day 2

Woke up around 9am. Got ready and grabbed pastries from the front desk along with a coffee in a can while I tried to connect to the internet. Figured it out in time for my whatapps application to go off letting me know mari--our couchsurfer was going to be late as she hit traffic. For those of you unaware of whatapps, its an application for your phone where you can text international numbers for free. Subscription is free for the first year. Awesome. Mari brought her family's car and picked us up from our hotel for a day of sightseeing. We headed towards park palace hotel per kirsten johnson's demand to determine the reisling they serve. However, it was 100 pm and the bar didn't open until 3. So, we went and took pictures at the nearby tokyo tower, ate traditional japanese food for lunch and walked through the nearby shiba park. Saw a temple and shrine and a bunch of cute 3 year old japanese boys bike racing around the park. Then about 255 we started our trek back to the park palace hotel up to the sky lounge for a gorgeous view of downtown tokyo and the tokyo tower. We were up on floor 33. We could even see skytree (the third tallest building in the world which just opened last month) off in the distance. Ordered a dessert tray which came with tea and mari ordered an orange juice. For 3000 yen total. The view was totally worth it though!! Afterwards we went and grabbed maris car drove passed the capitol building and the emperors grounds before going to ginza. Ginza is a shopping district much like 5th ave in NYC. We went into idlunqo or whatever the new japanese fad clothing line is that is taking off in the US-- its 12 floors worth of cheaper clothing. We also strolled passed a couple tiffany's stores (thought of cherish and jim) and numerous other high class places before heading back to the car--which was next to mari's office building. We then headed towards the nearby island across the rainbow bridge.

We parked the car and entered the shopping mall venus. Yup! It was like I was at the venetian in vegas-- the shops and ceiling on the 2nd level were decorated like we were in venice. Which was a pretty close resemblence to the venetian. Loved it. We then went for sushi. Mom A. Doesn't know how to use chopsticks and is too stubborn to try a different way to attempt to hold them. And B. Doesn't do raw fish. The sushi place we were at had the trolley line atop the bar that had a constant supply of sushi. Mom had a tuna salad one and a shrimp one. I had avacado/ tuna. And salmon. These were the ones with the meat atop the rice. Delicious. 2000yen or 20$ for our meal. We then went outside and took pictures of the rainbow bridge --which resembles the brooklyn bridge. There is even a mini-- statue of liberty. Haha first time moms seen the statue of liberty and its in tokyo.

After we got our pictures it was already 9pm and mari had to work the next morning. She brought us back to our hotel (mom passed out 2 minutes into the car ride) and then we fell asleep for the night, ready for our mt fuji--hakone tourist bus tour monday morning! Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile