.........................................................................................Most people tend to dislike Tokyo, treat it as a spectacle to take in for a day or two, but not a place you would want to really hang out in, kind of like Vegas I suppose. They did not have the time I had. Thanks to my friend Nozomi, I had five days I will always remember, fast yes, overwhelming, maybe, but fun as hell. For those that don`t remember, I met Nozomi while scuba diving in Honolulu way back in November. We`ve kept in touch all that time, and she was gracious enough to let me crash on her studio apartment floor in the Tama district for four nights. Not only that, she took those days off to be my official escort/body guard on a whirlwind tour of the biggest city in the world. She also supplied me with the gifts! A book on Japanese culture, all kinds of tour information, maps, brochures and such, and some cool stickers. It even gets better! She insisted on cooking for me, and turns out she`s a world class chef, at least in my humble opinion. Needless to say, basically being pampered and not having to worry about transportation or ordering food and having my happy-go-lucky (she is always laughing!) companion made my experience what it was. Considering we barely spoke the same language, it was tse goy that we became such good friends and could amuse each other so easily!
In summary, we saw many cherry blossoms, checked out a cool onsen (my first public bath experience), went shopping for a new camera to replace the one that got stolen, ate tons of sushi, took the trains about 20 times a day, wondered around the museum, saw some cool architecture, both traditional and modern, and had a cocktail at the Park Hyatt (lost in translation) to top it all off.
