Tokyo Street Kart!
It feels surreal to wake up and be in Tokyo. We had a great sleep - our hotel was very quiet and had blackout blinds. We woke up all ready for a big morning excursion.
First up: breakfast. The restaurant buffet gave us ample opportunity to try new food. I started with what looked like shredded salad. Rik got some fresh, sliced fruit, and a juice drink that tasted like a vinegary pomegranate. I tried a round, blobby thing made of bean paste. It looked disgusting but tasted pretty good. I had some boiled fish, watery eggs, and small slices of rare steak. They had miso soup and fermented soy options (pass). My favourite thing was a little jiggly cake this area of Kawasaki is proud of called Sumiyoshi.
Last night we asked the checker-inner to arrange a cab for us to Shibuya this morning. He looked at us out of exasperation and said “no”. He explained that they had a free shuttle to the train station (the subtext was “what kind of fool are you?? Take the train!”)
So, after breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and took the shuttle bus to Kawasaki station…from there we navigated to Shibuya. It was a bit of a challenge and, after losing $40 trying and failing to procure a Suica card (Plus, the lady in line behind us was reaching around us to click the cancel button, and my crazy fuse got lit. What the heck, lady?! Are you here trying to mess with us for kicks!?) I have no idea what we were doing wrong and I lost my patience - hard to imagine, I know - so Rik took over.
A little hole in the wall opened and a man’s face appeared. He started talking to Rik in Japanese. Then another man appeared behind Rik to help. Rik was able to get us individual tickets and we were on our way. It was rush hour and we were crammed in the train like sardines.
Okay. I’m running out of time. We are about to board our flight to China and I don’t know if I’ll have access to Google when there so I’m hurrying to post a few photos and will add details later.
Plan: fly to Beijing and transfer to hotel - Dong Fang hotel in Beijing. Hopefully we have no issues.
What we did this morning: Street Kart!
Shibuya Crossing is one of the busiest intersections in the world. And we got to zoom through it on go-carts. Fun!
Ruth
Street Kart looks like fun! And totally you two!
ReplyDeleteIt's Lori again. Stupid google won't show my account.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Lori! It is a pain is the butt making comments. I appreciate hearing from you, though! Xo
ReplyDeleteSee! It didn’t recognize me!
DeleteAwesome! I would have loved to do that but I thought there was an issue with driver’s licenses. Very cool! Enjoy China. - Lisa
ReplyDeleteLove the go-carts - what I fun way to make an insane intersection less stressful! The hole-in-the-wall at the banking machine (or whatever it is) is hilarious - is there a hole in each of the vending machines too? ;) I have heard that the Japanese are very helpful and will intervene if they think you're doing something that's embarrassing (like telling you there is no sugar if you order sugar with your tea). I can't wait to hear of all the other helpful things they do for you when you get back to Japan!
ReplyDeleteWowza!! I have so many questions about the go karts! Can’t wait to chat when you’re back.
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