Tokyo Trip

Joe and I took a 4-day trip to Tokyo! Yay, as part of our New Year's Resolutions to get out and travel more, we were excited to finally get some leave approved!!! The flight was only about two hours long and when we got to the airport, we stopped by the Information Desk to get maps and brochures of the areas we wanted to go to, and were trying to figure out just how to get to our hotel using the subway system.

I'm no stranger to subway/metro systems (DC and Germany), but I have to admit, this one was probably the most complicated/confusing system I've encountered. Most likely it was due to the fact most of it was in Japanese characters. Thankfully, we had our iPhones with a free app that would calculate the subway routes we needed to take to get to whichever station we input into it. What a life saver!!!

Our hotel was about a 45-minute "ride" away, with two stops and one train change. It's complicated because they have several entirely different "train systems"... one called a "JR line", the "subway", and the "monorail". You better make sure you know which line you're getting on and in which direction!!! We were of course the "stupid Americans" who were slowing everyone else down, but by the end of our trips we were PROS!

Our first day we checked into our hotel and ventured out to find the Tokyo Tower. It was only about a 15-minute walk from our hotel. It was awesome to see the entire city from such a great view. It was strange being in such a big city... Okinawa sure is a much slower pace town. Everyone was hustling to get to where they were going... definitely city life!

The next few days we spent checking out different areas... we traveled all over Tokyo! We saw some temples and shrines, different shopping areas, tried new restaurants, went to Disney Sea, and enjoyed just walking around the different areas.

Joe and I both have never been to any of the Disney parks before, so we were both super excited! We originally had wanted to go on Friday hoping it wouldn't be as crowded, but it rained all Friday so we decided we had to put it off until the weekend. Fortunatley, the weather was fairly decent, but it was super crowded!!! All the rides had lines that were hours long. We decided one the one we wanted to go on and waited in line for 2 hours and 45 minutes!!! I honestly don't think I've ever waited that long in a line before. My feet were killing me from all the walking around we'd done the days before, and standing for all that time sure didn't help!!! We finally got on the ride and it felt like it lasted for all of 3 minutes. UGH! Oh well, it was cool and we were glad we got to go on at least one big ride!

I honestly needed a vacation from my vacation! We were "go, go, go" the entire time! We came back on Sunday and immediately needed to unpack, settle back in, and get ready for work bright and early the next day!

We had a BLAST! Can't wait to do some more traveling! It's either going to be China or Korea mext!!!