Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo was a blend of old and new. Skyscrapers stood next to historic buildings and palace gardens. Temples mixed into winding streets with quaint restaurants. Fashion walked the sidewalks... Parada, Louis Vitton, and Coach. Rolls Royce, Bently, BMW, Mercedes on the streets. Downtown was exciting. We felt a bit out of place in our hiking boots and backpacks.





We found our way to the Government building which has a public observation floor 65 stories in the sky.

It would have been great to see at night.



We visited Honda's showroom to see the Robot Asimo preform.







Vending machines on the streets offer a plentiful selection of food, drinks, and other things that surprised us.

Beer and cigarettes too.
A familiar brand name in an unfamiliar place.


Where ever we go it is always fun to watch and interact with the people. They are very friendly and the children are cute.

Japan by Rail

Our journey to Japan began with a bus ride to Busan, a ferry ride to Hakata, and two trains. It is said that getting there can be half the adventure. We find that to be true.

I packed my Lonely Planet travel photography guide and Chelsie her Amazon Kindle. Both of these kept us busy as we were in route from place to place.
From the south east corner of Korea we were able to catch a ferry named the Beetle. A quick 3 hour hydrofoil ride put us on into Japan.

Leaving Korea, we got watch container ships being unloaded at the port. The buildings in the background are apartments.

Upon arriving in Japan we went to the train station and picked up our JR passes. Unlimited use of the rail system for the time we were there was great. For all of you train fans, we hopped aboard the legendary Shinkansen, the bullet trains which can go up to 180 mph, and headed for Tokyo. The bullet trains took us all over the country throughout the week.



I decided to include some extra train pictures for my Pops and all of you other train fanatics. Riding the trains was one of the highlights of the trip for me.













We found all the trains to be very comfortable and very punctual. We could set our watches for a minute or two prior to our arrival time and take a nap without worring about missing our stop.
We spent our first night in Japan on the train. There are sleeping bunks on one of the trains. Cant say we slept great, but it was an experience.

Arrival in Tokyo called for a stop at Starbucks and a reference to the Lonely Planet to plan out the day.

Keep an eye out for more from Japan. We have made it back to home base here in Korea, and are now catching up