Day 3

We are still in Tokyo and today we were free to do as we wished. Amanda and I woke up at 5:00am and went with a group to see the Tsukiji fish market. It was not near as gross as I had feared and I couldn’t believe the size of the tuna. When we started to leave the fish market we realized that Schuchardt was missing. We searched for 10 min. but couldn’t find him. It turns out he had gone off, lost us, then when he couldn’t find us he went to McDonald’s. I was sad because he hadn’t brought an umbrella and I have my two person one so we were sharing, and since he was the tall one he was carrying it. Lucky for my it wasn’t raining that hard, and he found us before we got on the train. After riding the subway we arrived at the sumo training place. We stayed and watched a practice for awhile. It seems like a pretty rough sport and I wonder how it got started. I don’t know if I would make a very good sumo wrestler, in fact I am not sure if women can sumo wrestle. Oh and it was interesting because their practice is almost all silent except for grunts and heavy breathing. After sumo we headed back to the hotel for breakfast. These was salmon steak, rice (oh no not rice again), this muddy creamy tofu soup (which I later learned is called Mizo), pickled vegs. (of course), and a hard boiled egg. I ate the rice and two eggs, the rest my stomach just couldn’t handle in the morning. After breakfast all the groups broke off for the day. Amanda and I went with Schuchardt to a Shinto Shrine that also had a war museum in it. Oh we also had David’s Godzilla doll because he thought we would have better picture opportunities.
We had lots of fun with him. Oh yesterday I go a crink called Super H2O and it kind of tasted like sweet grapefruit, it was really good. Anyway, after the shrine we made our way to the Tokyo Time Square where there is major shopping. Now getting around in Tokyo is fun because there is no English and I swear all the names sound the same. Amanda and I have gotten really good at saying “Suiema sen chictasue no eki wadobadeska” which of course means “excuse me where is the subway?” When we got off at the station we thought was the Time Square one we could not find it so we replaced subway in our Japanese phrase with Time Square. Two guys walked us to the main part and I thought this was really nice of them. By the time we had shopped at Tokyo Hands, which is this huge store that has anything you could think of, we were starving so we decided to hunt up some non fish food. We found the most ‘dericious’ noodle place, and then for dessert we went to this yummy place where our ice cream came on a waffle. After having our fill we started the long trek back which was made longer because we got on a train going the wrong way. We made it to the hotel just as we were having to leave for dinner. It was breaded pork and shrimp tonight. I didn’t what anything else because I wasn’t hungry or in the mood for rice or pickled vegs. Now Amanda and I had thought that we were going back to the hotel to relax and take a bath but we had forgot that we had to meet with the Franklin Alumni at 8. So we went to the bar where we met with them and had unlimited drinks and food. The food was really good and I was glad that I hadn’t filled up at dinner. At nine Amanda and I left and came back to the hotel for a nice Japanese bath, which I really could get used to. Well, until tomorrow.

Third day without giving in to Hello Kitty