G-Lo dreams of sushi

Ramen noodles that did not come out of a 10-cent package, a hotel room the size of a shoebox, and seeing that orange Eiffel Tower-looking emoji in real life. That's right...we went to Tokyo, Japan for the final hurrah of our Asian adventure.

By the way, traveling with a baby is no joke. Little hooligan required more luggage than we did! Well, he required more luggage than Mark did. But I'm a solid traveler, and I always want to make sure I have at least 3 to 7 spare outfits for a weekend trip, 'cause you never know!

Ramen noodle festival right outside of our hotel. What good fortune we stumbled upon! 

Ramen noms

Our hotel room was legitimately only slightly larger than the bed inside of it, which wasn't saying much. When we booked the hotel, the bed was described as "semi-double" sized. What in yeezus' name does that even mean? Well, basically if you're 5' 7" and your husband is 6' 4" it means it's going to be too small.

To the window; to the wall.

But at least a little bit of daddy/baby bonding was done!

We spent the first evening of our trip wandering the streets of Shinjuku. There is way more to see there than one weekend allows! But we managed to see both King Kong and Godzilla on the sides of  buildings, possibly pass through the red light district, and catch a glimpse of the strobe light/extreme techno music constantly running at the Robot Restaurant. If you've never heard of that place, please Google it and look at a video or two. Unless you're prone to epileptic seizures. But otherwise, who doesn't love constant strobe lights and hearing "robot-a-robot-a-restaurant" on repeat indefinitely?

Day 2 was spent checking out the Tokyo Tower and eating lots and lots of food. It may not seem like much from the ground, but from the observation deck we could see miles and miles of dense city structures. Amazing how much can fit on this little island!

Hey big orange! 

Mt. Fuji, we see you out there...you handsome devil, you.

Tallest people in Tokyo today.

I'm a tourist with a tourist sidekick. The locals love me.

Not afraid of heights.

Care for a bottle of white? Very matcha, thank you!

We found a little food festival outside the tower when we were done taking in the views from up top. We also found a family who's dogs wear more fashionable sweaters than they do. 

Dogs are people too.

Using public transportation in Japan wasn't too difficult, although, we would not have been able to do it on our own. Thankfully, there are English-speaking people who work at the subway stations whose job it is to solely direct the lost tourists. Once they give the basic instructions, catching on to how the whole thing works isn't too tough.

Tallest man on the Tokyo subway.

So our next destination was Shibuya and the busiest pedestrian intersection on Earth. Maybe that's an exaggeration. But it really is busier than anything I'd ever seen before. Imagine about 1000 people waiting on each side of a 5-way intersection for the crosswalk lights to tell them to pass GO. Then the light turns green and said people cross the intersection. It looks like a concert or baseball game just ended. But then...it happens every time the light turns green. All day. Mind. Blown.

Wait for it.

It's happening...

It's like a bunch of ants!

Mass confusion or perfect order? That's up to you.

So, that's how we crossed the road that day.

And then, more food!

Crepes for me!

And a bite for baby? Ha, nope.

This crepe is bananas.

And of course, a crepe for the man who carries all of my supplies.

One of my main goals during the Japan trip was to find the most delicious sushi of my life. Not only do I believe I could survive on sushi for the rest of my life, but also, I had been deprived of it during the time I was pregnant. So this was my chance, of all the chances, to go ham on some raw fish.

So raw.

We did find sushi that was tasty, but we were surprised to find more ramen noodle restaurants than sushi restaurants in the Shinjuku and Shibuya areas. Was it the best sushi of my life? Nah, I wouldn't say so. But it wasn't bad. Many of the menus we found at the sushi restaurants just didn't have much of what we had expected. Basically, it seemed more local-friendly and not as tourist-friendly. Maybe we should have done a bit more research on sushi places before our departure. But at least we enjoyed the surprisingly delightful noodles at nearly every turn!

Then we did just a wee bit more strolling around the city to wear ourselves out. Because traveling with a 2-month old wasn't tiring enough.

Ha, kidding. But really, we barely had 48 hours in the city altogether, so we did want to make the most of it.

But eventually wanted to head out of there so we could could kick our feet up (or gingerly tuck them under ourselves) in our little hotel room for a few more hours before hitting the airport. Okay, and we wanted to see what drinks we could get at the airport lounge too. (Wine. I got wine at the airport.)

Tokyo Sky Tree from the train

See how much fun we have while in transit? Yeah, it's a mixed bag.

Chasing waterfalls

I'm not done talking about Jeju yet, so I hope you're not tired of hearing about it. We jam-packed all the fun we possibly could into our short stay on the island, and I'm not about to leave anything out!

One of the many attractions that can be found on the tiny island is the "Mysterious Road." It's one of those "I need to see it for myself" type places. That's because it's a short stretch of road upon which one can apparently roll uphill while the car is in neutral. Or you can pour water on the road and watch it flow uphill. Mind = blown.

They see us rollin.' They hatin'.

We could not figure it out. How was it really possible that we were rolling UP the hill? And that the water appeared to flow up? We roamed around to look at the place from every angle. We watched other people do the same. We scratched our heads and told ourselves that it was impossible for water or cars to roll uphill. Then finally we resolved to tell ourselves, "it's an optical illusion" so we could get on to other things. 

The stone statues that sit and laugh at tourists who think they are rolling up a hill

But before we leave, I'm going to sit on this pig and think one more time about rolling up a hill.
And about how cute little babies and piglets are just leeches in disguise.

We knew we didn't want to leave Jeju without seeing at least one waterfall. After all, the island is littered with them, but you still need make an actual effort to get close enough to take a picture of one.

We wear Ray Bans and babies. Like a boss.

That's the way water is supposed to flow on planet Earth!

So we made our way to Cheonjiyeon Falls. It was pretty. Then we bought a souvenir, felt festive, and left. 

What the duck.

Our souvenirs of choice. Perfect for the plane ride too.
Jk, we just got miniature versions of these bad boys.

One last stop before leaving Jeju: the beach! Even though we stayed in a beachfront hotel, the beaches in Jeju weren't exactly the frolic-on-the-shore type. I guess the island was a little too volcanic for that business. But the views were still good, and the weather was still nice. 

Nothing like a happy baby at the beach! Lol.

There was a little sand to stroll on, but that was about it. This was the type of beach where it was best to keep our sandals on and not go in the water. There were certainly people out there splashing in the waves, but since the water temperature was colder than 90 degrees, I decided I would freeze to death in it if I went further than toe deep. So we just stuck to the shore and looked at our month-old baby until he started screeching at us.

Her face has Jeju written all over it!

Sweet view while sitting on lounge chairs on the roof of our hotel, sipping on overpriced beverages

It was a nice little getaway, despite having our little velociraptor with us. But how else were we going to figure out how best to travel with an infant? I mean, the obvious choice was to take a weekend vacation to a tropical island with him. The internet can give loads of advice on the matter, but we thought it would be best to get out and do that dirty work ourselves!