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.