Tokyo, Japan!

Over the weekend, Sagar and I visited Tokyo, Japan! Visiting Japan was on my list of things to do in 2014, so it was great to be able to go there together!

We left Seoul early on Saturday morning and came back on Monday morning. It was a short trip, but totally worth it!

Looking pretty good for 7am! At Incheon International Airport.

Just a two and a half hour flight, and we were in Japan!

We took the express train from Narita Airport to Shinjuku, the area where the hostel was.

Check out the beautiful Japanese currency!

We sat down to have lunch when we arrived in Shinjuku, and a Russian university student sat down near us. We invited him to join us, and he helped us figure out where our hostel was. While we were talking with him, one of his friends (also from Russia) just happened to walk by! The two of them answered some questions that we had about how to take the subway, and they walked with us to our hostel. It was so nice to be so warmly welcomed by two total strangers!

After checking into our rooms, we walked around for a while, looking at the buildings, checking out the convenience and grocery stores, and figuring out how to take the subway to where we were going to meet up with some of my friends that night.

The subway in Tokyo has several cars set aside for women only to prevent groping, which had been a problem on the crowded subways, especially during the rush hour. You can read more about it here.

Saturday afternoon subway ride!

After a little bit of exploring on our own, we met up with my friends Junior and Kanako, who I know from the Intensive English Program at Western! Kanako is from Japan, and Junior is from Brazil, but he's studying abroad in Japan right now! I just saw Kanako a few weeks ago when she came to visit Korea. I hadn't seen Junior since fall 2012 though, and I was SOOOOOOOO happy and excited to see him in Japan! 

We met up at Shibuya Station and walked together to Meiji Jingu, a Shinto shrine. It was so beautiful, peaceful, and quiet!

Barrels of sake!

Kanako and Junior!

I love it when my friends meet my friends <3

The prayers of the people.

There just happened to be a wedding party having their pictures taken while we were there...this was so funny because we ran into a wedding party when Kanako was in Korea, and we sneaked pictures of them too! Such beautiful traditional wedding clothes.

From there, we walked to Takeshita Street, a shopping district in Harajuku. So much cute!

I love Daiso, the Japanese and Korean version of The Dollar Store!!

From there, we went to Shibuya Crossing, the busiest pedestrian crossing in Japan! We took pictures from the Starbucks that overlooks the intersection (one of the busiest Starbucks stores in the world), and then we went and crossed the street ourselves just for the heck of it!

It was so good to see Kanako and Junior in Japan and catch up with them! It was such a wonderful evening!

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The next morning, Sagar and I ventured out the grocery store to find some breakfast. Check out the colorful snacks we found! 

And you know, just Johnny Depp in the grocery store.

Some kind of coffee/milk drink, and milk tea!! ^^

We headed toward Senso-ji, the oldest Buddhist temple in Tokyo, for the afternoon. The following are some pictures on our way from the subway, through a market, to the temple.

Check out the old-school taxis!

And even more old-school...rickshaws!

More barrels of sake.

Although we didn't actually visit it, we had a view of Tokyo Skytree, the tallest tower in the world!

And finally, we arrived at Senso-ji Temple! Right when we got there, we were stopped by a group of Japanese university students who had a "mission" to ask questions to English-speaking tourists and take pictures with them. One of the missions was to take an awkward picture, so we taught them how to do awkward poses. Then another one of the missions was to have a marriage proposal in another language, so Sagar "proposed" to one of the girls in Hindi! It was hilarious!! She said "hanji" (yes!) ;)

And now on to the pictures of this incredible temple.

There was smoke coming from the small structure in the middle of the square, and people were waving the smoke onto their faces and clothes. Can anyone explain what this means?

We got some pictures with people wearing Japanese kimono!

From there, we went to Earth Day Tokyo (an Earth Day Festival), where we just walked around and ate and ate and ate! We tried vegan Chinese chow mein, vegan curry and naan, and long fries covered in cheese sauce! We visited a teepee type structure, heard a super loud concert, and checked out a few booths selling clothes, bamboo carved items, and various sustainable products. 

Then we made an obligatory trip to Daiso to load up on things to bring home, and turned in early so we could catch the flight back to Seoul early on Monday morning.

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On the way to the airport at 6am.

And all too soon, we were on the way back to Korea! 

Japan was such an interesting place to see, and I hope to visit again sometime soon! To my friends in Japan that I didn't get a chance to see, I'm coming for you next time! Mei, Kasumi, Nabe, Erik, Alissa, I'm talking to you! ;)