Weekend of June 19-20

Well the second weekend as a Tokyo resident was pretty good. Started out with finally getting to the gym in the building. Great little gym, it was excellent to hopefully get back in that routine. After working out, relaxed for awhile and then got ready to head out and watch the Japan world cup game. Needless to say the bars were packed. We scoped out a few different places, but Sae and I both decided we'd rather sit down somewhere, enjoy a decent dinner and drink then stand at a bar all night. So we settled on this Korean joint which wasn't too full, most likely because of the $30/person cover (oh Tokyo...). Place was decent, but we decided it wasn't the best place for dinner, so we stayed through the half and then left. Leaving was also further promoted by the lady sitting in front of us that was so inconsiderate she was hanging over the bar, completing obstructing our view.

---Sae---
I was not watching the world cut at all but this Korean lady's "Hanes" underwear. The grey "Hanes" underwear. Not a thong, a regular "Hanes" grey underwear(LOL). Her pants were low-rise, and as Matthew said, she was leaning over to see the tv screen. I was mean enough to say "Do you know you are showing your underwear?" Haha, she stopped leaning. But yes, it was time to leave.

We walked around for awhile, saw some interesting local scenes, and settled on this "American style" restaurant to watch the remainder of the game. The food that night was definitely mediocre, and Japan lost the game - bummer.

On Sunday we got up and went biking now that the bikes had finally arrived. Me, in my usual genius state, decided we should bike right up the insanely steep hill right outside our apartment. This took the lowest gear, standing up, and some heavy pedaling. The brilliance comes in because I did this on no breakfast, no drinking, etc. since waking up. Getting up the hill took so much exhilarated energy that i nearly puked once at the top and Sae had to go find a convenience store to pick me up a drink with some sugar. Real slick Matthew. We biked all the way (3 miles) around the emperor's palace. It is HUGE, absolutely amazing so see that much open land, perfectly manicured grounds, right in the heart of Tokyo. We saw the BAC ML building on the trip and lots of other cool scenes, I'll be sure to take my camera on the next trip.

---Sae---
We saw lots of runners and running groups. My friend told us that there are free changing rooms/showers around the Imperial Palace. So even on weekdays, this place is full of runners because business men/women jog for awhile, take a shower, and start a day.

Did a bit of grocery shopping when we got back from biking. Took some shots of a high end car dealership by the apartment finally - iPhone only, but still pretty cool. Got cleaned up and headed to meet Hiromi and have lunch a few train stops away. Lunch was great - excellent authentic Italian. After lunch we went to - man I can't remember the name, and Sae is sleeping (I'll do a dedicated post on this location later). Basically the place in Tokyo where everyone goes when you're a tourist. Everyone has insane fashion, looks like they are from outerspace, etc. It was alright. Right after that area is the high end area of Tokyo - Minato-ku, which is where many CEOs and celebrities live. This was reinforced by seeing the White Enzo, a Bentley, and three different Lamborghinis roar past. Second Enzo I had seen in 1 day, the other is by our apartment - some parts of Tokyo are just wild...

After that we walked to a Shrine in the area and checked that out. They had the most impressive display of bonsai trees I have ever seen. I will be sure to go back and photograph them all. I need to get those pictures to Larry; I think he will really appreciate them. I took a quick Iphone shot of one of them, this one was over 400 years old.

After the Shrine we hopped on the train, headed home and called it day. I believe we probably biked and walked between 7-10 miles that day alone, so we were beat. Closed out the day with a bit of fun work, with The Hangover playing in the background - darn good weekend. The only thing that is missing is Dad interaction as it's FATHERS DAY. I'll give him a call early AM, his afternoon - many of stories to share.

Another week is on deck, time to tear it up!