Tokyo, Japan

The market at Sensoji.

Making my wish!

Our kick ass lunch.

My new Japanese BFF!

The entrance to the temple.

Greetings from Roppongi/Tokyo!!

I'm here on a business trip for the week, and so far, other than dealing with the jet lag, things have been great. My mom was originally supposed to come with me, but since Pop fell a few weeks ago and was hospitalized for a few days(and broke his knee cap), she decided it was best not to come this time, so my friend Vikki joined me instead.

We got in on Saturday evening, and right away decided we wanted to go out for sushi!! So after asking the concierge to make us reservations, 4 of us (Vikki, me and 2 colleagues) headed out for one of the most unique meals of our lives! We let the chef choose what to serve us, which is the way to go to get a genuine experience - we never would have ordered half of the stuff he served us if we'd decided to order on our own. We each tried every one of the 15+ courses that were served to us - and some of it was delicious, some of it was awful, but all of it was an experience! I think the worst were these tiny, translucent long fish, about a 1/4 - 1/2 cm wide and 2 inches long - and there were probably 20 on each of our plates. You could see the little black eyeballs looking up at you....Ugh! But, at least we tried it! (never again!) The biggest surprise was at the end - when we got our check! Little did we know how expensive sushi can be (who would have known?) in Japan!! $850 later, we made our way home! It's a good thing BIO is covering the bill for me!

On Sunday, we had a chance in the afternoon to go see the oldest temple in Tokyo, the Sensoji Temple, and meandered through the markets around it. It was packed with people!! We found a little authentic restaurant and stopped for lunch - which was delicious! One of the locals sat next to me and was Chatty Cathy the entire meal. Too bad we couldn't understand a word he was saying. We'd just laugh because we had no clue what he was saying and he'd laugh along with us - or maybe it was at us!?

At the temple, we did our fortunes, where you shake this silver container, make a wish then at the bottom is a hole where a long wooden stick comes out. At the end of the stick is a symbol, and then you match the symbol to a wooden drawer and pull out your fortune on a sheet of paper. Mine was a bad fortune, which just means that now isn't the time to build a new house, start a new job, etc. Good thing I have no plans of either!

Yesterday and today I've been busy with work, but tomorrow we leave for Osaka where I'll have some more business to attend to before we get to make our way to Kyoto where I'll have some more time to be a tourist - stay tuned for more stories from Kyoto!