Birthday in TOKYO

John surprised me and told me that we were going to Tokyo to spend the weekend, to celebrate my birthday. He had booked the one of the most extravagant hotels in Tokyo, The Park Hyatt, featured in "Lost in Translation".  It was absolutely beautiful, we stayed on the 51st floor, and took pictures of the city, its spectacular views. 

Tokyo is enormous, populated with about 30 million, there are various sections of the city, each has a very distinctive vibe. It's like NYC times a thousand. For example, The Shinjuku area that we stayed in is a lot like a nice Times square. This is the section that is featured when you see movies that take place in Tokyo, it is illuminated with neon at night. The Ginza area is a lot like Madison/Park/5th Avenue, very upscale designer stores and shopping. The Harajuku/Shibuya area is like the East village/Melrose again times a thousand. The girls dress in costumes, that (we discovered) can be found at major department stores, on separate floors along with other young fashion like old school punk stylings like bondage pants, punk tees, and goth items. There is more shopping here than any one person could ever get to. If you lived in Tokyo a lifetime you still wouldn't get to it all. 

The subways are very sophisticated, they manage to get you to every area there, but trying to navigate the subway system was quite a challenge when you can't read the signs and there are different fares to get from place to place. The Shinjuku station is the largest in the world with 50 different exits, 3 department stores and countless other stores and restaurants.

On Saturday night we went to a restaurant called "The Ninja." When you arrive into the dark cavernous place, you are greeted by your ninja (waitress) who takes you to your tatami room by way of twisted labryths and stairways with special passageways that get you to your destination. The ninja does slight of hand tricks for you and makes a mean salad table side. 

A very fun party place.... 

Finally we got back on our Shinkansen express train to Sendai, which was decorated with Pokemon figures (Pokemon is still  the most popular character here.) a 1.5 hour trip. 

We look forward to more experiences and fun in Tokyo.