Day 2 in Tokyo

Our second day in Japan was a lot less hectic since we had a little bit more of a handle on the transportation and didn't have to carry around our big bags.  When we woke up we had breakfast at our hotel, which consisted of unlimited toast, soup, and coffee... Naturally, we each ate about 6 or 7 pieces of toast. 

 

After breakfast, Jane, Mike, Dani and I walked around the Imperial Palace which was within walking distance of our hotel.  We walked around the gardens which were beautiful and very peaceful.  However, when we all started to get a little cold, we decided to look for a place to sit and have a nice bowl of Japan's famous Soba.  We found this one place which ended up being delicious and really affordable.  The way you order is by pushing a button on a machine, which resembles a vending machine, and it prints out a ticket, which you then go up and exchange for your meal. Of course we needed someone to show us a picture of the food on the menu since the only things written on the buttons were in Japanese with no pictures.

 

When we arrived back at our hotel, we were overjoyed to find that our friends, Anna, Amanda, and Andea (I know lots of A's!) were already checked into the hotel.  The three of them are friends that came together from Vanderbilt.  Anna is my roommate on the ship and Andrea and Amanda live next door.  The reason they didn't stay with us the first night was because they did a Tokyo overnight trip with SAS.  I was so relieved that everything worked out and we were all together at the hotel, since there is no way of contacting eachother.  Even in the case of an emergency, our cell phones had no service in Japan.

 

That night a big group of us went to Harajuki, a famous shopping area in Tokyo.  They had big designer stores but also little shops and stands.  I was very proud of myself because I didn't buy a single thing!  After shopping, we took the train to a restaurant that was recommended to us by the hotel.  The restaurant was located upstairs so we took a tiny elevator to get to it.  When we walked in, I was taken back by all the smoke.  The place was filled with men in suits who were smoking.  However, I was immediately distracted when I saw the touch screen menus on our table, which were even cooler than the last ones.  The options were unlimited and all we had to do was click the item, click the quantity, and then click what we figured out was the "order" button.  Needless to say, there were several accidental orders, repeat orders, etc.  Not to mention, there was no way of knowing who ordered what.  When an order came out and it didn't look appealing or like what we thought we had ordered in the picture, everyone just looked around at eachother and claimed that they hadn't ordered it.  It was pretty funny.

 

After dinner we came back, showered, and took cabs to a club called Muse.  A guy on the ship named Oliver, who also happens to be from Vanderbilt, took it upon himself to send out an itinerary for each port which always includes a bar or club where we can plan on seeing lots of SASers.  This time was no different.  There had to be close to 100 of us there.  It was a wild night to say the least, which is why my post for day 3 probably won't be as long since we were all hurting from the night before.