TOP RANKED: WEEK OF MY LIFE!!! TOKYO & MITO

Well, if the beginning of the week with the obon festival in full bloom weren't enough...Thursday until today were incredible!!!

Thursday morning, I woke up, packed a bag, took a shower, and biked up to the bus station. John and I had plans prior from me departing Itako to meet up in Tokyo and hang out. So by 2:00 pm, I was in Tokyo. John met me at Tokyo Station which was great and we were able to get coffee and a little snack before heading to Ebi-Su. Ebi-Su is a wonderful little part of Tokyo, very French - Mom, You would LOVE IT!. John and I stopped by a little market filled with goods and purchased a few things for the park we were going to. We met with new friends and enjoyed an afternoon and evening filled with great food, awesome company, tons of laughter and smiles. We sat around talking, played games, ran around, it was really fun to meet so many new people! John told me to just pack a bag and not worry about having a place to stay. I did just that. I have noticed everything in Japan seems to just happen. Magically everything always seems to just come together. So I was able to stay with some friends of John's.

Friday, I went with two guys I had just met into Tokyo. They were visiting as well from another part of the island. Also JETs. We explored all over! We headed first to Tokyo Tower. Tokyo tower was built in 1958 (yay! 50 year anniversary), it is an old television tower which is now turned into an observation facility to view the wonderful areas of Tokyo from way above the ground.

After we spent a majority of the day walking around and hanging out at Tokyo Tower we went into Shinjuku to meet another friend. The four of us went to a Okonomiyaki restaurant. When you sit down at the table there is a grill in the middle of the table, like traditional Japanese steak houses, you know what I'm talking about, right? The "pancake" type food is delicious! You can order virtually anything you want to put into the pancake. The base is cabbage, raw egg, some pancake mix, with the meat on top. You put oil on the grill and cook your meat. While the meat is cooking, you mix the other mixture together, take the meat off the grill and add it to the mixture. Then place it all back on the grill to cook for a few minutes. You then can add a variety of sauces! Oishii!!! Delicious :)

It was then bye bye to those friends and back to meet up with John and company...

new blog for picture sake :)