Keeping Them in Check

You can expect the next posts to be done by me, as I assume Colin will be unable to charge his laptop due to his unpreparedness of not having a travel plug adapter (he has been using mine every trip). So you'll just have to deal with my entries until he comes in possession of one or if he finds a outlet that he can plug his computer into.

Yesterday would mark the first full day I spend with my siblings. And what can I say, the entire day I spent it more stress and filled with anxiety then the last few trips combined. Unlike my friends, my family has little to no knowledge or understanding of the Japanese culture. As such I spent the day trying make sure they didn't offend the people around.

The start of the day began slowly as they were still shaking off their jet leg and I was re-accommodating myself into the new apartment we were staying at. We had not had the foresight to buy any food from the supermarket last night to make any breakfast so we ended up eating Cliff bars as a placeholder for some proper food.

I ended up planning out the day and decided on visiting the Imperial Palace while on the way to Tokyo Tower and perhaps do some shopping afterwards. Now both these locations I have visited in the past, but seeing how it was their first time in Japan, I felt it was appropriate to have them visit the landmarks. Before we left the area around our apartment, we decided to get some proper food and ended up eating at a local Mcdonald's. They had already switched to their Lunch menu (it was only 10:30am) but the Teriyaki Burger I had was pretty good.

In my previous trip, the Imperial Palace's eastern gardens were open for the public to walk through and it easily stretched over a kilometer long. However much to a disappointed we found out that the palace grounds were closed to the public on Mondays and Fridays, and well yesterday was Friday. So we had to just settle on wandering around the outside of the palace while we made our way to closestsubway station that would get us to Tokyo Tower.

Unfortunately the walk ended up taking a hour longer than I wanted as my sister became obsessed with looking at her phone as she insisted on fixing her phone's camera before we were to go anywhere else.

As it being Golden Week, both locations of Tokyo Tower and the Imperial Palace had its large amount of crowd. But I still feel like it was much less than the crowds we had to wade through in our last trip. More local tourists than international tourists this time.

Tokyo Tower itself was a good experience as before. They had decorated the front with a bunch of Koinobori in anticipation of Children's Day. They looked pretty as the wind lifted them in the air, many visitors stopped to get pictures, us included.

After walking through the Imperial Palace, we had gotten hungry by the time we got to Tokyo Tower so we decided to eat lunch before heading up the tower. The food court in the Tower still had the same reasonably priced meals that they served the last time I came to visit which was a nice surprise. Wish all countries would price their food the same way for their local attractions.

The wait to get into the tower wasn't too long, but the observatory itself was pretty crowded. Not to the point where we shoved each other but crowded enough to feel well crowded. After the Tower, I brought my siblings to the Ginza Strip which is known for high class shopping. It was more a request out of my brother than anything. He didn't realize how much a leap in prices were for the area.

After spending a few hours waiting for them to slowly work their way through the various stores, we came back home where they insisted on trying out a restaurant our apartment host suggested, a restaurant that specialized in serving Monju, okonomiyaki and teppanyaki. Unfortunately I can only say the dinner was disastrous as they overstepped their foreigner privileges and ended up thoughtlessly ordering a bunch of stuff that we had no idea what was what. I ended up embarrassed, frustrated and hungry after the dinner, and most of all felt sorry for the two grannies who ran the restaurant for having to deal with us.

Hopefully today won't be as bad, but I won't keep my hopes up.