On the ground, Tokyo feels vibrant and busy, metropolitan in a way that is exciting but not unlike a cleaner, friendlier New York in many ways. It isn’t until you get some elevation that you are reminded that this is the biggest metropolitan area in the world. The sense of depth and the endless towers extending beyond the horizon in all directions was awe-inspiring, even for this nature-lover.

Unfortunately, this is not something that translates well to photos. We took in our best vistas at the top of Sunshine City, a 60-story building in Akihabara. The 60th floor is for observation, and has windows on all four sides to take in the views.

Tokyo from the top of Sunshine City.

We also got a taste of the city at night from our own room on the 25th floor of the Metropolitan Hotel. The blinking of the aircraft warning lights at their various intervals and distances away was mesmerizing.

Tokyo at night, from our hotel.

The view down from our hotel room.

Aside from the neat views and convenient location, Hotel Metropolitan was just plain nice. The room was larger than our room in Amsterdam, which I found surprising. But this is a hotel that seems to be popular foreigners, so perhaps that was the intent in making things a bit more spacious than you’d (apparently) see otherwise.

The bathroom was incredible. The toilet was a technological wonder, with a ton of settings and features, for both men and ladies. The shower was in its own glass-enclosed room, with the tub alongside. It was great to have space to move around in while showering, and was great for couples showering (get your mind out of the gutter), because you can step in and out and generally stay out of each others way, while comfortably carrying on a conversation. Also, one person taking a shower doesn’t prevent another from using the tub. The set-up appealed to me.

Our Hotel Metropolitan room.

I am sensing a pattern in my travels, wherein I find more love and respect for the design of the monies of the country I am visiting than for those of the country of my birth, which just seem stodgy. Other countries just seem to innovate more. Oh well.

I have mentioned parallels between my impressions of Tokyo and of New York City several times during the course of this series. Another parallel with New York that I noticed and really appreciated is that people take their tiny little spaces very seriously.

Tokyo is very dense, and people with even the smallest of personal spaces would fill those spaces with plants, and put container gardens wherever possible. This reminds me a lot of Queens, where the postage-stamp front gardens are always brimming with lovely plants, and are very well tended. The same here in Tokyo; the residential gardens had a well-loved and well-tended feeling; they seemed sacred and precious.

Carefully tended compact garden.

Within 24 hours of landing in Japan, I had already had the concrete thought “I could really live here for a few months, maybe a year,” so leaving only five days later was hard.

But, I figured a first-class ticket on American Airlines couldn’t hurt! Especially one obtained through points. As you may recall, we flew in on Japan Airlines to Narita. This was a kind of hard-to-get flight, and from such a highly reputable airline that it was worth buying two one-way tickets, instead of one round-trip (since there wasn’t a JAL trip available for the way back). So our return flight was through AA and left from Haneda Airport.

Bye, Japan.

First Class on American Airlines.

There was a distinct difference in first-class-iness, but I knew that going in (hence jumping through hoops to fly JAL). The seats weren’t as large or nice, and the attendants were not as friendly – Adam couldn’t come into first class to bring me my laptop before takeoff; I had to come back to where he was sitting to get it.

First class breakfast on American Airlines.

However, this is all just in comparison to JAL, which is considered to be one of the top five international first class flying experiences you can get. American Airlines was still very nice and did just fine by me. One attendant in particular looked out of me, and let me know that the Northern Lights were visible outside my window! I was entertaining myself with The Simpsons’ episode about food blogging (ha!), and would never have noticed.

None of my pictures were very good and they don’t really convey the magic, but I was/am still excited. I’ve always wanted to see an aurora.

The Northern Lights!

Somewhere over Canada

One of the craziest things about this flight to me was what I can only describe at time travel. We took off from Haneda around 6:30 am, shortly after dawn, and flew east. We flew through the entire day and the entire night and landed in LaGuardia around 6:30 am, shortly after dawn the same day. The flight was twelve hours but we saw a full day and a full night, and then landed the same day. My brain still has a hard time with that.

Regardless of my inability to wrap my head around long international flights, I could not recommend a trip to Japan any more highly. It is a fantastic country to be your first most-people-don’t-speak-your-language country, and if you have any opportunity to take some sort of temporary or contract job there, I say do it! I know it will probably be a long time before we make it back, but I already can’t wait.

The post Japan: Final Thoughts On Tokyo appeared first on spatialdrift.

Models of food are a common sight in Japan… it’s a whole industry just to make them!

The next thing is something we’ve probably all heard about before – the vending machines! There really were a lot, even in residential areas. We had a fun time trying as many things as we could, including both hot and cold drinks and ice cream, right from the machines.

Pocari Sweat!

The drinks are labeled as hot or cold in the vending machine. Also, Georgia brand coffee!

Royal milk tea… delicious radioactivity?

Ice cream vending machine.

Vending machines may still be involved even at sit-down establishments, like small ramen shops. Vending machines stand outside the entrance, so the ordering takes place at the machine, eliminating the wasted time of ordering and exchanging money in person. This keeps business brisk, which is important to small shops during peak hours.

Food ticket machine for ramen. There are some pictures of the food.

Tickets for ramen – printed on the same magnetic paper as the train tickets.

Adam’s ramen.

My ramen – so delicious! I had fried garlic, wood ear, and other nice things.

While we sat and waited for our food at these ramen restaurants, there were often people lining the benches or even standing, waiting for there chance to sit up at the bar and be fed. It was definitely a unique experience to have people not only waiting for me while I ate, but doing it right behind me, not five feet away! Not exactly relaxing, but darn tasty.

The inside of the ramen shop.

Another type of ticket machine for ramen… this one without as many pictures. We had fun guessing.
And it was the most mazing ramen we had all trip.

Seeing american brands in Japan was pretty entertaining. Over there 7-11s are a pretty big deal, and they serve fresh foods, too! While we stayed in Tokyo, we swung by the 7-11 every morning to take out the day’s cash and grab breakfast – and a few cans of Chu-Hi. And maybe a green tea Kit Kat, cream-filled melon bread, or a novelty ice cream.

Kirin Chu-Hi – about $1.30. (And 5% alcohol by volume!)

Green tea Kit Kat

Grape ice cream bar with jelly inside

We saw a few KFCs, as the Colonel’s Kentucky Fried Chicken is fairly popular in Japan. I’m not sure which I enjoyed more at the KFC we found in Akihabara, the backward sign of Goku hawking drumsticks, or the definitely asian-looking Colonel statue in a weird, reaching position.

The Colonel really loves my hair.

Goku sporting his KFC chicken.

While we weren’t very interested in eating KFC or McDonald’s in Japan, we did take in a little americana at Beersaurus, an american beer bar with a dinosaur theme. We still ordered japanese beer though. Who wants to fly around the world and drink an imported Sam Adams? I’ll take the token japanese beer, please.

Beer Saurus

One of the culinary highlights of the trip was kaiten-zushi – also known as conveyor belt sushi – a fast food sushi restaurant where the plates with the sushi are placed on a conveyor belt that winds through the restaurant past every table and counter seat. The restaurant we went to featured a conveyor belt arranged the the shape of an H, with the cross-piece of the H being the preparation area where the sushi was made and other foods were plated up. The rest of the H was lined with tables.

Each table had its own hot water tap, powdered green tea, and iPads for special orders, more or less eliminating the need for a server.

Powdered green tea – the hot water came from a built-in tap at our table.

Sushi on the conveyor belt.

iPads for special ordering items.

For special orders, there is a little wooden rail system running along the top of the housing of the conveyor belt with little plastic tray traincars that will stop in front of your table with your special order. Simply grab your food from the plate and push a button to send the little cars home. Again, no human interaction is required.

Little fans tell you what is coming…

Baby herring sushi on the conveyor belt.

The special orders “train car,” as we called it.

Freshwater snails – the sea snails were significantly more gnarly.

We had a great time picking things off the belt and selecting some choice special orders. Because we chose one of the nicer and more popular places kaiten-zushi places – Umegaoka Sushi no Midori – the food was really nice. There was also a 20+ person wait every time we walked by the restaurant (located on the eighth floor of the Seibu department store) during the course of our trip.

The only thing I had thay I didn’t like were the sea snails, and that’s probably just because I am not cut out for digging out my own little cold, snotty sea snails. Bleh. Everything else was really great!

Ice cream on the conveyor belt.

Green tea ice cream… and us with weird expressions.

You know how much each item to grab off the conveyor belt costs because the plates are color-coded and there is a key at each table so you know what price each color represents. The plates also have RFIDs in them, so when we were done, a server came buy with a scanner and just ran in down the sides of stacked plates to come up with the total owed.

It was definitely a fun japanese dining experience, and surprisingly cost effective, given that we treated it like an all-you-can-eat buffet. If you’re ever int he vicinity of the Ikebukuro Seibu Building, give Umegaoka Sushi no Midori a try.

The 25 plates consumed between 3 people, organized by color/price.

Another place we tried was Coco’s Curry House, a japanese curry chain. The food was good, but my favorite thing about this place was the menu, with an amazing heat level chart from -1 to 10. The cute little pictures and the descriptions are a hoot!

Coco’s Curry menu… awesome!

Another restaurant chain we tried was Sushiya-Ginzo, a sit-down sushi place. The Akihabara location we went to was sitauted under the train tracks, which was kind of neat. We had an amazing and quite reasonably priced lunchtime spread there, complete with some shochu and some great house appetizers. Besides the typical miso soup, we also received an egg custard – chawamushi – which was very interesting.

Shochu highball.

Adam and I at Ginzo.

My imo-jochu, shochu made with sweet potatoes instead of barley.

Chawamushi – an egg custard that seemed to have seafood in it. Unusual but good.

Our entire spread of sushi… so much deliciousness!

Besides the sushiyas and ramenyas, another type of establishment we frequented in Tokyo was the izakaya, a drinking restaurant that features a menu of shared small-plate dished designed to be be munched on whilst drinking. All the izakayas we went to had tatami floors with modern tatami seating (pits under the table), lockers to store your footwear in, and courtesy footwear to wear to the restroom. They also had groups of loud, singing/chanting/yelling drunken businessmen. Which was awesome.

The first izakaya we went to was Watami, a 600+ location chain we patronized twice while in Tokyo.

A little set of hors d’oeuvres from Watami.

We also tried another izakaya chain called Tsubohachi. We either ordered better at Tsubohachi, or Tsubohachi was a better restaurant. The chain is based out of Singapore and has more than 400 locations in Japan. We had a great time drinking shochu and whiskey and chowing down on thick-cut bacon, squid, and yakitori, among other things.

Trying to decide what to get at Tsubohachi.

The interior of Tsubohachi.

More shochu, naturally.

Thick-cut bacon.

Squid… SO good!

Spicy chicken… mostly devoured.

Gyoza.

After allllll of the above I’m sure this goes without saying, but if you go to Japan, go prepared to eat. After about two meals in Tokyo, I didn’t have the physical sensation of being hungry until two days after I returned to the states. We were consuming three full meals plus snacks and drinks every day… it was intense. There’s so much I couldn’t include in this epic post.

But Adam and I agree, the one of the driving reasons to travel is food (the other driving factors being culture and sight-seeing), so I have no regrets. With a little diligence, I even had the five pounds I gained there worked back off within a couple months of the trip! So go, go, go and eat, eat, eat!

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A bit of subculture we would have missed had we not walked to the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden.

Walking:

Even when we took the trains, we still walked from the stations to our destinations, so I’d say walking is by far what we did the most in Tokyo. Every morning, we’d walk from our hotel to the nearest 7-11 or Family Mart to get the day’s cash allowance (there’s a strong preference for cash over credit most of the time), and grab some cans of Kirin chu-hi.

After that, it was to the trains and more walking to reach our final destinations. Unsurprisingly, there’s not a huge amount of english signage floating around Japan outside of the impeccably labeled train stations. We got turned around a little bit here and there, but the only time we were seriously lost was when we were trying to follow poorly translated directions in Shinjuku.

That time, all we could do was retrace our steps, reread the directions, wander circles, follow hunches, and keep a lookout for public maps. The first one we found did not help us much, but eventually we found one that had the symbols we were looking for. It was frustrating and a little disconcerting at the time, but it was really a great experience, and a puzzle that we eventually solved.

Walking in Ikebukuro near our hotel.

This map saved us when we were wandering lost in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Even lost, we never felt unsafe. Day or night, everything seemed really serene. Being the biggest city has it’s advantages, I suppose: a lot of potential witnesses to any crime that might be committed. Once, we were trying to track down a particular bar and wound up on some back streets that were a bit desolate, but it was a residential area and probably safer than it felt (creepy quiet compared to the other places we’d been).

Walking the same block at night.

Walking at night, in another part of Tokyo.

If you’re visiting Tokyo, be prepared to walk! Even if you’re a moneybags who is willing to take taxis everywhere, a lot of the smaller stores are two stories and as much as seven stories, with out-of-the-way, sometimes scary old elevators that clearly are the back-up method of getting around. The largest stores and malls have escalators, but are themselves so large that you’ll be wandering around of hours to take it all in.

Trains:

Oh my gosh, the trains! Growing up in Atlanta, with the highly mocked and often parodied MARTA, which is well-known for strange and often profane experiences, it is always a treat to be in a city with a real rail system. Tokyo being the treat of all treats. In Tokyo, there are a number of private rail lines, and this competition is probably part of the reason the trains to are so well-organized and maintained.

It sounds really complicated to have different lines for going different places, or switching lines (and paying two different companies) within one station to complete your trip. We were certainly a little apprehensive about getting to our hotel from the airport alone. But they make it as easy as possible, and we didn’t have any trouble. There is ample signage, including in english.

Waiting for our train to get to the Hotel Metropolitan… prepared with notes!

Plus, the people are so friendly. While we were making our way to the Hotel Metropolitan for the first time, we were studying a sign and a women approached us to see if she could help us – and to welcome us to her country! Can you imagine that in New York?! Instead of just telling us where to go, she guided us through the station and out to the street we needed while we chatted as much as we were able to, mostly about Starbucks (she is a fan). What an incredible first impression of a country.

Our first ride on Tokyo trains.

The entrance to our nearest station

Once you figure out where you’re going, you buy a ticket from an automatic machine. You select from different ticket prices, depending on how far you’ll be traveling on the train. Your ticket is printed on magnetic paper, and you swipe your ticket to get in and out of stations. If you try to leave a from a station farther away than what you paid for, you visit a fare adjustment machine to add more money.

The automatic ticket machines you see there do actually have people inside them! If you are having difficulties, they will open a panel or just come out and help you!

For the most part, the stations and cars are far cleaner than other stations I have experienced. We weren’t accosted by panhandlers, nor did we see any urine! Crazy, I know.

While we were mostly traveling during the day, we did catch the morning rush hour a couple of times, which was a bucket list experience. I have never seen so many people in a train car in my life! What was most incredible to Adam and I was how polite and orderly everything was. Everyone really wants to get to work, everyone is waiting in line for cars that pull into the station already “full” – what I would call full – and yet we saw no pushing or shoving, and there were no raised voices of any kind. It was hushed, orderly chaos.

Where to stand.

The platforms have places to stand marked on them, and people really stood in them when it was busy enough to warrant it. Queues were formed to either side of where a train door would open, and when the train arrived people disembarked in the center while the lines on the side started filling in the train. During the rush hour, there were public servants of some kind there to remind people of the rules and help facilitate the boarding/de-boarding process. They didn’t seem to have to do much since everyone was very orderly, at least at the Ikebukuro station.

The most “aggressive” thing we ever saw was one guy walk up to a very full train car and very gently just lean into the crowd until his weight was completely on them, slowly easing him into the overcrowded car while the car doors closed right past the top of his nose. Incredible.

Low doorways in a station.

The stations (and some sidewalks) have these ridged yellow tiles in lines crisscrossing going all over the place. They seemed really strange until I found out that they are pathways for the blind to follow – pretty neat! I’m sure how you’d warn the blind about some of those low doorways, though…

Like with other train stations in New York and other large cities, it was fun to see how the different stations were designed and decorated. Pretty much every station has its own theme song, and some of them were really neat. We managed to find the current Ikebukuro one online so we can always have a fun reminder of our trip. We also saw a lot of interesting and/or funny PSAs and advertisements.

Your cell phone isn’t worth it!

The best PSA I have ever seen.

Taxis:

One day we got pretty tired and took a taxi to nearby Sunshine 60 (a 60-story, mixed-use skyscraper with an observation floor at the top). The taxis were super clean, and they were all outfitted with these little custom lace details on the headrests and seat backs. Think old-school doilies on couches. Cute, crisp, and clean but unexpected.

Another unexpected thing about our taxi ride was the business man who, not paying attention, leapt in front of our swiftly moving vehicle. We were all sure that we were going to have a first-hand experience with vehicular homicide (though it was really the pedestrian’s fault), but the driver braked hard and we missed him. Also, the driver said, “Bakayarou!” That was kind of special, since the japanese don’t seem to cuss in public. Our friend said he’d never seen it before. And, in case you’re curious, as far as I can tell baka=idiot/moron and yarou=jerk/bastard. Fun!

The fare was also surprisingly cheap. They seem like a great alternative for when your feet can’t take it anymore, you’re in a rush, or you simply don’t know how to get there – Sunshine 60 was on the other side of the tracks from the hotel, and we weren’t able to locate a pedestrian crossing under/over the tracks.

In short, when visiting Tokyo expect to walk a lot, enjoy the extensive and well-kept train system full of polite people, and feel free to catch an occasional lacy cab ride.

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The view from the Akiba train station.

This description is so succinct that I just had to use it here. Akiba is indeed the district to visit for electronics and electrical components, computers and their various parts and accessories, anime and manga, video games of all eras, and other otaku goods.

Otaku is a japanese word that has become a slang term for people with obsessive interests. This usually means anime and manga, or video games, but also other obsessive pursuits. For example, pretty much the first thing we ran into after getting off the train was a seven-story fetish shop.

Seven story fetish shop

Akihabara became a prominent go-to place for electrical supplies as early as the 1930s, and for video games starting in the 80s, with personal computers and anime following close behind in the 90s. Unsurprisingly, information about when porn manga and maid cafes joined the fray wasn’t readily available on WIkipedia, but let’s just take a leap and assume it was the 90s, too.

Though not as abundant as in the past, the electrical components that gave Akiba the nickname of Electric Town can still be found, along with consumer electronics of all types. We bought an adaptor for our room for the USD equivalent of $3.

An example of the electric part of electric town.

Cables and whatnot.

LEDs and such.

Cruising through the electronics/components/whatever section of Akihabara.

There are both chain and mom-n-pop used video game stores and arcades in abundance. It is very clear that the japanese have done a far better job of preserving the history of gaming than americans have. Older consoles and games are everywhere, and much cheaper than the american equivalents as a result.

A crane game only arcade, seemingly.

One of the many used game stores in the area.

 We ogled numerous still-sealed first generation video games, collectors editions, guides, soundtracks, controllers, etc. A lot to appreciate, but not much to buy if you don’t understand japanese. It was fun nonetheless.

One thing I wasn’t expecting was how seamlessly video games turn into porn. Let me try to explain that. In the Trader, the bottom floor is modern games and consoles, new and used. For every floor you ascend, the video games get older. The top floor is the PC games floor. In the Trader that made the biggest impression on me, the floor plan for each level was basically a large room lined with floor-to-ceiling shelves, with three or four aisles formed by more shelving units jammed with video games.

Now on the PC gaming floor, basically the right-hand wall was modern stuff such as Call of Duty along with retro PC games. The other three walls, and all of the the aisle shelves housed pornographic PC games. Since the 7-11 nearest to our hotel had nude-y mags just hanging out next to the J-pop magazines, I probably shouldn’t have been surprised.

Several of the second generation japanese Nintendo, the Famicom HVC-101

Super Famicoms

Plenty of Famicom games to go with your “new” Famicom

Speaking of porn, we went into an infamous manga shop – Comic Toranoana – with several floors of pornographic mangas. Like the Trader has video games that got older as you went up levels, the manga got more adult as you ascended the stairs. I thought it was a nice touch that there were two floors “for the ladies.”

According to our traveling companions, things in Comic Toranoana were much more tame than in the past – and that seems to be saying something, based on that I saw. That is to say, what I saw was most definitely quite explicit, but I didn’t see the sorts of disturbing or violent materials that used to be there. (This may be due in part to recent obscenity trials resulting in heavy fines for authors and publishers.)

In the stairwell of Comic Toranoana, before I realized photos were frowned upon.

The view from Mister Donut of Comic Toranoana and Taito Station.

After oogling in the manga store like the american tourists we were, we moved on to consumer electronics stores, keeping an eye out for oddities and knockoffs.

A train shaped computer case. (The train is fine.)

A tiny mouse in edamame green.

Microsoft Office… not. Do note the impressive attention to detail on this offering of Kingsoft Office 2012.

A cell phone that looks like a foil-wrapped chocolate bar.

Oh look, a Mac Store! … Not.

Yodobashi Akiba is a huge, eight-story electronics (and most everything else) store in Akihabara.

Inside Yodobashi Akiba… it’s like a gigantic japanese Best Buy, just with way more games, capsule machines, and a bouncy version of the Battle Hymn of the Republic for its theme song… (srsly)

Iconic modern-day Akihabara

We enjoyed wandering around Akiba so much that we went twice. It’s definitely a must-do for its Times Square-esque qualities. It’s a very bright and vibrant area with a lot to see, do, and eat. You don’t have to go to a Maid cafe or visit the risque floors of the shops if you don’t want to, so I’d still say it’s a great place for anyone to go have a good time! If you enjoy comics, manga, figurines, or video games at all you would be remiss to miss out on Akihabara.

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Kaminarimon 雷門 (Thunder Gate) leading into the Sensoji Temple grounds.

After a short walk from the train, we arrived at and passed through the Kaminarimon, or Thunder Gate, which houses four statues and one very large lantern. Between that and the inner ground is the Nakamise-Dori, a street lined with vendor stalls. This line of shops has been around for several centuries. It is now considered very kitschy and the place for tourists to go and pick up souvenirs and gifts. Which we did!

Long line of vendor stalls between the front gate and the temple, called Nakamise-Dori.

The next gate is Hozomon, the Treasure Gate. First built in 942, it is two stories and houses national and cultural treasures. Outside, it features three large lanterns, two statues of Nio, the guardian deity of Buddha, and two very large waraji – straw sandals.

The two-story inner gate, known at the Teasure-House Gate, built in 942, and rebuilt in 1636 and 1964.

A closer shot; you can spot the Niō statues that stand on either side of the gate’s south face.

Close up of lanterns at the Treasure Gate

The underside of the red chōchin commemorating the 400th anniversary of the start of the Edo period.

One of two 2.75 metre-tall copper tōrō also hanging in the Hozomon.

The backside of the Hozomon, showing the two large sandals on the back.

The inner building. There are gardens, fountains, and other loveliness behind, but as it was not a holiday, this was all closed.

Sensoji Temple good luck charms for sale.

At the shrine, we waited to pay our respects in the traditional manner, which is to toss money in a receptacle, clap your hands together, then place them together in the gassho position (like praying for Christians) and bow your head for a bit. Having done that, we hung out for a bit and headed back to our side of town, souvenirs in tow. It would be very interesting to visit Sensoji during one of the Shinto festivals, Sanja Matsuri – Tokyo’s largest. It lasts for 3-4 days, and is very popular.

Heading back towards the Nakamise-Dori

Some art on display on Sensoji Temple grounds

We opted to take side streets rather than go back down Nakamise-Dori.

We had a good, low-key time at Sensoji Temple, walking around the stalls, buying souvenirs, checking out the temple, and generally soaking in the culture. Unfortunately for me, I did not know that there is a pretty neat-looking Shinto shrine on the temple grounds. Had I known, we would totally have visited it as well. I will have to add that to the rapidly growing list of reasons to go back to Japan as soon as possible!

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Right in Atlanta’s backyard, the area of coastal Georgia near Savannah and the Barrier Islands includes some of the most stunning natural beauty in the United States. For vacationers interested in visiting Georgia’s shoreline, here is a list of activities that might pique your interest.

Coastal Georgia

For starters, Georgia’s Kingsland beaches, nestled near Florida in the far southeast corner of the state, are some of the East Coast’s most pristine. The natural beauty of the Kingsland beaches happens to be perfect for couples; Oprah has deemed the area “Lovetown USA,” and quite a few weddings take place in Kingsland.

The area provides access to the picturesque Cumberland Island National Seashore and the Okefenokee Swamp, home to reclusive alligators and a number of native birds. Insider information for those interested in seeing gators while in Okefenokee – either from a boardwalk, in a guided tour boat, or from a canoe – can be found at the Alligator Forecast feature of the park’s website. The Forecast lists each area of the park and the current population of alligators frequenting that zone.

Okefenokee Swamp

Alligators in the Okefenokee Swamp

Visiting Cumberland Island – mere miles from the mainland – feels like stepping into a different world. Accessible only by ferry from St. Marys, the island is home to a number of remarkable natural resources including salt marshes, maritime forests, ancient sea turtles and wild horses. Trails lined by trees laden with Spanish moss cross through marsh and tidal creeks, leading to more than 17 miles of white sand beaches. The island has been named by the Travel Channel as “America’s Most Beautiful Wilderness Beach.” Visitors can enjoy camping in any one of the well maintained campsites, and spend their time swimming, hiking, fishing, searching for shells and enjoying the natural beauty.

Wild Horse on Cumberland Island

Savannah, with its tree-lined streets draped in Spanish moss and stately Southern houses, is a destination along the Georgia coast for its historic sites, its culture and nightlife and its natural beauty. Wondering where to stay? A number of bed and breakfasts in Savannah, including the well-known Savannah Inn and the renowned Presidents’ Quarters Inn, allow visitors to experience traditional hospitality of a town whose history dates back to 1733. For an introduction to all Savannah has to offer, Old Town Trolley Tours provide narrated tours of the town’s notable landmarks. Savannah Riverboat Cruises provides a view from the water, coupled with excellent onboard cuisine served up by award-winning chefs.

Fort Pulaski

There are a number of attractions within Savannah that warrant further exploration. You can’t leave the coast without sampling some true Southern cooking, and Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining Room serves fried chicken, cornbread, okra gumbo, and sweet potato soufflé by the plateful. The nearby Olde Pink House is one of Savannah’s most popular restaurants, housed in the town’s only still-standing 18th-century mansion. The Savannah History Museum boasts a number of rare artifacts, including items from the Revolutionary War. Fort Pulaski National Monument preserves the fort that played a pivotal role in the Civil War, and includes a guided tour and canon-firing demonstrations. Theater buffs can’t miss the Historic Savannah Theatre, the oldest continually operating theater in the country. Forsyth Park, a 30-acre city park, includes a number of athletic fields and courts, a large fountain, a Fragrant Garden for the blind and a children’s play area. Ghost tours in haunted antebellum homes – or cemeteries with above-ground graves – covering the intrigue-filled history of many of Savannah’s landmarks will fuel your imagination and raise questions about the supernatural. And, finally, if you happen to be visiting in the fall, check out the acclaimed Ogeechee Seafood Festival.

Whew! There’s a lot to do. Happy exploring!
 
Angie Picardo is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance and travel site dedicated to helping travelers discover the benefits of a financial advisor and save money for future adventures.

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The train on the way out conveniently does a scenic loops so you can better appreciate the views of Odaiba and the Rainbow Bridge. No not that Rainbow Bridge. The Rainbow Bridge that crosses northern Tokyo Bay between Shibaura Pier and the Odaiba waterfront development.

From the train window

From the train window

The Rainbow Bridge

After getting off the train, we wandered a bit, taking in the sights and eventually winding up down on at the bay.

A close up.

A McDonald’s and Madame Madame Tussaud’s ad with Michael Jackson

This was a bit startling.

Are your eyes playing tricks on you?

Nope! That is a miniature Statue of Liberty in Odaiba.

Apparently, this mini-Liberty was put here for a year to celebrate Japan’s relationship with France. People liked it so much that after the year was up, it was made into a permanent installation. Tokyo was already reminding me a lot of New York City, so this added touch was especially interesting.

Next, we visited the life-size Gundam. That’s right, from the miniature Lady Liberty to a life-size Gundam. Oh, and the requisite store of Gundam paraphernalia.

It is neat that it is not only full-sized, but also styled as if it were real, with part numbers, warnings, etc.

Seems to be a popular attraction.

Next up was Sega’s Joypolis, a three-story, nearly 12,000-square-foot indoor amusement park.

A car ride where the car and the screen in front move as you drive.

Adam gave it a try.

Adam getting the hammer for losing a game.

In this machine, a Kirkland brand bag of kettle chips was the prize… thanks Costco!

There were a ton of these “games” where you can presumably preview what you’d look like if you were “prettier”… a reflection of the thriving “plastic surgery culture” that I personally find troubling, but that is so prevalent as to be normal in some asian cultures.

Tetris with giant controls.

This crane game featured Sonic dolls, and Sonic-ified Hello Kitties

In this game, instead of grabbing the toy with a claw, you try to pierce a piece of paper with metal sticks on the crane, which would release the prize.

Adam and his coworker took in an immersive zombie game, and I went for a monster-theme indoor roller coaster. The second I saw that thing twirling around the three stories of the building, I knew I had to ride it. I waited in line and smiled and nodded vacantly during the rules, regulations, and how not to die on this ride instructions, and boarded the ride. Turns out this roller coaster ride is also a competitive video game (that may have made me chicken out if I had known). Each seat has its own video game gun and you have to kill baddies as you go along and a couple of bosses to advance the ride to the next section of the ride. Now, at this point I was feeling a little silly as the foreigner with a limited gaming history and performance anxiety, but I went for it, and it was a very fun ride. We made it past all the baddies and then they displayed the scores – I won! I couldn’t believe it!

So, our little trip down to Odaiba was a huge success (and not just because I excelled at a shoot-’em-up game in the land of video games). The ride was pleasant, the views were nice, the malls were expansive, and the attractions entertaining. I definitely recommend a jaunt to Odaiba, in the Minato Ward of Tokyo.

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Outside the entrance to the Yasukuni Shrine.

Those interred are chosen based on having died in the service of Japan, not on other qualifications, such as age, social status, or deeds while living. As a result, several of the kami interred in the shrine are considered war criminals by other nations. This honor for convicted war criminals causes tensions with China and South Korea, particularly when Japanese dignitaries visit Yasunkuni Shrine to pay their respects to these honored dead.

According to Wikipedia, “there are over 2,466,000 enshrined kami currently listed in the Yasukuni’s Symbolic Registry of Divinities. This list includes soldiers, as well as women and students who were involved in relief operations in the battlefield or worked in factories for the war effort. Enshrinement is not exclusive to people of Japanese descent. Currently, Yasukuni Shrine has enshrined 27,863 Taiwanese and 21,181 Koreans without consultation of surviving family members and in some cases against the stated wishes of the family members…. Shrine officials have stated that unlike traditional Shinto shrines, all enshrined kami are immediately combined and inseparable, and therefore impossible to ‘remove.'”

Shortly after our trip, the Yasukuni Shrine found itself back in the news again, when the prime minister donated money to the shrine, and members of the Cabinet and other dignitaries visited, as well as the 66th anniversary of Japanese surrender, followed shortly by the announcement from the Prime Minister that Japan will be building up its military once again.

There are several very large gates, (torii) leading up to the front of the shrine. I was a bit in awe of how monumental the lead-up to the shrine is.

Facing Yasukuni Shrine from the closest street. The building you see directly behind the Daini Torii (the largest bronze torii in Japan)
is the shinmon, a hinoki cypress gate built in 1934. Each of its two doors bears a chrysanthemum crest nearly 5 feet in diameter.
Past it is the outer shrine. Not visible is the inner shrine.

This is the view in the opposite direction, from the same place. You can see two torii gates in the distance, if you look very closely.
The farthest is way on the other side of this large plaza area.

Before we went inside, we drank used ladles to drink from a purification font, called Otemizusha, and washed our hands with the leftover water. This is to cleanse the body and soul before entering sacred grounds.

Purification font.

The outer shrine (haiden) and grounds that we saw (the honden, or inner shrine, is generally closed to the public) were very peaceful and pretty. There were flowering trees, with artfully gnarled and twisting roots, trunk, and branches.

Chumon Torii

Ikebana flower arrangements were on display… pretty.

We didn’t go up to offer our respects, because Adam and I were feeling foreign and shy.

After that, we strolled over to the Yushukan, a japanese military and war museum on the grounds. We were only allowed to take photos in the lobby, which was a shame, because aside from some fascinating artifacts, the museum offered a very interesting and uniquely japanese perspective on several of the modern conflicts there were involved in, leading up to their disarmament after World War II.

The Yushukan

I don’t want to get into it too much, but I will just say that every country (let’s face it, every person) tries to paint the past in the best light they can, and to think that they did the best they could in a situation; the USA, Japan, and everyone else. The difference in perspective from what I was taught was stark.

Some of the artifacts wigged me out a bit – a flag with the circle made red with blood, thick rope for a boat made from human hair, the suicide bits. (Not just kamikazes in planes, but also human-guided torpedos, and suicide scuba divers with bombs on sticks, though the war ended before the last part could be fully deployed). I did enjoy some of the artifacts, though. The ancient stuff was way cool, and the handwritten last letters home from soldiers in the field were very interesting. Some were touching and some were surprisingly distant. Everyone handles things differently I suppose.

Kamikaze plane

With the historical and cultural education off the charts, the Yushukan is definitely worth a visit, and since it is conveniently located within the grounds of the scenic and historically significant Yasunkuni shrine, a tandem visit to these two landmarks is a no-brainer for anyone visiting Tokyo.

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