Tokyo, Day 2

I'm sitting here in my hostel at 11 pm in the lounge, trading travel stories and hearing about the lives of a scottish guy, and irish guy, and a girl from Seattle-surrounded by the UN of international travellers socializing, laughing, catching up on email, and reading the International Herald Tribune, trying to find out whats going on in the world. Hostel life has been really interesting, and I have enjoyed each hostel I've stayed in more and more. It is so easy to meet people and connect with other travellers from all over the place, and hearing all of their stories has been great.

Today I joined Nuria to go to a nearby Shrine/Temple in the neighboorhood where my hostel is. There is a large shopping arcade leading up to it selling all sorts of Japanese souveniers. (I haven't bought much on my trip yet- I have NO space and don't want to carry around crap for another 3 weeks. If I see anything that is different and that I really want, I will buy it and ship it home though. I am definitely looking forward to shopping in Thailand and Vietnam!) Anyways, after that, we met up with Paula at the sushi restaurant from yesterday- it was so delicious that we had to go back. Paula brough Brian who she met at the hostel, and it was the first time he'd ever eaten sushi, even after travelling in Japan for a month! It was a great meal. From there we went to a nearby park, with a beautiful pond in the middle reflecting some of the skyscrapers around it. After that, as the sun was setting we went to a place called Roppongi Hills- a mall of sorts, which has an observation floor on the 57th floor and a very cool multimedia video exhibit. The view was amazing and it was a great way to see how immensely huge Tokyo is! Paula and Nuria had already been there, so they shopped while Brian and I went up. They both left tonight, Nuria to go back to Spain and Paula to Kyoto.

Tomorrow I hope to check out the Imperial Palace and the Tokyo Museum of Photography, and hopefully tomorrow night I'll be able to see some crazy Japanese kids out celebrating Halloween.

On Wednesday I am going to Nikko- a town about 2 hours away by train, in the mountains. It's a really popular place to go for Japanese tourists to see the autumn leaves changing, and I look forward to getting out of the city and seeing some Japanese nature!