So, this year, the fam didn’t get together for Christmas, and I knew I didn’t want to spend the time in Seattle, so I spent it in Tokyo. Why? Well, there were cheap award flight tickets to there, I’m pretty familiar with the place, and I had some folks I could meet up with. Another option would’ve been Sydney, but… Tokyo is so much better.

After I got my airfare figured out, I booked a cheap hotel in Shinjuku and things were set! I took JAL from SFO to HND, which was a great flight, and I got to my hotel at a decent hour.

I was pretty tired though, so I just got some gyoza and went to bed.

I slept a very good amount, and woke up to a pretty awesome sunrise! I didn’t feel jetlagged at all! Maybe this was a byproduct of me not worrying about meetings or anything…

I didn’t really have any fixed plans for the trip, other than to relax after the bumpy year, read a lot, and to eat well.

I did have a shopping list though, and it involved going to some department stores and Kappabashi… more on that in a later post though.

While I was in Kappabashi, I dropped by Sensō-ji. It was packed with tourists, and folks on break.

It’s still a neat place though.

and the market around it is fun.

As are all the painted shop fencing/whatever you call those garage door type things that a cover them up; when they’re closed…

The locals were snackin’ on food, and that family wanted to know where they got it from.

After all that, I went back to the hotel, dropped things off, and got some yakiniku! and the place had some pretty modern hoods, so I didn’t smell like steak after all of it!

That was about it for first day. I watched some YouTube videos in bed and fell asleep.

Oh, and the construction cones are Hello Kitty themed. Amazing.