Our trip to Tokyo started in a really good note! In the airplane the flight attendants found out it was our honeymoon so we go something extra with our meal :)
We were incredibly lucky to be invited to stay with our Cisco colleague Akiko and her husband Toshi at their place! they greeted us with an amazing meal! A traditional Japanese hot pot!!! it was soooo delicious!
Some of the ingredients that you put in the yummy hot pot:
The metro in Tokyo is insane! they have different companies and a lot of lines! by far the most complex metro map we have put our eyes on! so it was just normal the first time we took it we exited in the wrong station :P after one day we kind of became better figuring it out! eheheheh
This was as well the first metro in which we didn´t see people constantly on their mobiles...
there is a reason why they don´t have their mobiles on,
This was a Saturday and we found strange that a lot of people commuting were wearing suites and school uniforms.. apparently a lot of people still work on the weekend and the kids attend extra classes!
Walking towards Harajuku we found one of our favorite Asian shops! Uniqlo! Its a really nice Japanese shop that sells simple but good quality clothes! It had some really cool t-shirts at 9 euros so Antonio took the chance to replace some of this older t-shirts :)
While paying we noticed a different practice,
You don´t give the money to the other person, you put it in a little tray. They say thank you for giving us the money and proceed to say the amount they have recieved and that they will give you the change. After they repeat the change they are doing to give you and place it in the tray as well. You collect the change and they say something like lovely to have you at our shop we hope you come back soon. They say this always with a genuine smile!
But this happens in every single place in which you purchase something! Always the same speech with a smile! Completely different from what we are used back in Portugal and Belgium! And for us , at least the smile many times was genuine! not forced
The harajuku girls! they dress like dolls... don´t ask us why :P just a Tokyo thing!
Japanese express a lot of messages by using cartoons,
But this happens in every single place in which you purchase something! Always the same speech with a smile! Completely different from what we are used back in Portugal and Belgium! And for us , at least the smile many times was genuine! not forced
The harajuku girls! they dress like dolls... don´t ask us why :P just a Tokyo thing!
Japanese express a lot of messages by using cartoons,
In the evening we meet up with our friend Paulo from University times! Our meeting point was a popular one in Tokyo! Used by a lot of people to meet with their friends. Is near the Hachiko dog statue. Hachiko is well known for waiting every day for his master in front of the train station. Even after his master died he continue to come every day! There is a movie about it with Richard Gere
Is also in Shibuya where it is the busiest crossing in the world!
Paulo took us to have some super yummy Gyoza dumplings and Ramen soup,
What a great time we had!
