On our first full day in Tokyo, we decided we would take it easy. I think we underestimated how difficult the time change would be on top of the 30+ hours of straight traveling that it took to get here. I had heard people complain about jet lag before, but I thought they were babies. "Oh, wah, I'm a little bit sleepy on my TRIP OF A LIFETIME! How will I ever go on?" So... yeah. I'm a little bit sleepy on my trip of a lifetime. But it's okay, the excitement is winning over and we are pushing through it.
Fukuro No Mise, "The Cafe of Owls"
Today was one of the things that I had been most excited for: an owl cafe! What's an owl cafe? It's a magical room filled with soft, fluffy, friendly, beautiful, wide-eyed creatures from my dreams. And you get to hold them! So amazing!
After reading about the exclusivity of this place (you can only make reservations same-day by arriving with money in hand at 12:00, and spots usually fill up by 12:30), we rushed to get in line to make a reservation at 11:30. We selected the 2:00 time slot and paid our entry fee (roughly $20 each person - I know, I know, super expensive. But how can you put a price on pure joy?).
At this point, we have 2 hours to kill in a non-touristy area of Tokyo, where everyone is staring at us and we have no idea where we are. Yep, time to explore and find some food!
At this point, we have 2 hours to kill in a non-touristy area of Tokyo, where everyone is staring at us and we have no idea where we are. Yep, time to explore and find some food!
We wandered around looking for a restaurant that tickled our fancy. We passed one that looked like it had hibachi grills at every table - cool! And they had English menus - even cooler! I ordered a dish of miso ramen and Jeffrey had the same thing except with hamburg meat. I'm not a fan of cabbage, and it had a lot of it. It was good, but I probably wouldn't eat it again.
We headed back for our 2:00 appointment of awesomeness, and we were shuffled into the room filled with owls. A woman gave us a 10-minute presentation of the rules in Japanese. I didn't understand much, except that they would poop on you and you need to get over it.
So after an eternity of instructions, it was our turn to hold the owls! Word of caution, I'm going to include about a million pictures here because I simply couldn't limit myself to a favorite owl.
Okay, I'm lying. OF COURSE I had a favorite owl. I have a favorite everything. He hated me, though. But it's okay, I loved the heck out of him!
Okay, I'm lying. OF COURSE I had a favorite owl. I have a favorite everything. He hated me, though. But it's okay, I loved the heck out of him!
If you've pet an owl before, you know how life changing it is. They were as soft as the fur on the belly of a kitten. I would have quit my life and lived in this house if it were an option. And yes, they pooped on me. Again and again. It was okay, though. I'm sure it made me immortal or something awesome like that.
Jeffrey went into the experience with one goal: Don't get pooped on. He succeeded. Apparently they didn't love him as much as they loved me.
I don't know what could follow up the owl cafe. I thought we should just call the trip a win and fly back home, because nothing could top that. I guess we could go look at cars or something. That would be fun.
Tokyo Motor Show
The Motor Show was pretty cool. We went with the hopes of seeing some weird concept cars, which we did.
This one even included plans on how to turn it into a robot when you need a robot car thing.
And then of course we saw some of the sportier cars that we could never afford. I wish I had something to say here because I realize it's just a wall of pictures at this point. There were just a lot of cars.
Which one was my favorite?
Dinner Time!
After our long day running around the city (we are finally starting to get the hang of this subway / train thing!), we headed back to the hotel for some dinner. We had seen a restaurant in the basement that served soba noodles. Yum!
And that was it! We headed over to the Family Mart (like a 7-Eleven but with more food) to grab some drinks, snacks and laundry detergent before we retired to our room, where I crashed around 8:00 pm (and then of course woke up around 1:30 am - hopefully I get over this ridiculousness soon!). I can't wait to see what is in store for us tomorrow!