Japan re-cap Day 3!!

Day 3- Back to the Imperial Palace to find it actually open today {hooray!!}. The gardens, giant rock wall, moat and bridges are just stunning. I am always awestruck at the age of buildings outside Australia. It's funny cos at home I think something that is 200yrs old is ancient, here, if it's 400 years old, that's normal!! You can't actually go into the Palace as it is off-limits (in fact we didn't even see it!) but just getting to walk around the grounds is beautiful enough! They even have "rest pavilions" which are enclosed rooms with seats, vending machines (of course) and interesting posters to read. Those Japs are awesome!
I love their trees in japan, they are just like on Mum's Willow pattern Tea Set! They are amazingly different to any trees we have here, I feel like getting a Bonzai now so I can have my own miniature version of their loveliness! I have dreams that the trees just grow in this cool way but they probably take a bit of trimming, anyone know? Cool either way!

I love that so many of the attractions in Japan are either Free or really cheap to get in. The Imperial Palace is free and you could spend all day there just hanging out if you wanted to!... although the sign disagrees cos it says "Don't stay here."!! I think it's one of the great examples of Jap-lish (Japanese to English translation) that just doesn't quite match up with the original. I'm thinking they mean "don't congregate here and move quickly through the exit" but "don't stay here" is much more succinct!

Another thing that we really noticed about Japan is the Kawaii stuff is everywhere! Kawaii is the word used for the cute, innocent little cartoon characters that they use on letters, leaflets, the Customs sign at the airport, Police Station signs, toys, clothes, shoes, trains, advertisements you name it... they use Kawaii characters! This guy is on the sign for a Construction site- it probably says "If you do not wear your hard hat, you risk death by falling objects" or something like that, but when you have a kawaii guy on the sign, it makes it so much cuter!! Lol :)

After the Palace we took the Monorail over the Rainbow Bridge to Odaiba, which is a modern man-made island in Tokyo Harbour that has shops, the big eye Ferris wheel, museums and Will's fave, the Toyota Showcase! I had read about it online and in the Lonely Planet, and most people didn't give it many stars on the "Places to visit!" chart, but we had so much fun there, and did some of our best shopping there too! I guess you can't always believe what you read!! We shopped first at "Decks" which had some cool shops selling the real "Tokyo style" clothes that the girls wear over there. Lots of layers on layers- think ' short strappy dress with shirt under, tights under dress, skirt under dress but over tights, cardigan over all, those little footlet stockings, high heels, and a big handbag with lots of those dangly character keyrings on it'! That's Tokyo Style! Then we walked across the island to Venus Fort shopping centre which looks just like the Venetian in Vegas cos it has clouds painted on the ceiling and all the shop fronts look like full buildings in a street! It has all the middle to upmarket shops like Zara, Mango, Barbie (hehe, not Will's fave!), and the cool Lego store!! How do you like this cute little puppy that was shopping in her denim dress and ribbons in her hair? LOL!!

Conveniantly located right across the walkway from the Venus Fort is the Toyota Megaweb showcase which Will was so happy to visit! We went on a ride in a self driven tiny toyota called the IQ. It wasn't even on tracks or anything, I think it was driven by GPS! It was fun, but we had to squeeze our giant shopping bags into the car with us, which was hillarious to watch!! Will loved checking out all the Toyotas which aren't available in Australia. It's sad, but he loves his Camry like it's going out of style, typical Asian!! So you can imagine he was in HEAVEN there!! I'm so glad he got to do something totally for him cos he was the best travelling companion for me, always going where-ever I wanted to, and always carrying my shopping bags for me!! He never complained when I took too long in a shop either, he just finds a seat then goes into a micro-sleep! Lol! So funny to watch :) I'm so glad this guy's going to be my husband!! How exciting!! Hehehehe. We ended up spending about 6 hrs at Odaiba! Take that Lonely Planet, it was good to visit!!

After we caught the Monorail back to Shimbashi and walked from there to Ginza which is famous for all the totally expensive shops like Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, Armani etc. (Can you believe they own whole buildings for their stores?! Not just a store front!!) I was quite happy with everything we had bought at Odaiba and had no qualms about snubbing my nose at all the fancy stores! Not that I could have afforded anything even if I wanted it! Lol. Ginza has lots of neon that Toyko is famous for, and those giant TV's on the side of the Department stores. An interesting place to wander around at least!! I did buy a tote bag for shopping with apples on it and a little purse with pears on it, in a tiny little stationary stores nestled amongst these fashion giants. I had seen the exact same tote at Craft Fest with Mum back in March, at a store with lots of Jap stuff and commented I was going to look for it in Japan... and I found it! Hurrah!! It was $12 at the show and I paid only 500Y. Ha!

So I thought you might like to have a look at some of the stuff I got on this day (yes, this is only one day's shopping..and not everything from that day either... oops!!) The really awesome hot pink and yellow Nike's at the back are my first pair of Nike's ever! We never have such cool shoes like that here in Aus, so I had to get them (even though they were still about $80AUD), the turquoise shoes are from Zara {love them}, the "Lazy Bear" pink shirt I had to get cos we noticed this character (whose real name is Rilakkuma) is always reclining or being lazy in all his merchandise! I even managed to get Will a phone charm to celebrate our engagement that was Lazy Bear reclining on Mt Fuji! So Lazy. Will hated him at first but we developed a love affiar with Lazy Bear and ended up getting quite a bit of crap with him on it!! Reclining of course {wink}! Also in this pic are Egg Cups and Salt and Pepper containers that are Lego Men heads! So cool! And the red lego block is a big container!! Oh, the apple stuff is a cutting board and apple coasters! Fliss mentioned after our last trip to Hawaii that I always come back with the most interesting everyday stuff, and I guess the cutting board and coasters fit that description this time!! The little piggy shirt top right is for my Nephew, it's a pig riding a donkey with a Cherry Blossom branch in the background. Those crazy Japs make the funniest clothes! The Sushi at the front are fridge magnets and you can see the apple tote and pear purse I talked about earlier.

Thats enough babble for today, you're probably sick of reading by now!!

:) C