Genthar.net

Well, the travel is definitely taking it's toll. We've been going more or less non-stop for the past 11 days and the wear and tear is becoming evident. Brian's cold has him a bit on the rocks, and the constant walking is certainly wearing the feet and legs out of all of us. I twisted my ankle a few days ago, and it's not getting any better with all the walking, but, opportunities like this don't come around all the time for most of us so, we're all simply bearing down and dealing with it.

We had a good time today heading to Shin-Yokohama on the way to Tokyo. At Shin-Yokohama is the Ramen Museum. I know, you're thinking "Why a Ramen Museum?" Well, Ramen is a very popular food here in Japan, and there are many different styles of ramen. Every town in Japan has at least 1 ramen shop in it.

The first instant ramen package, the one that started it all...

The Governator in his youth, selling ramen.

The basement of the building was converted to a replica of the Tokyo streets circa 1958 or so, and 8 of the top ramen restaurants around Japan have a storefront here. This is a trip down memory lane for many of the older Japanese who come to this museum, and you can see it in their faces as they see and hear the sights and sounds from the past. This is the most popular feature of the museum, here you can buy full size or small sample size bowls of ramen from the various stores. We sampled a few, and all were quite tasty and unique. The museum is a very popular stop, even offering a montlhy pass to get in! When we arrived a little before 11:00AM when the museum opens, there was already a fairly significant line of people waiting to get in. Only a few of them were silly tourists like us who were looking around upstairs at the exhibits. The rest immediately rushed downstairs to get to the restaurants. Later on as we were headed out, we noticed some of the little shops had lines that would take an hour or more to clear!

Who was that masked ramen eater?!?

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Once in Tokyo we went to see the Imperial Palace. Or what was left of it. The palace burned down 19 years after it was built, and was never rebuilt. However, of course, you guessed it...there are gardens around it.

The base of the original palace.

A look at the amazingly tight fit of the stones at one of the gates.

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We also went to Akihabara, the electronics Mecca of Japan. Not much in the way of pictures for here, just a bunch of stores, but it was fun to explore a 9 floor store full of electronics of different kinds. Prices aren't necessarily the best these days with the exchange rate, but there are many items that aren't available stateside, due to marketing or other issues.

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We also went to the Ginza area. This is Tokyo Shopping Central. Here's some shots of just one of the streets in the area.