Day Nine: Tokyo-Dallas-Chicago

So our last day in Tokyo was pretty uneventful...

"No, no, no... Sunday is Mothra Day, Monday is Gamera Day, Tuesday is Rodan Day. WHY do we need to always go over this?"

So we decided to spend it seeing a few sights, just relaxing...

And this early on a Sunday morning the streets were practically deserted.

And we stopped at Tokyo Station, stowed our bags, and walked around the Imperial Gardens.

"Remember, this is some guy's lawn."

(Seen through the haze: Tokyo Tower. Taller than the Eiffel Tower...)

This was a gatehouse for the Imperial Palace. We weren't allowed on the actual Imperial Palace grounds.

We were walking past this building and hearing these AWFUL shrieks, yells, and cries. It sounded like sticks hitting against each other, so I inferred Kendo practice. Whatever it was, it was loud and disturbing.

See this? See how intimidating and imposing it looks on this hill? Yeah, it's a shed... that's older than my country.

There were a ton of fruit trees and vineyards. I thought they were pretty till Dad pointed out they were inside the walls, and to help stave off a siege.

This is a root cellar that runs all the way to the palace.

This is where private music performances for the Emperor take place.

Off in the distance you can see the Buddakan.

I talked Dad into walking to the Buddakan. He was tired (we both were) and he claimed he wasn't into religious stuff. Except the Buddakan is a martial arts stadium... also this happened here:

We saw a lot of "wildlife" everywhere...

Swans...

Giant Bees...

An a ton of feral cats everywhere. Also, a lot of spiders. Big ones. The kind that could eat a bird...

And then this guy. I'd tell you who we was, but the plaque was in Japanese.

Did you know the National Science Museum and the National Museum of Arts and Crafts (pictured) are in the Gardens?

Then we ran into Tokyo's version of Chicago's "Bike the Drive". Which I'll bet is probably every week...

We also came across a Shinto Wedding Party. Well, that was enough for Tokyo. Time to catch a flight. I was ready to go home, catch the end of the Bears game, and sleep... So to say I was ready to go home was an understatement.

So, the train to Narita was quick and easy... like most things involving trains in Japan. Me and Dad were both flabbergasted at the ease of train use in Japan. And I honestly couldn't figure out why anyone would have a car. The absolute BEST thing about trains, though, had to be the JRail pass.

The JRail pass is only available outside of Japan, before you leave. It's about 300 bucks, and we had to exchange our voucher for these special passes (with that famous Mt. Fuji woodblock print on it). And the awesome thing? We could get away with murder with these things!

We rode all over the country using these things (total tickets at the end would have cost us well over 65000 yen apiece, saving us a small fortune) and basically all we did was show our passes to the attendants. One time I was following dad through a turnstile and the gate went up right in front of me. Well, me being 255 pounds of fun and love, blew right past their puny gates. Confused, an attendant looked at me, I held up my pass, and he just nodded and waved me past. Curious, me and Dad went around trying to figure out what else we could get away with using our new "licenses to kill"...

Peeing in the Imperial Gardens! How insulting to our people and our emperor... Oh wait, he has a JRail pass. He's cool.

Anyway, after killing time, we hung out at the airport checking out all the wacky things Japan has to offer. For instance: A cartoon seal that looks suspiciously like my pug Lola...

Then

So after a LOOOOOONG flight that was actually pretty uneventful, we arrived at Dallas, disappointed I didn't see Anna Paquin.

It was here, in the most American of all the states (guffaw) that the sudden shock of being in the United States again hit home. Also, our plane had equipment problems, so they moved us back an hour and all the way across the airport.

Flip flops, dressed like a hobo with unlimited access to Victoria Secret's dumpster, talking loudly on the phone about some such crap... yep, I'm home.

Who shot the couch?
Hey, I'm sure confidence in plane travel is at an all-time high. Also, our A/C would not shut off I froze all the way to Chicago.

Hey! Back home in Chicago, huzzah!

All in all, I loved my time in Japan. I don't know if I'm in a hurry to get back any time soon. And I WOULD not shut up to Kelly talking about how awesome everything was for a long time, but I was happy to get back, eat pizza, and watch football like a normal American.

But my favorite part of my trip was getting a lot of time alone with my dad. I'm older now, and I realize sometimes that not only am I slowly turning into my father, I'm actually pretty proud of that fact. I like the fact I have some of his work ethic, I have his hairline, but my dad has always been there for me... be it watching a really boring wrestling tournament, or dragging my tubby ass halfway across the globe to geek out on samurais and transistors.

The highest compliment I can give my dad was if he was Darth Vader and I was Luke Skywalker, and he made the same offer to me that Vader made to Luke at the end of "Empire Strikes Back" ("JOIN ME AND TOGETHER WE WILL RULE THE GALAXY!") I would SO join up, and together we would take the Death Star for a joyride, blowing up planets which had the highest phosphorus content in it's crust, thereby ensuring the prettiest explosions. In other words, I'm extraordinarily happy to spend time with him... because I'm pretty much becoming him anyway.