Japan: Day 13 (Tokyo National Museum, Hibachi, TU, Akihabra, "Times Square", Japanese Pub)

The Japan trip is close to wrapping up. We started Day 13 off by heading to the Tokyo National Museum - a combination of Japan history and art. I have always enjoyed Asian art.

My favorite is the folding wall art.

Sign by statues: Statue shows the new style of the Unkei school of the early Kamakura period. The feature like an actual military general is characteristic of this school...



This is Dave's favorite art work.

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For lunch, we ate at a Korean restaurant (didn't know it at the time). It was a hibachi style restaurant so we grilled meat at our table. I really enjoyed the beef - the marinate was delicious! This was my 2nd favorite meal in Japan (behind tempura).

By next summer, my goal is to make a hibachi table for the deck. It tastes so good - grilling and eating within seconds.

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After, we went to Tokyo University...or at least we tried to. The University is close to the Tokyo National Museum so we decided to check it out. Just by the name, Tokyo University, we thought it would be a huge campus. We hardly saw anyone and there were no clear indications that it was a school! School probably wasn't in session but we thought it would look more like a University.

Only picture we took at TU.

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After, we went to Akihabra (Electric District). I think there are a few electric areas in Tokyo (went to a different one on Day 11) but Akiabra is the big one.

Even though Sony is shown in this sign, Sony did not seem that popular in Japan. It seems that Hitachi is popular and considered upper-end.

Little computer or big hand.

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After, we took a train to Shibuya, the "Times Square in Tokyo". It's one of the busiest intersections in the world and it's shown in the movie, "Lost in Translation".

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We ate at a pub for dinner. Apparently these pubs are known for drinking beer and eating skewers (I could be wrong about the skewers but that's what we thought and therefore ordered). The pub was really busy so we ate outside - there was only one table outside. This was our most intense eating experience in Japan!

Each couple ordered a set of skewers. Apparently this is what we ate (as stated on the English menu): 2 kinds of liver, skin, heart, meat with Japanese onion, bottom, cartilage, neck, wing, minced meat ball and special chicken. We also ordered an appetizer, yam soup. I thought it sounded interesting so I wanted to give it a try - there were white noodles in a gooey soup. I only had one bite.

The videos kind of say it all...

Benshen's and Benson's sitting at the only table outside of the pub.

On our Japan trip, we learned making a "X" with your arms means "no". So Rob is showing, "No...don't eat that meat!"

Even though the food was difficult to eat, we're glad we tried it!

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On our way back to the hotel, we stopped and took some artsy pictures on a bridge. At the hotel, we bought Haagen-Dazs to cleanse our palate from dinner!