Last stop- Aksakusa
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 4:37PM
Arielle in Japan

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On our last day in Tokyo, we didn’t have to catch the metro for the airport until after lunch, so we decided to metro-hop over to Asakusa for the morning.  We’ve been here before on other trips, but they have the best red bean filled cookies, so it’s a must-stop whenever we’re in Tokyo.

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Have I mentioned how much I love having a tall husband who can take great photos overtop of the crowds?

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And who thinks it’s particularly funny that they’re not called “chocolate-covered bananas” here, but rather “banana chocolate.”  (We’ve had Okinawa Pineapple Chocolate before so I suppose it wouldn’t be too strange to find banana chocolate, but this booth is really selling chocolate-covered bananas, not banana-flavored chocolate.

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This statue is sitting on the roof of a nearby shop down one of the side streets.  Thought he was neat.

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The Tokyo Sky Tree is complete in height!  It was really hazy, so we couldn’t get a clear view, but this is now the tallest tower in Tokyo.  Estimates show it should be completely finished until February 2012, but it’s already as tall as it’s going to be. 

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It’s the talk of the town right now and our Japanese families wanted to know if we’d seen it yet.  Now we have – at least through the haze.  According to Wikipedia, it’s the “tallest artificial structure in Japan!”  Pretty cool!

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The famous row of shops in Asakusa got progressively busier as the morning passed.

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On our search for an early lunch on one of the side streets, we found a “Real Italian Gelato” store!”  Really wished it had been open.  But we did find an Italian Café that was open for lunch, so we ate our pasta and thought of our friends Joy and Sean (who are currently living in Italy.)

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Brandon finally got his photo with an infamous Japanese beer vending machine! 

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And he found more shisa and another Okinawa restaurant, but as we were catch a flight back to Okinawa that afternoon, we decided to just snap a photo.

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Overall, we had a positively wonderful trip to Tokyo!  So much fun packed into four short days!  So wonderful to see friends and family, go action figure hunting, try great restaurants, and just enjoy Tokyo together!

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