First night and day in Tokyo: April 21-22

 After arriving at Narita airport we got on the train and headed for Shinjuku, where our hostel is located. We are staying at the Yamate Rest House for four nights for an amazingly low price of about $30 per night. Its not an amazing hotel but we won't be spending very time awake there anyways. Here is the amazing view from our room.

    We also met the neighborhood cat, who has since acted as a rooster alarm clock meowing in the morning, here he is chilling under a car getting away from the rain.

    After dropping off our stuff we ventured into the rainy night in search of three things; the Shinjuku Godzilla head, food, and a late night batting cage. After some searching we found the godzilla head, it was difficult to navigate because cell service with t-mobile is not very fast here. Baseball is pretty huge in Japan, so there are a lot of batting cages open very late. We found one close by and wacked some balls, or at least tried to. It's been a long time since I''ve played baseball and it showed. A day later and my arms still ache. Then we wandered through the Omoide Yokocho in search of food. Yokochos are alleyways that are filled to the brim with back to back restaurants. These restaurants are typically tiny, with enough seating for maybe five or six people. We found a yakitori (grilled meat on a skewer, literally means grilled bird because that's the original meat used) spot and chowed down. We got chicken, pork cheek, and pork belly. Then we came back to home base and passed out.

    On our first morning in Tokyo we had planned to rent bikes and make our way to Meiji Jingu, but the bike share services here require a japanese phone number despite being advertised to tourists. The only service we could use that was similar was a scooter called Luup. It was a very confusing process making our way to Meiji Jingu, but we eventually made it. It was amazing seeing the super dense city blocks turn to lush forest as we inched closer to the shrine. The rainy day added a nice aesthetic to the whole xperience. 

    After Meiji Jingu we walked to the Shinjuku National Park to have some lunch, we ate our lunch in a spot famous from an anime movie 'Garden of Words' and many people walked up to take photos of the area so we tried to eat fast.

        The whole park was very photogenic, everyone walking around had either a phone or a big camera.

    We then took a subway to the massive Tokyo Station to see the Imperial Palace, but unfortunately the palace was closed for the day. At least we saw it from a distance.

       After this adventure we took a walk back past the Tokyo Station to see the Ginza neighborhood, which was way too high class for my dad and I. Louis Vuitton, and Gucci, and way too many to name, but we were there for the museums, of which only one was open. The Art Aquarium Museum, which was a beautiful experience. 

    After the aquarium we waited forever for the bathroom then headed out to take a subway to the great Shibuya Scramble crossing, it was cool to see, but that many people all in one place was a little overwhelming for me, and I'm glad we were only there for a few minutes. We then walked to the nearby Nonbei Yokocho, where very few restaurants were open yet because of how early we were. We went into the one spot that looked open and we didn't realize yet, but it was a bar instead of a restaurant. Pops had a beer and I got to practice my Japanese a bit and requested a cola. We ordered some snacks and chowed down then headed for the nearest subway station towards the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. It's a massive three building series connected by a skyway and a big plaza in the center.

    Then, after several hours of walking around, we decided to head back to home base and find some easy food. We grabbed some konbini (convenience store) food and crashed for the night.