Christmas Day & The Robot Cafe

On Christmas Day Mark and I did some sightseeing at the Tokyo Tower. Much like the Tokyo Sky Tree, the Tokyo Tower is a broadcasting tower.

It is the second tallest building in Tokyo and was built in 1958. Standing at 1,092 feet tall, it was built to look like the Eiffel Tower and is painted orange for safety reasons.

View from the observation window.

Out of the two towers, I liked the Sky Tree better. Since it is newer, it didn't shake as much and the elevators moved faster, which is good for someone afraid of heights. After looking at the view from both observation decks, we found a photo booth.

The view from Tokyo Tower.

Photo booths are huge in Japan. Typically, men are not allowed in them, unless they are taking pictures with their girlfriends. The booths are so much fun because they are huge and have studio quality lighting. Some of them have costumes that you can put on, or special filters they apply to your photo. It's like Instagram on steroids.

Tokyo Tower Photo Booth!

We got to choose two backgrounds for this one and then we added the little hearts during the editing process. That's right, you edit your photo booth pictures. It's the best 500 yen you can spend!

Tokyo subway.

After the Tokyo Tower, we headed to the Tsukiji Fish Market. This is the biggest wholesale fish market in the world, and is where the infamous tuna auctions take place. Tourists once were able to see the auctions take place, but they have recently stopped allowing tourists in the inner market.

So many people! There were a ton of booths selling fish and other goods.

We worked up an appetite walking around so we popped into one of the restaurants located above the shops. The stairs were ridiculously steep and the sushi was simple and fresh. We had a few beers and then headed back to the hotel to prepare for the Robot Cafe.

Santa Baby at the Robot Cafe.

The Robot Cafe fits every stereotype foreigners have of Japan. Laser lights. Girls in skimpy outfits. Frantic music. Pandas riding cows. And it is the best thing we did in Tokyo.

During the battle scene. The panda riding a cow was on her side...against the robots.

The cafe is more of a show than a dinner. They provided bento boxes, but we stuck to chu-his (flavored malt beverages). It is located in the flashy Shinjuku area of town, mostly known for its shopping and nightlife.

We all got glow sticks for this portion.

The show itself is a series of scenes of pandas, anime girls, and robots battling each other. Don't try to make sense of it, because it just doesn't. Words really can't do it justice, though all I can say is if you find yourself in Tokyo for the night, this is a requirement. You won't regret it.

Don't ask why...just enjoy it.

If you want to see a bit of the show, click the picture below to watch the Robot Cafe rendition of Santa Baby (yes, we went on Christmas):

The following day we went to the Meiji Jingu shrine, which was very pretty because it was surrounded by Yoyogi Park.

Torii gate at the entrance of the park.

We wondered around, enjoying the more mild temperatures of Tokyo. We found a garden which would have been very pretty in the fall and summer, but pretty much everything was dead when we went.

Prayer cards from all over the world. It was so cool to see so many different languages.

In the garden, we saw this older man picking up pebbles and holding them flat in his hand. After a few minutes, a small sparrow-looking bird landed right on this hand and sat perched there for a few seconds before flying away.

So Mark copied him.

And then he kept trying to get me to do the same, despite my fear of birds, which we've already discussed here. After a little while, I finally worked up the courage.

In case you wondered what my fear face looks like...

But after the initial shock, we got a better picture of me once again conquering my fear.

WINNING!

And that was our Tokyo adventure. Such a great way to end two months apart.

Rokkasho Salmon Festival

In the past year, I have found myself doing things I never thought I would do in a million years. Things like coming face to face with my fears, and conquering every last one of them. I guess there's something to be said about moving to a foreign country that makes you just not care anymore about silly phobias.

The pool of salmon and their keeper

Which brings us to the Rokkasho Salmon Festival, an event centered around standing in a pool and catching a salmon with your bare hands. The festival is so popular that there was actually a lottery system for the tickets, so in a courageous moment, I signed my name on the dotted line. Or auto-populated my information on the website. Whatever.

Getting instructions & being told multiple times to put our hands up.

I won the tickets, or the ability to buy the tickets, and convinced a couple of friends to go with me. The festival itself was very small and unimpressive, other than the man dressed in drag doing some sort of Moulin Rouge-esque performance. Japan is weird.

He serenaded one of our friends. Instantly regretted not getting video.

After tooling around for a bit, it was finally time for our salmon catch! They handed us a plastic bag, and pointed to a sign in English with a few rules on it. That is probably one of my favorite qualities about the Japanese; they are always prepared for the dumb Americans. So the rules stated that we would have two minutes to catch our fish and if we didn't catch one within the allotted time, a guy with a dipnet would place a fish in our bag. Also, if we were to find a male salmon, we were to put it back. Not like we knew the difference, but those are just details.

Basically pretending I'm a softer version of Katniss from the Hunger Games.

We then took our places along the pool. At this point, I started seriously questioning whether or not I wanted to do this, but MC soon started going over the rules once more. Then, they counted down from 10 and we all ran into the water, which was surprisingly not very cold for it being November. Prior to the festival, I had bought gloves from the 100 Yen Store with little grippers on them to make it easier to catch the fish. This proved to be extremely helpful and a key component to my success.

Catching my fish. Slippery lil guy.

The first fish I went after slipped away, and I began to panic that I wouldn't catch one within the time limit, but literally ten seconds later, I ended up grabbing one and holding on for dear life. Salmon are so much stronger than you would think. Or I'm just weak.

Our friend had a much harder time with his. He basically just punched one in the eye.

After we exited the arena, there was a processing table that gutted and cleaned the fish for us. Since they were female salmon, there were a ton of eggs that workers slopped into a bag and handed each of us. The Americans were not so interested in this, so we all found this sweet older woman to give our eggs to. She was over the moon excited by this, as they are very expensive at the grocery store.

These people interviewed our friend after the catch.

Even though this was one of the smallest festivals we have been to, it was definitely one of the most fun, and an experience I wouldn't trade for anything. Also, the salmon was freaking delicious. Doesn't get any fresher than that.

Props to Sara Williamson for taking almost all of these photos.