TOKYO TIME: 4:34PM, MONDAY

well it’s the last full day of the trip, tomorrow we pretty much wake up, pack, and hop a bus to the airport for all that fun and the lovely 10 hour flight. ugh. it’ll be fun boarding a plane at 3 in the afternoon tuesday then landing at 7:30 the morning we left. we’re marty mcfly-in’ it back to LA!

sadly we didn’t make it to the ninja museum today, we just didn’t think we could get up early enough to make it there and back in a reasonable amount of time. yesterday was fun walking around harajuku to see some elaborately dressed teenagers and the huge crowds in all the shops. i even finally got to buy some stuff of my own that i might actually be able to wear. one thing we’ve noticed about the style of dress here is that either it’s very conservative/professional, or the young people are so super-trendy none of the stores they shop in carry anything i could wear without feeling foolish. lots of very busy prints — i saw shirts with entire badly-translated poems written all over them — or very very short skirts or shorts for the girls that a normal non-bony, non-asian girl would feel really self-conscious wearing. we did get some cool knick knacks though.

today i have to admit we were kind of spent, so all we did was stop by another center in ikebukuro, where we went to a gyoza stadium (all-dumpling food court, mmm), and an ice cream city both inside a place called namjatown that was a bit like a chucky cheese’s for japanese kids. sadly, not a lot of fun since it entirely lacked any english directions on any of the activities. tonight i think we have one nice big traditional japanese ten-course meal planned where you sit on floor mats while you eat, then we’re pretty much done. not looking forward to the long plane ride, but i am looking forward to having almost a week of time off when we get back to the states to specifically NOT spend all day every day walking around, and just lounging, relaxing, catching up on tv shows waiting on the tivo, playing some video games, and eating wonderful american food.

not to mention, of course, putting up the LOADS of pictures we took. soon you will see why we are so exhausted after our 8 days here. see you soon, los angeles!