Nara

I think this post is now back to chronological order. Right after Kyoto, Hannah and I decided to jump over to Nara for a quick trip to see ever more of Japan.  Since we were super rushed on time we did a lot of research on what exactly we wanted to see and were able to hit all the major sites in just a few hours! 

We put all of our bags in storage lockers at Nara station and figured out the local bus station to get to the center of town.  When you get off the bus in the main city center it is the coolest/weirdest site because there are deer literally roaming everywhere.  They are in the gardens, streets, and even poking their heads into restaurants.  They are soooo used to being around humans that they are not scared of us at all.  On the contrary they actually come up to humans and beg for food.  Hannah and I bought a few deer biscuits and fed some of the deer.  Unfortunately, we were around an aggressive male deer group who head butted us endlessly for food.  It was scarier than I would imagine, or I'm just a wimp! 

Then we walked to a very large temple which houses the largest sitting Buddha in Japan (the second largest being in Kamakura).  I wasn't expecting much as this Buddha was in a temple and didn't have the back drop of a nature, however when you walk into the temple you are literally blown away by the size of the statue.  What was especially interesting to me was that people were not just there as tourists, but so many of them were there to actually pray.  

Japan iPhone Launch

I don't know why but whenever I am in the USA I never go to any of the retail stores for launches.  In Tokyo my team has sort of made it into a tradition to go to one of the retail stores right at opening to see the crowds and then get brunch as a team.  I knew it would be a fun morning, but I had no idea how awesome it would actually be to see a launch! 

I was lucky enough to be in Tokyo during the iPhone 5S and 5C launch.  The line for the Apple store as well as the carrier stores were blocks long and contained hundreds of people.  Apple fanatics came from far and wide to be the first people to have their hands on the new phone.  You could literally feel the energy in the air.  It was so exciting to be there and see such hard work pay off! We were even able to get into the main Docomo store without standing in line and get to touch the new phones and see customers faces as they got their phones activated.  It was a totally cool experience.

As promised after an hour exploring the stores, my team went out for brunch.  We tried this amazing brunch places in Ayoyama called Clinton St Bakery.  This is a hot new breakfast spot in Tokyo and it is the second branch of the famous NYC Clinton St Bakery.  As they advertise they have some of the best pancakes I have ever had.  A coworker and I split their version of huevos rancheros and blueberry pancakes! 

Yaki Tori Night!

I know this is kinda out of order, but in an attempt to keep my blog comprehensive I am going to add some enteries that I forgot to write as they happened. 

Hannah's first night here we decided to make this a total YOLO trip so we wanted to start it with an all you can drink yukata booze cruise.  After work, we rushed over to the pier, however we were too late! The cruise was fully booked.  We were the last few people to show up who were not able to get on the boat! 

However, we were not ready to admit defeat this early in the evening.  On our way back to the subway station we saw a small beer garden with live music.  We stopped to listen to the music, enjoy some beer, have the best grapefruit sours, and eat some fresh gyozas.  

Matt then took us to this new Yakitori restaurant that one of our coworkers showed him.  Matt declared this a night to be adventureous, so adventurous we were….We ate chicken neck, chicken heart, raw eggs, and quail eggs.  This was quite the adventurous meal, however everything was delicious!