chasing the sun. When we landed, it was 1pm July 1st, so we still had about 7 hours before dusk. The second plane was nice, a Boeing 777, which had plenty of room and including on-demand movies and three meals.
July 1st - Landed in Tokyo at 1pm. After an hour bus ride to our hotel which planned the wedding, we arrived at the hotel in the Ginza district and immediately were rushed out to Wedding Pledge, the company that helped dress us. Traditional japanese wedding outfits are complicated and requre a licensed professional to help dress you. After meeting with them for two hours, we realized we were missing some "required" articles they would rent to us. We ate food from the 7-Eleven located at the first floor of the hotel.
July 2nd - We explored Ginza, Harajuku, and Asakusa. Harajuku is famous for it's cosplay area, where hundreds of Japanese youth (14-25) gather and dress in cosplay every Sunday. They definitely had better costumes than the US during an anime convention. They also have a famous shopping street lined with stores geared toward the younger generation and a shop dedicated to Snoopy. Ginza is a major name brand shopping district with more department stores than you can count on two hands spanning floors high. We went to a few before getting tired of the annoying sale announcements from the employees. We checked out the Sony Building, only to find it closed on weekends. Asakusa is a shopping district with more traditional style markets. We explored a Japanese style "flea market" and found some missing pieces to our outfits cheaper than the rental fees from Wedding Pledge. We ate a Korean Buffet where you cook your own food. The cost was high, but included all you can eat and drink, including alcoholic drinks (beer, wine, sake, mixed drinks). It was excellent.
I must commend Japan on it's transportation system. They have subways, trains, and buses going EVERYWHERE in Japan at almos all times. If you miss one, there is usually another along within minutes. Very convinient and cheap compared to Taxi costs. Tokyo is a dense city much like New York where the only traffic is Taxis and Buses. Most people don't have their own car in Tokyo.
July 3rd - We went to the US Embassy to obtain the required documents needed to officiate our marriage in Japan. The hotel staff was happy to translate the documents for us. We would not be anywhere without our wonderful wedding planners who did everything for us. We had our ceremony at Kanda Myoujin. Very beautiful ceremony. The bride stole the show.
After the ceremony, we ate at a nice Japanese teppenyaki restaurant (the kind where you sit around the cook and he cooks for you). It was very expensive and very different from American "Japanese" teppenyaki restaurants. I think we will stick to American teppenyaki.
July 4th - Officiated the marraige at the local city hall close to our hotel. We were nervous because people online said they didn't think we could do it without a permanent Japanese address and alien registration card. After looking over two law books with a couple other employees, the clerk said all we need is our passports. PHEW! He assisted us in translating our names into Katukana (Japanese longhand), even though the US Embassy website said they couldn't help, and again, two people from our hotel were happy to sign and seal as witnesses to our marraige. We checked out of our hotel and left for Shibuya, a district of Tokyo lined with shopping centers and famous for Love Hotel Hill.
Japan has accomodations known as love hotels where guests can stay for "rests" of about 2-3 hours which usually cost about 3000 yen or "Stays" overnight which usually cost starting at 8000 yen. This is much cheaper than normal Holiday Inn type of hotels in Japan, which start at 10000 yen and up, and you usually get much nicer rooms for your money. You walk into the lobby and there will be a display of every room in the hotel, the ones lit up are still available. You choose your room by pressing a button and the clerk gives you a key from behind a wall with a small slot for exchanging money and the key. Very private!
We walked around for hours before and looked at dozens of love hotels before finding a nice love hotel called Carribean Resort. The room was spacious, included a nice soft bed, 40 inch plasma tv, ps2, karaoke machine, dvd/vhs player, free pay channels (including adult channels), and a huge jacuzzi tub with jets and a tv in the jacuzzi room, all for about 10000 yen. The hotel also gave us free dessert, a nice tropical sundae, for staying overnight. Compare with our room at our previous hotel with a small 19 inch tube tv and cramped bed at 18000 yen/night, this was paradise!
