I failed miserably at continuing to write about each day of the trip, while the details get fuzzier and fuzzier every day since. So here is the rest of the trip in summary.

Day Three

We did some more sightseeing with Kaori. Went to Asakusa and saw Senso-ji temple, which had a long row of open shops in front of it. The vendors were selling all sorts of things that screamed “Japan”! Like kimonos, nikko cats and other things. After walking around the temple we had sukiyaki for lunch at Saniwa. This would be my third favorite type of Japanese cuisine (sushi is first, okonomiyaki second).

Later we bought cards to give Fumi for her wedding present. You don’t really give gifts at a Japanese wedding, you give money in a gorgeous card. We stopped at a cafe and Kaori taught us how to sign our names. That night we ate dinner at the Kanda meat market and got incredibly drunk. The market has several independent restaurants inside, but its all open. So you can sit at one place and order from another. Each had a different type of meat: chicken, beef, seafood, horse… We settled in at the seafood place, where the serious drinking began. They really loved us, because they kept overfilling our sake glasses and boxes. And we celebrated Andrew’s birthday, which made him blush. Surprisingly, we all made it home safely that night (ie, didn’t get lost).

All pictures from day three

Day Four
The day of Fumi’s wedding. We started off by going to the Ghibli Museum. If you don’t know who Hayao Miyazaki is, you must add Totoro and Spirited Away to your movie queue immediately. I’ll wait while you take care of that… done? Ok, so we went to the museum which was awesome. It felt just like his movies, fun and whimsical – like you’re in his world.

Fumi’s wedding started at 2:30. It was a Catholic wedding and not too long. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures in the church, but I got some cool shots on the outside – one of Kaori holding rose petals and Fumi walking through them. Then we were off to the reception hall: Ogasawara hakushaku tei, a one-Michelin-star Spanish restaurant. The food was fantastic, served tapas style by wait staff. And we knew enough English-speaking people to stay busy. Though every speech was in Japanese, it didn’t bother me that I didn’t understand. Afterwards there was a party for close friends in the red light district at III B (Three B) at Shinjyuku Kabuki-cho.

All pictures from day four

Day Five
The day began with a trip to the Ramen Museum in Yokohama. The museum had a section inside that was set up to look like Tokyo in the 1950’s. There you could try all sorts of different ramen. We only made it through two bowls. After we walked around Yokohama and took some pictures (like the ferris wheel to the right).

For dinner we met Fumi and Toshi at Torafugu tei, a blow fish restaurant. By this time I had a bit of a stomach ache, from the Ramen Museum I assume. So the food wasn’t very appetizing to me. That very same stomach ache ended up lasting almost two weeks.

All pictures from day five

Day Six
We met up with Steve’s friend/ex-programming budy, Kris Tate. He joined us for sushi at Kagura – really good sushi, I loved it! We had a pretty low-key day because I didn’t feel so well and we were all a little tired of walking around. So we sat in a cafe for a while and talked. (Also discovered just how cute Kaori would look if I could really put her in my pocket). Then went to dinner at an art gallery / okonomiyaki place, Sakura tei.

All pictures from day six

Day Seven
Met up with Kris before we left. We were supposed to get giyoza, but had some confusion about the time we needed to catch teh train, so we had burgers instead. They were actually perfect for my sore tummy. We walked around a little, went to another temple where we saw a traditional Japanese wedding procession. Then we were off to home!

All pictures from day seven

In Conclusion
I can now add Tokyo to the list of places I wouldn’t mind living. For a year or two. (The other place on the small list is Paris).

The entire photo set

The original goal was to be at the fish market at 6am, which meant we had to wake up at 4:30am. We adjusted our target time to 6:30am and agreed on a meeting place. We all arrived on time, but didn’t get there until 7am. When we got to our sushi destination the line was around the corner and the wait was two hours! On top of that, it was cold and rainy.

I was really hungry, so I decided to find a snack while we waited. There was a booth nearby that looked like it had some sweets, so I wandered over. The woman didn’t speak English, but she figured out what I wanted. She pointed to some white doughy balls and said, “sweet. yum.” Exactly what I was looking for! They were filled with red bean and were, in fact, sweet yum.

The two hours it took to get inside felt like forever. Once inside it took a good ten minutes for my hands to thaw out. The sushi that stood out the most was salmon roe. Steve couldn’t stop talking about how wonderful it was. After filling up we headed to a place called “Decks” – an indoor complex (more info). It was a neat place, there was an old section with a lot of toys and crazy fun things, including a photo booth where Fumi and I spent about half an hour decorating ourselves.

We walked around for a while then stopped at a coffee shop to rest. Later we had okonomiyaki for lunch. Another delicious meal. I really wish we could get some good okonomiyaki in San Francisco. We were so tired from waking up early that we all decided to go back to our apartments and take a nap before dinner. Fumi had some things to get done before the wedding, so we were just going to meet up with Kaori for dinner – hot pots.

Second Day Photos

A little background first. The reason we went to Tokyo was that our friend, Fumi, was getting married. We met Fumi at our favorite sushi restaurant in San Mateo, Yuzu. She moved back to Japan this past September and planned her wedding in about three months – crazy, I know! Two of her other US friends (which she met through Yuzu) were also in town for the wedding, Robert and Andrew. They arrived three or four days ahead of us. By the time we arrived, they had already done some serious sight seeing with Fumi as their guide and were tired from all the walking around.

And now onto our arrival…

As usual with international travel, we were exhausted when we arrived. Luckily Fumi met us at the airport. I think we would have gotten lost several times if we had to find our way to the apartment ourselves. Most of the signs have English translations, but not all of them. And unlike the other three countries I’ve been to, not everyone speaks English.

The differences in culture hit us right away. If you’re standing still on the escalator, you stand on the left, not the right and in general you walk on the left (and drive on the left). We took the express train to the heart of Tokyo and from their we switched trains to a local train, which gave way to our second totally Japanese experience – human sardines. The local train was completely packed. And the third thing, our tiny apartment. It was about size of our living room. It had a bedroom, bathroom and “kitchen”. Oh, and there was no sink in the bathroom! (I found out later that this is not the norm). The only source of heat was a small unit on the wall in the bedroom. So we closed the door every night and only heated that one room. It really sucked waking up in the morning and stepping into a freezing bathroom to shower.

After dropping off our stuff and brushing our teeth we headed to the Korean BBQ restaurant to meet everyone else for dinner. In addition to me, Steve, Fumi, Robert and Andrew, we also ate with Kaori and one of Robert or Andrew’s friends (I don’t remember his name).

Kaori also worked at Yuzu back in the day. She moved back to Japan about two years ago. We only knew her a little bit. Kaori was very generous though, she took off two days of work to be our (including Robert and Andrew) personal guides when Fumi could not. We truly appreciated that from someone who barely knew us!

Dinner was absolutely delicious. We were pretty tired so we didn’t stay out too late. We also had to wake up really early the next morning in order to get sushi at the fish market – a sure-fire cure for jet lag.

Day One Pictures

The power went out on our last day at Le Torri. Then it came on again, then it went out again. Back and forth. Needless to say, we didn’t have much internet access, so it was hard to plan our day. The guys were contemplating a cooking class in Firenze, but they hadn’t heard back. Plan B was to head to Siena again.

I went to the Le Torri office and called about private a class. The man said he’d have to check with the chef and call me back. About an hour later the class was scheduled, another day in Firenze. Steve and Orion had to meet the chef at 4:30 by the Dante statue. Rebecca and I sat with them until the chef came, then left to shop.

But first, one last gelato break. We walked around a lot, looking for a bag for Rebecca and shoes for me. Neither of us got what we wanted, but Rebecca got some cool shoes. Around 8:00 we met back up with the guys. They had eaten the food they made, but Rebecca and I were still hungry so we stopped and ate. While we ate it started raining really hard. There was lightening and thunder – reminded me of Ohio.

The guys enjoyed the cooking class. They learned how to make a simple sauce and all the ways to add to it for variety. And they hand-made some pasta! Here’s some info on the class. They both felt it was well worth it, and would have loved taking several more classes.

We went to bed around 11:00p or 12:00a and woke up at 3:00a to get ready and leave. On the drive to the airport I started noticing these little, tiny things on the road that looked like leaves, then realized they were frogs. At one point the quantity of frogs increased severely, such that I COULD NOT avoid running them over. I concluded that it was some sort of rite of initiation – if you go and sit in the road without getting run over, you win the respect of your froggy peers.

The flight home was so freaking tiring. On the first flight there was a woman ripping pages out of a magazine. It was EXTREMELY annoying – it sufficiently interrupts both sleeping and reading. I kept thinking, why don’t you do that at home?!?! I think it wasn’t her magazine, but she ripped out so many pages, she may as well have taken it!

By the time we got home I had been awake for 19 hours and operating on 3 or so hours of sleep. Luckily I managed to stay awake until 9pm, for a total of 27 waking hours. What a tiring journey!

Need I say more? Well, I guess if you’ve never had Brunello I should elaborate. And there’s a pretty good chance you haven’t because Italy doesn’t export a lot of it to the US. The winery was in Montalcino, Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona. Our hostess was another very interesting woman (like the one in Montespertoli). She had lived all sorts of places around the world and spoke about seven languages, making us all feel inferior. On the other hand she also made us feel quite at home, like honored guests. The wine was fabulous. She poured four wines at once so we could compare the taste. Its really smart, because the Brunello stands out like a gem. We weren’t planning on bringing anything home – until we tasted that. Here’s some more info on their Brunello. (pictures from the tour)

Around the corner was an abbey with some monks who chant every day at certain times, The Abbey of Sant’Antimo Montalcino. We stopped by to hear them. I think its safe to say the four of us agreed – it wasn’t that impressive. I think we just caught them on an bad day, or bad prayer – a bad prayer day. (pictures)

Then we stopped at another winery, I don’t remember the name. The wine was ok, but the people weren’t as friendly. After that we were pretty hungry so we headed into Montalcino, which is a small, hilltop medieval town. We ate the picnic lunch that we brought then walked around a bit. Most things were closed (because it was between 1:00 and 3:00) and it was very empty. The layout of the town was neat though, the long roads weaved back and forth down the hill with shops on either side. (pictures)

Instead of killing another hour in order to head to another winery (because they wouldn’t open again until 3:00) we decided to head back to Le Torri. We hung out and walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner.

Another day trip to Florence. We finally made it to that special sandwich shop, the Oil Shoppe. My friend Shawna recommended it. Apparently its all she lived on when she did her studies abroad for six months. The sandwiches were quite good, all four of us devoured them happily.

After eating we saw the Firenze Duomo. I was really blown away by the outside, striped with pink, white and green marble. Very ornate, which I love. The inside, however, was not so impressive. I think the inside of the Siena Duomo wins, and the outside of the Firenze Duomo wins. What contest are they winning? The pretty, ornate, Italian things contest. And Siena and Firenze are enemies, so these things matter. (my pictures, mostly the outside because, like I said, the inside is boring)

Then we trekked to the top of Piazzele Michealangelo, which harbors the best view of Firenze (info on Wikipedia). It was quite breathtaking. There was a couple taking wedding pictures, I snapped a few shots of them. I’ve heard the view is even more spectacular when the city is covered in snow, which only happens about once every twenty years. (my pictures)

That night we ate near Le Torri, and guess who pulled up to the parking lot at the same exact time? Eh, you’ll never guess – it was the young couple and parents from Florida from dinner the night before. How funny is that? Very, I tell ya!

We had a pretty calm, easy day. We drove into town for snacks to make a picnic lunch and brought them back to Le Torri. We set up outside and munched our goodies for a while before discovering the swarm of mosquitoes who were also happily munching.

Later we went to a small winery in Montespertoli. The woman who poured for us was quite charming. She was from Spain but had been living in Montespertoli for about seven years. She taught us how to properly pronounce the city’s name and a few other words.

Before dinner we hung out by the pool at Le Torri for a while. Got bit by some more mosquitoes. Then headed back into Montespertoli for dinner. The restaurant was pretty busy. Even though Gabriele called ahead for us, they only had two two-person tables. A couple at a four-person table noticed our situation and moved for us. We tried to buy their dessert to thank them, but the restaurant bought it instead.

The whole place was full of Americans. We spoke a little to the table next to us. A young couple and what I assume were the guy’s parents. They were all from Florida. I think they were celebrating the young woman’s pregnancy, or just simply vacationing. They actually helped us try to communicate with the server a few times.

Our first wedding anniversary (Oct 5th)! We began the day by trying to go to Coop (grocery store) to pick up a few things, but it closed the minute we walked up to the door. Most stores close between 1:00 and 3:00 throughout Italy. If you forget that fact, its quite annoying. It got us a couple of times.

We ended up eating lunch in Montespertoli (that’s monti-SPARE-toli, singsong), which was the closest significant town to Le Torri (our agriturismo, if you don’t know what that is, why aren’t you reading these in order?). Guess what we ate? Yep, pasta again! And for dessert? You know it, gelato! We went back to Le Torri with full bellies and I took a nap (that ice cream just took over!).

Around 4:00 we drove about 45 minutes to Siena and walked around. I really liked Siena, its so charming and enchanting. We saw the Duomo, which was quite impressive. The inside was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It felt gloomy and magical, like a Tim Burton set. If you ever make it to Siena, you MUST go inside the Duomo. (More about the cathedral) (My pictures)

We walked some more then made our way over to Cane e Gatto (dog and cat). The meal was fantastic, another situation where you sit down and they feed you what they have that day, you don’t choose. The owner and his helper were extremely nice. The perfect evening for our anniversary. (pictures)

First full day in Tuscany – off to Firenze (Florence, why do we call it that?) to walk around and visit the Uffizi gallery. We attempted to have lunch at a specific sandwich shop, but we didn’t have enough time before our scheduled museum visit. And thank goodness we had tickets ahead of time, that line was long!!! The museum was very big with lots of art, and walking around was so tiring. Those places are always so dry, they just suck the energy right out of you!

The older paintings from the 14th century with gold paint became quite tedious and boring. There were so many – same thing over and over. As time progressed through each gallery section the subjects, positions, styles and artistic abilities got so much better. I found the later art (late 15th century and 16th century) much more interesting, like Filippo Lippi and Botticelli. I especially liked this painting. Here are the pictures I took before they caught me taking pictures.

We were pretty tired after walking around the overwhelming museum, so we ended up at a wine bar. We were supposed to have one drink and carry on, but we just couldn’t muster up the strength. The wine guy, Zino, was super nice. He gave us a lot of recommendations for wineries to visit. He said paintings are not the only art in Florence, here you have art in a bottle! While we sat and enjoyed some delicious wine it started to rain for the first time on our vacation. It wasn’t raining too hard, so I actually didn’t mind that much.

I also saw a dog that looked JUST LIKE Joe (picture). I stopped his owner and tried to show him a picture of Joe, but he really didn’t care. And he didn’t speak any English.

Finally we left to have dinner. The food was pretty good and we had steak for the first time in Italy. It was huge! Orion and Steve shared it, Rebecca and I just had a few bites. Oh and by the way, bread in Tuscany doesn’t have any salt – its terrible! The bread in other parts of Italy was great though.

Sadly, we left our gracious hosts at Cancabaia and drove two and half hours south to our next destination, Tuscany. We were staying at Le Torri, an agriturismo in Montespertoli. An agriturismo is basically a farmhouse turned resort. Read more about them here. Our host, Gabriele, checked us in and showed us to our villa.

We were impressed with how nice the place was. We felt the web site didn’t really do it justice. That night there was a welcome dinner for all the guests (about 18-20 of us). Gabriele’s mother prepared a home cooked meal. The food and company were great, but I was pretty tired.

When I finally made it back to our room I logged on and noticed that Gabriele added us as friends on Facebook and bragged about our arrival for us. Soon after he uploaded some pictures from dinner. I felt that was a really nice touch for us young, web-addicted folks.