Tokyo in 36 Hours

Yes it can be done. We arrived after 7 hours by train from Beppu and after settling into our hotel room we agreed to take advantage of our train passes and pick neighborhoods at random to explore. Our first stop was Shibuya, home to one of the busiest pedestrian intersections in the world. We noticed this as we got to the crosswalks outside the train station. Walkers lined up in huge packs to cross the street in all four corners of the junction. The Shibuya crossing has up to 2,500 people crossing at once, and during rush hour, the crowds that walk across the thick lined crosswalks could fill a football stadium. We had to be careful not to get separated in the waves of people. It
definitely had a modern, fun feeling with lots of entertainment and culture around but some of us were a little overwhelmed by all the people and the sensory overload.

We also went to Shinjuku for awhile to see that part of the city as well as the life size Godzilla residing on the top of a building, but our time was brief and our interest limited after a busy day and we wanted to be well rested for our very busy day the following morning.
Originally we had planned to rise before 4 AM in order to get in line to be one of the 80 tourist on-lookers of the well known tuna auctions at the Tsukiji fish market. We instead decided to sleep in a bit when most of us slumbered through the alarm and no one wanted to find transport to the market while they were still half asleep. (There is not a 24 hour train service in Tokyo so good luck finding a taxi driver at that ungodly hour)

For the first time in the trip we split up, with a promise to rendezvous at the Sumo Wrestling tournament, but that comes later.
Nick and mom set off in search of the owl cafe, which judging by their stories, was nearly impossible to find. To hear more about their time there, read our post "The Friendly Animals of Japan."
After a short train ride to Harajuku, the notorious shopping district of Tokyo, dad and I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast people watching and having some good conversation.
We had decided to celebrate my birthday which isn't for a few more weeks early this year while in Tokyo. For awhile I'd been hassling my parents for an upgrade from our outdated Panasonic camera which we got way back on our South America trip, and now I got my wish. We tracked down a 4 story section of a mall, wholly dedicated to cameras, ranging from 60 to thousands of dollars. We didn't have a ton of time, but we picked out a suitable, affordable camera that would be perfect.
I was so excited and thankful to my parents, and hopefully this means better pictures for the blog! We ate a quick lunch before rushing to the Sumo Stadium to spend a few hours watching these traditional and truly unique styles of fighting. (See post "Sumo Smack down")
It was raining quite hard by the time the bouts were over, but thanks to Justin's gift for navigating, we arrived at our sushi restaurant right on time for our reservation. We enjoyed a few plates of rolls and nigiri as well as a mouth watering bowl of sashimi. There were a few pieces deemed UFOs (Unidentified Fishy Objects) that we will probably never know the origin of. There was one sample on the platter that dad could recognize with his chef expertise. Uni. This mixed brown slimy snotty "delicacy" is the reproductive organ of a sea urchin. Believe me, I didn't know that until I looked it up when writing this. It was yellowy brown and custard like, wrapped tightly in seaweed. I ate it just because I should try it, just in case I ended up liking it. Just as the ew, I don't even want to think about it, touched my taste buds, I wanted it gone. Food writers are right in that it tastes like the ocean, all the bad things in the ocean combined. Imagine someone took a net and dragged it along the bottom of the ocean, collecting all the silt and nasty bits as well as rocks and seaweed. OK, now picture them dumping that net into a cauldron with a bunch of rotting fish in it, heating it and stirring until all the horribleness was a chunky paste. Cool, wrap it in seaweed and voila, you have uni. I understand, some people like it, and that is fine with me, I just don't have a taste for it.
It had it's ups and downs, but mostly ups, and in the end it was a great way to spend our last full day in Japan.