25 May, 09 - Monday
TOYOTA and Tokyo. It was a busy day: first we visited the TOYOTA autobuilding plant, and saw the welding line and an assembly line. Robots were 100% on welding - that was amazing. They looked like they were alive. Oh, I forgot that to get to TOYOTA plant we took a bullet train from Kyoto to Nagoya, and then by bus to Toyota City. After that we took a bullet train all the way to Tokyo. 177 miles per hour (300 km/hr)!
Tokyo is nice, a lot of skyscrapers, people in black business suits hurrying to and from train and subway stations. Scott and I took on a little adventure that night. Together with Andrewsens and some other couples we went to see Tokyo. We had maps of Tokyo and their subway lines but, boy! did we know what we were getting ourselves into?! That subway was the trickiest thing. It took us at least an hour to figure out how to get on the right line and once we did, 20 minutes later we were at the Electronics District. It's a street, all lit up with neon and there are tons of little electronics shops. Regular stuff, and super-new things, like round-shaped laptops and such.
Scott was convinced he was not going to leave that place without a new gadget, but after visiting a couple of stores, he decided that prices there are the same and sometimes even higher than in American stores. Plus, we are used to having a return or guarantee policy American style, just in case. So, we wandered around, took some pictures, and 30 minutes later headed back to the subway station. We felt very confident this time that getting back to the hotel would be a breeze. And it was. To some extent. Until we got out of the train on our station and found ourselves completely lost in the underground sea of Japanese signs and people. I was getting frustrated because I needed to go pee pretty bad
(when you are pregnant, it's very easy to get frustrated about that.) And we could not find any bathroom signs. When all seemed hopeless and I was about to cry (and probably pee my pants), I finally spotted a God-given restroom sign (Halleluja!) Scott and I just took off in that direction separating from the group. After that, as if by miracle, we were able to follow signs to the Government Tower (where we've already been that afternoon and which stands next to our hotel.) We were finally out!!! Boy, was I tired!
Government Tower we went on just before the Electronics District, before it went dark. We went on top of it and saw how Tokyo spreads out in all directions forever. It's a huge city! The 2nd biggest city in the world after (surprise, surprise!) Mexico City. Tokyo is huge. It's not like it's got an island of downtown area with skyscrapers. It seems like skyscrapers are everywhere, they are like trees in the neverending woods. But the most amazing thing of all was the sunset. Sun, looking like a giant red planet, had no beams shining around it, just perfectly edged and red like the sun on Japanese flag. So strikingly beautiful! Unfortunately, it did not look exactly the same on the camera, so I was glad I saw it with my own eyes.
Scott was convinced he was not going to leave that place without a new gadget, but after visiting a couple of stores, he decided that prices there are the same and sometimes even higher than in American stores. Plus, we are used to having a return or guarantee policy American style, just in case. So, we wandered around, took some pictures, and 30 minutes later headed back to the subway station. We felt very confident this time that getting back to the hotel would be a breeze. And it was. To some extent. Until we got out of the train on our station and found ourselves completely lost in the underground sea of Japanese signs and people. I was getting frustrated because I needed to go pee pretty bad (when you are pregnant, it's very easy to get frustrated about that.) And we could not find any bathroom signs. When all seemed hopeless and I was about to cry (and probably pee my pants), I finally spotted a God-given restroom sign (Halleluja!) Scott and I just took off in that direction separating from the group. After that, as if by miracle, we were able to follow signs to the Government Tower (where we've already been that afternoon and which stands next to our hotel.) We were finally out!!! Boy, was I tired!
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