Saturday, Japan Day 5, 7/20/13

After a good night's rest, I got up early again and headed down for breakfast.  This time I didn't have anyone to assist me.  I don't mind eating alone.  It's actually kinda peaceful. Anyways, this cool guy from Taiwan was there with his family and helped me grab a plate of breakfast. That was so cool! Stuff like that restores my faith in humanity.  Having a meal alone gives me time to organize my thoughts for the day and explore new ideas... That morning, I realized that in many Asian cultures, breakfast and lunch are the most important meals of the day.  Americans put a lot of emphasis on breakfast and dinner.  I try to eat an energizing breakfast and a small lunch, and a health dinner.  Dinner for me has been getting later and later.  This could pose a problem with weight gain from empty calories.  A late workout can justify a late meal. Empty calories late at night equals putting on the pounds!  On days there is no workout, it makes sense to eat a bigger lunch and a smaller dinner.  After eating in Tokyo, I've noticed that the meal portion sizes are A LOT smaller than American meals, but still enough to leave you satisfied.  I've watched news reports on TV that discuss the obesity epidemic in America, but to witness the life style in another culture was very humbling.  More than one-third of U.S. adults (35.7%) are obese. We can probably attribute this to a sedentary lifestyle and an abundance of fast food and junk food!  Anyways, I met up with another old friend from college for lunch.  Lynh has lived in Tokyo for over 10 years!  It was cool catching up with him, cause he'll always "tell me how it is"... I respect that.  We grabbed lunch at some tempura place at a mall.  I finally got the tempura I'd been craving the whole trip!  I was not disappointed! I decided to "crutch it" at the mall without the mAss Kicker Mobile because it wouldn't be a long walk.  The garage at the mall was so cool!  There was a mechanical conveyer belt that transports your car to a parking spot.  You just had to leave it with an attendant.  This song popped in my head!  People were so friendly!  I was very impressed by the hospitality in Tokyo.  I told Lynh that I wanted to check out the famous cross walk intersection in Shibuya.  Resident Evil: Afterlife sparked my interest in this site.  I got to view it from the car, but I don't think you can fully appreciate it from ground level.   So anyways, Lynh took me to the Imperial Palace. Unfortunately, you can't go in, but you can walk around the walls of the perimeter.  I didn't realize our hotel was so close to EVERYTHING!   We went back to the hotel and picked up the mAss Kicker Mobile!  There were a lot of groups running/training around the palace walls.  It was kinda cool to see fitness prevalent in another culture!  Out of all the big cities I've visited, Tokyo has been the cleanest and friendliest.  So much history here, but it manages to stay clean and modern.  I appreciate that.
When I got back to the room I found Damian crashed out on his bed.  He was saying that he had a really difficult time with the altitude and vowed to return to Mt. Fuji and finish his climb to the summit.  After a power siesta, we would head out to eat some ramen.  We found this little hole in the wall not too far from the hotel.  I think Damian found it online.  I played it safe with ramen and vegetables.  I was determined not to have gastro-intestinal issues in Tokyo!  So far, so good!  We walked around a little but we were both pretty popped, so we called it a night.  The following morning we would be going to a Brazilian Festival, meeting more Japanese survivors, then going back to the airport to start a new adventure in Manila, Philippines!

JAPAN DAY 5 PICTURES

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