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We took the shinkansen back to Tokyo and purchased a bento box for lunch.

When we made it back to Tokyo we checked back in to the Tokyo Hotel East 21. The hotel is nice, but I didn’t particularly like some of the staff or the restaurants. Also, the hotel is way on the outside of Tokyo, not particularly close to a subway station, and almost unbearably far from the airport.

We had one of those cool washlet toilets, which are a combination of a toilet and a bidet. These are the controls for the washlet. More sophisticated ones include a seat warmer.

Later in the evening we visited Shibuya and ate dinner at Lock Up. The Japanese are big into themes and this restaurant had a jailhouse theme. The hostesses were dressed as wardens and each table was enclosed in its own jail cell. This was an incredibly fun place, especially when all the lights went out. They started playing Thriller music and the staff wore monster masks and "attacked" people in the cells.

Here's a picture of downtown Shibuya. It looks a lot like Times Square.

This is the group eating a peaceful dinner at Lock Up, totally unaware.

Ahhhhhhhhh! Do not want!

We left from the hotel and took a charter bus to Kyoto. We spent the day looking at temples and shrines. This is also the day we bought most of our souvenirs and gifts for people back home. I was operating under the assumption that gifts at the airport would be very expensive like they are in the States. I was wrong. I later found out the souvenirs at the gift shops at Narita Airport are reasonably priced and cost the same as what you can find in the cities. So, for traditional souvenirs, you can go ahead and wait the end of your trip, except that you’ll have to carry it on the plane because you have to check your luggage before you get to the part of the airport with the gift shops. The only things I think we wouldn’t have been able to get is the sake we purchased at the sake museum and the $3 kimono I got from a local.

Kiyomizu-dera temple was our first stop for the day. Here we learned to purify our hands and mouths and saw Buddhist and Shinto shrines. It was hot that day, which was unexpected. It’s like we brought the hot weather with us from Phoenix.

Next we visited the the Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum, where we learned about how sake is made. We also purchased some sake to take back with us.

At our final stop we saw the famous torii gates at Fushimi Inari. These orange gates are placed so close together they form miles of tunnels. It was a beautiful site and we enjoyed seeing these cultural and historical parts of Japan.

At many of the places we visited there were different good luck fortunes, charms, and wards to see or purchase. These were fox charms. People would write their wishes on one side and on the other side they would decorate. There were many anime looking foxes.

I thought the most interesting wards were the ones placed above doorways that included braided rope (shimenawa), zigzag folded paper (shide), and wands with some kind of either straw or hemp fibers attached. Our guide told us the paper represented lightning; the rope, clouds; and the wands, rain. They are placed around sacred objects to protect them.

We passed by the Nintendo building while traveling through Kyoto.

After the day trip in Kyoto we traveled back to Osaka. To celebrate our last night in Osaka, our tour guide took us out drinking at Rock Rock. On the way we saw the sparkling lights of the Marathon Man. We also saw this giant crab that I had no idea what it was. I do now, but not then.

Paul and I having drinks at Rock Rock.

I saw this in a bathroom and just thought this was funny. It's very detailed instructions on how to wash your hands.

Technically, day two was spent on the plane because we crossed the international dateline, so while we left the U.S. on a Sunday, this day is now Tuesday.

Today we took the shinkansen bullet train to Osaka. The trip took about three hours. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. I had in my mind that a bullet train would actually travel like a bullet and I would see the countryside whirr past the windows. It went a little faster than a train, but the ride was super smooth.

During this time we got to know the other people in our tour group. After speaking with the other people I came to realize that I am way behind on my anime. Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to keep up with some of my favorite hobbies such as anime and comic books. The trip was nice because Paul and I still had jet lag, so it allowed for recovery.

In Japan, everything is my size!

We checked into the Osaka Hotel Granvia. Like all Japanese hotels, small room, with small beds and bathroom.

View from hotel room of Osaka.

Paul and I left our home at 7:00 a.m. to start our trip to Japan. We met with the tour group at the airport and then embarked on an 11-hour trip across the Pacific for Narita International Airport.

My advice to anyone traveling to Asia: take Korean Air. This airline is much nicer than our domestic airlines, the food was great, the seats were roomier, and the stewardesses were super nice.

You can't see it yet, but this will turn into bimbop after I add the secret ingredient.

When we arrived in Japan we exchanged our money, and then traveled to our hotel. We didn’t really unpack or get settled at this point because we would only be staying in this hotel for one night and then taking off for Osaka. Paul and I grabbed some sushi from the place downstairs.

Eating in Japan was easy because most restaurants have display their menus with pictures or plastic food displays. The sushi was great and though we didn't understand what the people were in the restaurant were saying, they were very accommodating of our lack of knowledge of their language.

Over the weekend, track star Marion Jones admitted to steroid use. I never believed her claims that she competed clean. She always stated that the truth was her friend and would exonerate her. Well, it's been eight years since she won gold at the Sydney Olympics and the only significant news headlines she's grabbed since then are her denials of ever using steroids. She's old news and her confession now doesn't matter as much anymore except to finalize the end of her career. She stole other athletes' glory and happy memories. She deserves to have her medals stripped.

I feel strongly about the issue of performance enhancing drugs because I am an athlete and I believe in the spirit of sport. I value the idea of people getting together to compete in tests of skill and endurance in a beautiful display of human achievement. Performance enhancing drugs taint that display. I am not an elite professional athlete, but I care about sports. I am a runner and in the middle of training for my second marathon. I run and compete for personal accomplishment, fitness, and camaraderie. I like knowing that I can finish a 26-mile race. Steroids would steal that dream from me. I don't understand why elite athletes use steroids. I've heard the arguments that all the top athletes use them, so drugs are necessary in order to be competitive. And I've heard how elite athletes want to win and see their name in the record books at whatever cost. These reasons are shallow and lame excuses. Is fame more important than personal satisfaction? How can they stand on the victory podium knowing their win is a lie? Athletes should win competitions to achieve their personal best and contribute to the record of human achievement, not because they want their face on a box of Wheaties.

It distresses me to see how prevalent drug use is among athletes and it doesn't matter the sport; it's in running, cycling, baseball, everything. These people are ruining sports! It's no longer about physical achievement. It's about money and greed. What kind of example is this setting for children? Steroid use has already gone down into the college and high school level. Whatever happened to having a dream and working hard to accomplish a goal? If the top elite athletes really cared about their sport, they would not use performance enhancing drugs. To hell with what other people say or do, especially corporations. Are you gonna let corporations own you? After you've sold their shoes or hamburgers for them do you think they care that you've screwed up your health with illegal substances or you're found to be a fraud and eviscerated in the court of public opinion? Hell no! If you're doing your sport for money or fame, do us all a favor and get out. You're hurting yourself and the sport with your filth.