November 3,  2000

On our last day in Japan, we wanted to do the bulk of our souvenir shopping.  But, before we left Japan, we had to visit the Imperial Hotel for breakfast.  The Eureka was a great place to get some pancakes, or Elaine's favorite, "the Fitness breakfast."

As we were enjoying our leisurely (and spendy!) meal, Elaine took note of another patron.  Not two tables away from us was another American man, sitting with two people.  Elaine kept staring, then said, "You know, that guy looks a lot like Ed Norton."

I figured she was stretching a bit, so I turned around to look.  "Elaine, that is Edward Norton!"  Sure enough, the star of "Primal Fear", "Keeping the Faith", and "Fight Club" was having a nice breakfast while being interviewed.  I was tempted to do the gushing fan thing, but I figured he'd rather I didn't.

After breakfast, we wandered around Tokyo looking for souvenir shops, but finding most of them closed because of the holiday.  By the way, November 3rd was "Culture Day."

Just a note on walking around Tokyo on Culture Day.  My...goodness...it...was...crowded!  There were some pretty interesting looking people out there, too!  One guy had hair gelled into great spikes in all directions.  That's culture, I guess.

Finally, we looked up a place called "Oriental Bazaar" in Frommer's.  Thankfully, it was open, and it is an awesome place for souvenirs.  It's a multilevel place, carrying everything from tea sets to chopstick rests to kimonos to swords to paintings.  We bought some beautiful paintings, along with chopsticks and rice bowls, of course.  My favorite item was some little ceramic sumo dudes.  I wish I'd have bought the whole collection....

Since we didn't know how much stuff we'd buy, we had brought an extra bag with us, and we had stowed them at the customer service desk, much as we had done at many a hotel.  So, we finished shopping and went to pick up the bags, but I had lost the claim tag!!!!  Not good.  On our way to the shop, we had reserved seats on the Narita Express at 3:30pm.  It was now nearly 3pm.  Ouch.  The clerk at the Customer Service desk didn't want to give me the bags back.  I went searching around but couldn't find the tag.

Finally, I just went up and pulled out my wallet.  No, not for a bribe, to show her my I.D.  Then I indicated that my passport was in one of the bags.  Sure enough, the names matched, and she let us take the bags.  Whew!  But by now it was after three.

So, we schlepped on back to the hotel, packed up, and headed back to Ueno Station, got tickets for the 4:33 Narita Express, and we were off.

The flight was two hours shorter on the return, but we hit almost constant turbulence from about two hours into the flight until about an hour out of Portland.  That's wasn't terribly fun.

When we got home and unpacked, guess what I found?  Yep, claim tag #78 from the Oriental Bazaar.  Oops!

Well, that's all we have...hope you enjoyed it!  Please email us with any comments, or continue on your way.

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No, I'm not really that tall.  The doorway was just six feet high.  I felt like I was walking into a raquetball court!

Well, we just had to get a picture of a crowded station. 

Trying to walk around Tokyo on a National Holiday?  Yeah, it can be interesting.

A nice family agreed to take our picture at the Tokyo station platform for the Narita Express.