(2) Hubby eats weird ish. He tries everything once! 

Went to the fashion district Harajuku, to acquire swag...

#SwagStance #BootyButtCheeks

I'd like to interject here and tell you that I had the pleasure of meeting (by way of his English speaking father) an ex-Sumo wrestler who happens to be Black and a member of #TeamNatural. Shut the front door!

His father, Marvin Sr. was born in Louisiana but raised in Detroit.  He came to Japan during his military days and fell in love with the country and culture.  He also fell in love with a gorgeous woman and decided to stay, but disclosed that this wasn't his only reason for hanging around.  He states, "since I work in the business and media worlds, I get a chance to interact with lots of people and to change false perceptions about Black people that some Japanese folks might have (we're not scary, we don't all play sports at a high level, we're not all musicians, we're not dumb, etc, etc...) I think that's why I'm here."

After the 2.5 hour flight to Dallas, the 14 hour flight to Narite (airport) and the unexpected 2.5 hour shuttle ride to Tokyo, we checked into our 34th floor apartment in Roppongi Hills #fancy.  Jet lagged and quite grumpy, we stumbled out into the unfamiliar streets around 10pm on the hunt for actual food, 'cause whatever they were serving on those planes left everything to be desired.  A traditional Japanese meal was preferable, but it was so cold and we were so damn tired, that we settled on one of the first places we found.  Soon thereafter, we realized that it was a French Cafe... the menu was written in French and Japanese and the servers spoke Japanese, no English, so we had absolutely no idea what was going on. Too lazy to leave, we ended up with a cold gelatinous rabbit dish which didn't taste bad... but also didn't taste good, and pig's tongue which tasted very piggy and smelled of saliva and barnyard.  Neither were particularly awful, but suddenly everything tasted worse when they delivered that ¥ 13,640 check (roughly 158 US dollars). 

the tongue

We found our way back to the apartment and managed 4 hours of sleep.  We woke up with renewed vigor and great expectations. With limited time and an expansive city to cover, we wanted to be productive, so we decided to kick things off by hitting up Tsukiji Fish Market. Tsukiji is the biggest fish market in the world with 60k employees and tons of fresh fish that they'll prepare right there for you! So we bundled up and hit the streets in search for the metro which was supposed to be a 'hop, skip and a jump' from our apartment.  We got lost for 45 minutes and when we finally found the station, discovered that in order to secure a pass, we needed cash.  So we left the station in search of an ATM. We found one straight away, but nothing's that easy... they didn't take international cards. On our way down the block we ran into a Black guy (#Yay #WhatUpMyDude), a Nigerian who greeted us with a smile and invited us up to his establishment for a drink and breakfast. We asked where the nearest international ATM was located, he directed us (to a 7/11 no less... those are popular over here for some reason) and we promised to return on our way back.  After the jellied rabbit fiasco, we were definitely hungry. 

continue...