Swish-swish.

Yesterday (Sunday) we headed to the Tokyo National Museum first thing in the morning. We'd heard it was a great way to get a crash course in Japanese art history as well as see some interesting artifacts. We figured out how to walk there, since it was pretty close to Jon's place in Sendagi, and picked up some Mr. Donut on the way. (Mr. Donut looks and feels like Dunkin' Donuts. It's awesome.) We decided to do the main building, since it was expected to take about 2 hours; we were sandwiched between a couple groups of tourists, so the first couple rooms were a bit cramped. Still, I knew very little about early Japanese art, so it was really interesting to see and read about. There was a large increase in the amount of included art after the introduction of Buddhism to the country, and the religious artifacts were really cool. We even saw three of the Buddhas from Sanjusan-gendo on display. I was particularly excited about the swords and calligraphy, and spent a large amount of time looking at calligraphic styles where I could. After the main building, which also included fashion, painting, and amulets, we stopped in another building which housed several dozen miniature Buddha figurines. It was well worth the visit to the museum, and satisfied my desire to visit one in Tokyo.

After the museum, we gathered our things and headed to the Park Hyatt. Unfortunately, when we got to the train station, we couldn't find where the shuttle bus was supposed to pick us up. We eventually decided to walk, which was only supposed to take 12 minutes, but felt like an eternity because we hadn't yet eaten lunch and it was already nearly 3. We had to consult the map several times, and weren't sure if we would ever find it. However, when we got to the hotel, all of our stress in finding it melted away. The bellman greeted us, took our bags, and gave them to another attendant, then walked us into the foyer, took us up the elevator, and walked us back to the lobby on the 41st floor. The whole way, he talked to us about the Peak Lounge (more on that later), the other restaurants in the building, the library (yes, the hotel has a LIBRARY where you can check out books), and the top floor bar (remember that bar from the movie "Lost in Translation"? That bar) before depositing us at a desk where they had pulled up our check-in form with our info printed on it. After we talked with the desk attendant, she grabbed our keys to our apartment - that's what they called the room - and then walked us around to the elevators, rode up with us to our floor, opened the door, and showed us where everything was in the room and how it worked. It was all incredibly fancy, and so much fun!

Speaking of, here's a little about the room:

• Automatic blinds
• Backlit liquor minibar
• Built-in ice bucket with ice inside already
• Deep tub
• Free internet
• Internal library (including an encyclopedia and two dictionaries)
• Heated toilet seat and bidet with dry capabilities
• Lounge chair
• Refresher service for everything from used bath salts to ice in the bucket, automatically, between 6 and 9pm
• Refrigerated minibar
• Two flatscreen cable TVs, including one in the bathroom facing the tub

Luckily, we're not actually paying for this; we got two free nights at any Hyatt with our Hyatt credit card!

We decided to have afternoon tea at the Peak Lounge, which offered an over 270-degree view of Tokyo. Our tea service was excellent, and we both had traditional Japanese green tea, which was a big change from our usual of black tea. However, it was very good, and the food was delicious. We decided to skip the Meiji shrine for that afternoon since it was so close to the shrine's closing time, and instead decided to hang out in the room for a while. I discovered that Cartoon Network is here, and in English! It was nice to have TV we could understand after nearly two weeks of traveling.

For dinner, we met up with Katie's Harvard/Cambridge law school buddy, Brian Wessel. We met for shabu-shabu (think meat-based fondue), but the first restaurant was booked. We instead went to another rooftop restaurant for some Kobe beef shabu-shabu, and it was well worth it! The meat was tender, and the veggies were really good. It was very good to see Brian, since it had been since Katie's graduation in 2011 that either of us had seen him. It was also fortunate that we came when we did, since he's moving back to the US in May. Really, our timing for this trip was pretty stellar.

Tomorrow we'll be updating on today's activities - we're pooped, and tomorrow is our last day. It has been a good trip, but we're both looking forward to returning home. Gotta get in the last day of shopping though!

-B