The first week in Japan was pretty busy looking back at all the things that occurred. As it was my first time in Japan, we mostly visited the touristy places such as Disneyland/Disney Sea, Tokyo Tower, Imperial Palace, Akasaka, Harajuku, Shinjuku and Shibuya.

Highlights of this week would definitely be going to Disneyland, Disney Sea and the SUPER cheap shopping thanks to Christmas and New Year sales. H&M had to be the craziest one with items starting at roughly about $1 :O

However, my first week in Japan was still pretty good outside of those highlights. I visited Meiji Shrine where they had ice sculptures lining the entrance which was cool to see and a traditional Japanese wedding. There was like 2 rows of tourists who were all trying to take photos and the bride and groom seemed to be basking in their short amount of fame. It was nice to see that they were embracing it. I also visited Sensoji Temple in Akasuka. I think this temple started my fascination was pagodas - I seriously took photos of every pagoda that I saw. It was cool coming there near the new year because every person seemed to be fascinated with their fortune which told them what to expect for the next year. It seemed like some groups were having a competition to see who would have the best fortune based on what the paper told me. I got my fortune paper and it will be interesting to see how well it predicted my future for 2014 at the end of the year.

One of the things that I realised on my Japan leg was that I had friends who had talked up Japan so much that it sort of underwhelmed me a bit. I don't know if it was because I'm not into anime or cosplay or host clubs but it didn't quite meet my expectations sometimes. I think the time that this really hit me was when I visited Akasaka. Though it was interesting to see all the electronics that were offered in Japan, I was expecting a lot more of the area but that also may be due to the fact that I visited in the daytime not at night due to time constraints.