Milano

Last week before the start of the Theme Park Review Europe trip, I spent a day in Milan. It's the financial capital of Italy, and it's a pleasant city. While the tourist options aren't quite up to par with other Italian cities like Rome, Florence, and Venice, there are still some neat sights to see. The main plaza is impressive, with a gleaming white cathedral and the amazing covered streets of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. It was a great start to a great week!

Lots of streetcars around central Milan

Cathedral

Big covered shopping streets - Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Top of the cathedral

Top of the cathedral

View of Milan

DaVinci's last supper painting is in this church

Basilica Sant'Ambrogio

Mexico City (La Cuidad!)

Earlier this month we had the chance to spend a long weekend in Mexico City for our friend Elaine's birthday!  We scored an awesome deal at $300/person for the round trip flight from Atlanta to Mexico.  The flight is short, only about 3 hours, making it closer than California.

Día Uno

We arrived on Wednesday evening at about 9pm.  We took the subway from the airport to the hotel in the city center.  The metro system is very comprehensive, and we used it multiple times throughout the trip.  At 3 pesos/trip ($0.25) it's a steal!  Most of the time on the subway you feel like a sardine.  The trains are all on rubber tires so the ride isn't usually very smooth.  The doors often open before the train comes to a complete stop (scary!) and there are people trying to sell you stuff from time to time.  Before every trip we had to make sure we all knew where we were going, because we were occasionally split up trying to get on/off the trains.  Since the system was started before literacy in Mexico had improved, all the stations had iconography as well as written names to distinguish them.

Mexico City Metro Station Iconography

After we arrived at the hotel, we checked in and went to an adjacent restaurant (Café Popular) for a late dinner.  The city was celebrating Candelaria so there were special regional tamales on the menu.  We got a few and some enchiladas and a pitcher of Horchata!  Yum.

Día Dos
This was our first full day in Mexico.  While the rest of us headed over to the Frida Kahlo Museum (Casa Azul) and the Coyoacán (Coyote) neighborhood, Paul obviously high-tailed it to some roller coasters. Six Flags Mexico is a very nice park with great theming. Unfortunately most of the coasters are just so-so, with the exception of Superman, which is awesome.

Señor Churro at Six Flags Mexico

Coyoacán is a great neighborhood.  Before heading to the museum we grabbed a late breakfast in a second floor restaurant that overlooked a plaza.  After eating we walked around a bit and found a tamale festival!  We sampled several tamales and then headed to the Frida Kahlo Museum.  The exhibits were great and we enjoyed touring the house Frida lived in during her childhood and with her husband Diego Rivera.

Coyoacán Neighborhood

Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul

Frida and Diego in the flesh!

Frida and Diego...out of the flesh

Afterward, we all met up and went to the main square of the historic district, Zócalo. We visited the   Catedral Metropolitana de la Asunción de María, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, and the National Palace, all while trying to avoid a rare February rain storm.

Palacio de Bellas Artes

Palacio de Bellas Artes

Palacio de Bellas Artes

Catedral Metropolitana de la Asunción de María 

Since it was Elaine's birthday, she made reservations ahead of time for us at Dulce Patria in the Polanco neighborhood.  The head chef there is Martha Ortiz Chapa, famous for reintroducing upscale Mexican food to the capital city. It was a superb meal.  The grand total for the meal came to 3,000 pesos (about $230).  Not bad for 5 people at a five star, top notch restaurant!  Paul had the duck mole negro and thought it was one of the best things he's ever eaten!

Día Tres
On the third day, we set out early on a bus for Teotihuacan, an archaeological site about 30 miles northeast of the city.  The site was constructed from about 100BCE to 250CE, and features two huge pyramids.  Scholars aren't 100% sure who built it, but it was eventually taken by the Aztec people, and flourished as a major city until its abandonment around the year 600.  Both of the big pyramids have been majorly re-constructed, but there are still a few unexcavated pyramid mounds around the site.  The Pyramid of the Sun is by some measures one of the largest pyramids on earth, at 233 feet tall.

The Steps at the Pyramid of the Sun were designed to look like a face and a stick man

Jumping on the moon pyramid!

On top of the Pyramid of the Sun, with the Pyramid of the Moon behind us 

That night, we went to see a Lucha Libre (Mexican wrestling) match.  Lucha Libre is similar to American WWE in that it's pretty fake, but there are back stories and dramatic occurrences that make it like a soap opera with punching making it great for guys and gals!  Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed, so we didn't get any pictures.

Día Cuatro

We started day four with a trip to the Xochimilco neighborhood on the far south side of Mexico City.  This neighborhood is UNESCO designated for it's system of canals that preserve how the city used to look.  Mexico City used to be on an island in the middle of a lake.  The Aztecs built a series of canals to get around, but gradually the land was drained and the canals were lost.  The remaining canals are popular with tourists and family outings.  There are a series of docks in Xochimilco where you can rent a pole-man driven boat for a 90 minute outing.  Other boats will sail up next to you and try to sell you food or have you buy a song from a mariachi band.  All-in-all a very interesting and enjoyable experience.  Should you find yourself in Xochimilco, make sure you haggle down the price on the boats...initial asking price for us was 1800 pesos...we talked that down to 500 after 20 minutes of horrible Spanish haggling from Elaine and David.

Breakfast in the market at Xochimilco

Colorful boat on the canals at Xochimilco

After our boat ride, Paul went off to La Feria Chapultepec to get a few more coaster credits.  The rest of the group went to the Ciudadela Crafts Market back near the city center.  Most of us made it out with a few neat trinkets and a full stomach from the small restaurant in the middle of the market (another steal at about $3/person for a full lunch with soup and drinks).

That night, after Paul rejoined the group, we walked to Garibaldi Plaza.  This plaza is known as a nightlife spot where you can hire mariachis and enjoy hanging out with the locals.  Afterward we hit up a restaurant on the way back to our hotel.  Overall, the restaurants have been pretty good, but not as good as the food you can just eat off a food cart.  Although the sanitation may be questionable, there haven't been any complaints about the tastiness, and nobody got sick.  In all, across the course of the trip, we'd estimate that somewhere between 50-75 delicious tacos were consumed... ¡Viva México!

Garibaldi Plaza Mariachi

Día Cinco
For our final day, we woke up early and went straight to Chapultepec Park, where the National Museum of Anthropology is located.  This is one of the best museums we've ever been to.  The museum is huge and the exhibits really showcase the various cultures and achievements of the native peoples of Mexico.  It's a 100% must-see if you should find yourself in Mexico City.

Torre Mayor, the tallest building in Mexico

War Memorial to 6 Young Men Killed in the American Invasion

National Museum of Anthropology

Giant Olmec head in the National Museum of Anthropology

Crowds in Chapultepec Park

After the museum, we had just enough time to get back to the hotel, finish packing, eat some goodbye tacos and make it to the airport in time for our flight.  The flight was way undersold (because it was during the Super Bowl), so everyone got their own row.  David and Christina even got bumped to business class with Henry!  Woo!  Business drunk for the flight home!

Mexico City is definitely underrated as a tourist destination.  Rumors of it being an unsafe, disease-ridden metropolis are just that; rumors.  Don't let these stories deter you from exploring the capital of our neighbor to the south.  Mexico City was a great short vacation.  It's cheap, easy to get to, has wonderful weather, great food, and there are a lot of things to see.

Tokyo Day 3: The last day of our Korea/Japan trip

We started out our last day in Japan with Paul's mission to ride a few more roller coasters. We hopped a commuter train out to the Northern Tokyo suburbs, and went to Tobu Zoo. It was a nice little park, and the zoo side looked really large on the map, but we just rode a couple of coasters before heading back into town. Both coasters were fun, especially Kawasemi!

Paul and Tobu Zoo's mascot

"Regina," the wooden coaster

This coaster will make you cry?

Air time!

I do enjoy Itarian food. ;)

Back in Asakusa we found a chinese restaurant with some affordable set plates for lunch.  We had some eggplant, fried rice, and a few other yummy dishes.  We really like Japanese style Chinese food.  It's way less greasy and better overall than American style.

Lunch sets are a steal in Japan.  Look Mom, I don't look half-dead in this one!

After lunch, we headed across town to the Meguro neighborhood.  We were looking for the Museum of Parasitology, which is not shown on our guidebook's map.  After getting a little bit lost, we asked a young guy passing by. He knew exactly where it was, and walked us most of the way there while practicing his English! The museum was small but quirky, with lots of creepy parasite specimens in jars.

8.8 meter tapeworm.  Scary!

Gross

There also happened to be a festival at the Ootori Jinja shrine in Meguro. It was the "toro no ichi" festival, which celebrates the "day of the rooster" and anticipates spring. People buy decorated bamboo rakes for good luck. Each time someone bought a large extravagant rake (for over $100), the sellers would do a short little song with lots of clapping. At one stall, the seller would strike two pieces of flint together, sending sparks over the rake. It has something to do with the fact that there are three "days of the rooster" this year, which is unusual and predicts the year will have a lot of fires. It was really crowded at the shrine and a lot of people were taking pictures and videos while admiring the rakes. Paul got some delicious takoyaki from a stall, and we bought the smallest rake possible and it still cost over $10.

Those are all rakes hanging from the top

Takoyaki!  Look at the octopus at bottom left!

David still didn't quite get his fill of Akihabara, so we decided to go back and play some more games and search for more video game memorabilia.  David found a few more little items to purchase and played a bit more Street Fighter IV; he even beat the game in the arcade on one try!  Now he can scratch off "beat a video game in Japan" from his bucket list!  Akihabara is a really unique place.

This game was really popular

Saturday night in Akihabara is hopping!

After Akihabara, we took a train back to Asakusa to grab dinner and pack up.  We had dinner at Yoshinoya, a Japanese chain with a few locations in America that specializes in sliced beef over rice.  It's nothing special, but very simple, cheap and tasty.  Someone please open one in Atlanta!

Our flight back to America is on Sunday at 3:50 PM Japan time and we arrive in Atlanta at 1:30 PM Eastern Time (so we sorta arrive before we leave).  We both have to go to work on Monday morning, and I'm sure we'll be jet-lagged and exhausted for at least a few days.

We both had a really great time in Asia.  More pictures will find their way to facebook in the coming week or two.  We'll continue to update this blog with future trips, so check back if you hear we're going somewhere!

Tokyo - Geek Culture Day

We slept in today, letting David get some rest for his cold.  We left the hotel at about 10am and walked a few blocks to Nakamise-dori in front of Senso-ji temple to do some souvenir shopping.  Paul made a quick stop at Hanayashiki Amusement Park, which is right next to the temple, and rode Japan's oldest roller coaster.

David and the Senso-ji pagoda

Roller coaster at Hanayashiki

If I had a dollar for every cute thing I've seen in Japan...

 Afterward, we hopped the subway to Ginza to check out the Imperial Palace Grounds and the Tokyo International Forum.  Most of the Imperial Palace and grounds are closed to the public.  The part we were able to see was mostly made of grassy areas, gravel and a few moats.  The International Forum is used as a convention center and has a very modern looking interior.  We grabbed a quick lunch of curry katsu in Ginza.

Hibiya Park in Ginza

Skyscrapers over the imperial palace moat

View of one of the palace buildings

Inside of the Tokyo International Forum

With lunch out of the way, and considering it was such a beautiful clear day, we decided to head to Roppongi to go to the top of the Roppongi Mori Tower. The tower has a sky deck and modern art museum as well as an exhibition space at the top.  We were in luck today!  The exhibition was based on the 25th anniversary of the video game Dragon Quest, one of David and Paul's favorites.  There were lots of cute replicas of the game's monsters, as well as a live show, a bar that served themed foods and a nice gift shop.

David with Shinjuku district in the background

Tokyo

Hazy view, but that's Yokohama in the background!

Inside the Dragon Quest exhibit. We were only allowed to take pictures at these monster displays

Look out!

Speak softly and carry a big stick.

On top of  that, the art museum in the tower was doing an exhibition on city planning in Japan.  David was 2 for 2 on this accidental trip!  The museum explained the development of the metabolism concept of Japanese planning.  The concept employs megastructures of concrete to redevelop areas with a sense of permanence.  David wasn't a fan.

After visiting Roppongi, we went to Shibuya to see the famous crossing.  All car traffic is stopped at once and people are allowed to cross in all directions and diagonally at the same time.  The visual effect is very impressive.  It was fun to just cross a few times and feel engulfed in a wave of humanity.  We stopped in at the 2nd floor Starbucks at the intersection (the busiest in the world) to get a better view and to people watch for a bit.

Shibuya Crossing

To keep the video game theme going, we decided to visit the Akihabara district.  This area used to be well known for electronics...things like toasters, televisions, computers, and cameras.  Nowadays it's more known for manga, anime, video games and everything geek in Tokyo.  There are dozens of shops and arcades here that all sell similar wares, almost exclusively in Japanese, so it can be a challenge to find anything interesting.  We did managed to find "Super Potato," which has three floors selling old video games and video game paraphernalia.  David picked up an original copy of Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy IV (both in Japanese) as keepsakes. We also saw an extremely rare copy of Yoshi's Cookie. According to an article on wired.com, only 500 were ever produced, and it was included with the purchase of a cooking appliance. The price was an astonishing 198,000 yen, which at the current exchange rate is over $2600!

One expensive video game!

By now it was well after dark and we were hungry.  We went back to our hostel in Asakusa to drop off some souvenirs and then headed off to dinner at a well regarded Japanese beer bar called Bakushu Club Popeye.  This place was small and crammed, but had a huge selection of mostly Japanese beers on draft.  Paul tried a delicious Japanese barleywine, and a great Japanese weizen, among others. The couple sitting next to us decided to try out their English and struck up a little conversation with us.  We had to use some drawing on the back of a receipt to explain our trip to them!  They were both very nice and wished us well and a quick return to Japan in the future.

Three types of sausage (including house-made hop-infused sausage) with IPA