Tokyo Weekend, Part One

This past weekend we wanted to go to Tokyo and couldn't agree on whether to go to the Imperial Palace (me) or Roppongi (Chad).  So we spent Saturday night in a hotel and did both!  (Our justification was that our 3rd anniversary was a few weeks ago and we did nothing to celebrate.)

We did so much that I can't cram it all in one post so I'll spread it across two.....we stayed at the Peninsula Hotel which turned out to be really nice and well worth the cost. The service was great and the room was great (there was a TV to watch while in the bathtub...fancy ;)).

On Saturday we went to Roppongi first for a little while and just looked around.  Roppongi is known for being where foreigners go in Tokyo.  There is an Outback, Tony Roma's, TGIFriday's etc....also a lot of bars and nightlife.  Supposedly it's like Chinatown in New York but Americatown in Tokyo instead.  But honestly other than the restaurants, and there being a few more foreigners wandering around, it wasn't all that American.  The views were great though, especially of Tokyo Tower.  (The Tower is supposedly super crowded on weekends so I'm lobbying for a future weekday trip to actually go up in it.)

I already mentioned the problem with finding Mexican food in Japan but Chad did some research and located what someone said was the best Mexican restaurant in the city.  It was way out in a 'burb called Naka-Meguro on the west side of the city.  So we traipsed out there for lunch to find that they are open for dinner only.....we ended up going back to Roppongi and wandering, starved and forlorn, into the Hard Rock Cafe like a couple of tourists. But I had a cheeseburger for lunch that tasted like America. The Hard Rock Cafe was crawling with Americans.  More than I've seen since we've been here.  The menu was in English and all the waiters spoke it perfectly....it was a little bizarre.

After that we had a rest in the room and checked out the pool and then continued our adventures (we didn't give up on that Mexican food).  More photos on Shutterfly and come back tomorrow for the rest of the tale!

me next to a rose sculpture in Roppongi Hills...you can just see 
Tokyo Tower to the left above the trees

we had a nice view of the Sky Tree
from our room

there's also a giant spider sculpture
in Roppongi Hills

Naka-Meguro was a quaint little town

the peninsula hotel

i love Tokyo Tower

a dude was selling cute bonsai from a cart on the street