Tokyo has to be the coolest city in the entire world, if not merely for the fact that the city has a taste of everything and the neon lights and massive TV screens on the sides of every other building put Times Square to shame. At the same time, it's definitely not a place I would want to live, at least not for an extended period of time. The bustle of the city, the 24-hour a day, 7-day a week hustle of the residents, and the ready availability of any type of entertainment imaginable make this a very cool place to visit, but sometimes strain the senses if one is exposed to it all for long periods of time.

I've visited Tokyo three times, and every time I've found something new to do. The first time was on my way to Sapporo using the slow trains and the ju-hachi kippu. I stayed in a friend of a friend's company dorm for about four days, spending every available hour roaming around the city and exploring every place I could. The dorm was great: I had a room to myself with a small refrigerator, plenty of space, and even ice cold air conditioning all for only $20 a night (let me assure you, that is a real steal in Tokyo). The only bad thing about the place is that it had a midnight curfew, which kept us from seeing much of Tokyo's nightlife. We were told the doors would be locked at midnight every night, but one night we got lost on the subway and returned to the dorm at 12:10. I really thought they wouldn't be as strict as they claimed about the curfew, but after trying every set of doors into the building we could find with no luck, I realized just how serious they were. My friend just sat down with a sad look on her face, then after a few minutes she just began mumbling about how we were going to have to sleep out on the curb that night. She had the number of the guy who ran the place, but she didn't want to call and wake him up in the middle of the night. After about 20 minutes of sitting out in the cold on the hard ground, however, my friend reconsidered and whipped out her cell phone. I could tell she was embarrassed waking up the guy and and asking him to come out and open the doors to let us in, but she obviously liked it better than the idea of sleeping on a slab of concrete out in the open air. We made sure after that night to get back on time though.

I took my second trip to Tokyo in the summer less than a month before I returned to the States. Since I had seen most of the major attractions on my first trip, I went to a few out of the way places, the only one sticking out in my mind being odaiba. I also took advantage of not having a curfew this time around to check out a little more of Tokyo's nightlife. The first night me and my friend actually got taken out to karaoke by some strange old man and his friends that we met in a little curry shop down the street from the house where we were staying. I didn't complain, considering he paid for the karaoke and all our drinks. He asked us if he could take us out to an expensive beer garden the next night, and we gladly accepted his offer. He was a really nice guy, but he either really liked me or my friend to be spending so much money on us. We thanked him for his hospitality after the beer garden, but I must admit that he weirded us out pretty bad and we were pretty happy to get away from him after that. Later that night we went to Roppongi, the best place in Tokyo to find more foreigners than Japanese. Roppongi is also well-known for its crazy bars, and me and my friend ventrued into one called the Gas Panic, which was primarily filled with ex-pats and other weird and crazy foreigners. The last night of our stay we met up with my friend's old boss, who had worked his way up to the top of some video company (sounds a bit sketchy, huh?) and had plenty of money to blow on us. He took us to a very expensive restaurant, followed by several posh bars where the drinks ran anywhere from $15 to $30 each. Thank goodness for rich Japanese executives. Not that this guy who was taking us out was merely a chump spitting out money for our enjoyment; he was hysterical, especially after a few drinks got him a bit loosened up and out of the traditional Japanese salaryman exterior. It's a shame we didn't have an extra night to go hang out with this guy again. At any rate, I made it through this trip to Tokyo without spending hardly a cent outside of basic costs.

My third trip to Tokyo was actually on my way to Taiwan because my plane stopped over in Narita airport and I chose to take three weeks to visit my homestay family in Fukuoka. I flew out to Fukuoka right after arriving in Tokyo, then at the end of three weeks I hitchhiked back to Tokyo. I arrived two days earlier than expected, so I found me the cheapest hostel room I could in the city, which still cost me $27 a night for the smallest sleeping quarters I have ever seen in my life. The room was the size of a standard closet, and lying on the floor I could honestly stretch out my arms and touch both side walls and my feet barely fit in the room. My friend who had accompanied me on my first trip to Tokyo just happened to be in Tokyo at the same time looking for a job, so I spent most of my time hanging out with her and catching up on the past year she had spent in England. I also got a chance to go inside the Imperial Gardens, which I hadn't done for some reason on my previous trips to Tokyo. I really didn't do much else on this trip, mainly just because I felt like I was only passing through and I was pretty excited about leaving for Taipei at the end of my three days in Tokyo.

Anyway, I'm sure you are ready to see the pictures I took of this incredible city. They are divided up by trip and day, so click on the day of the trip you would like to see below and enjoy the pictures:

• 1st Trip
  • Day 1 - Mainly pictures of Shinjuku and a few of Ginza, as well as some aerial views from the top of the government towers in Shinjuku.
  • Day 2 - Pictures of various spots around town, including Ueno, Akihabara, several temples, and Shinjuku at night.
  • Day 3 - I spent this entire day in Yokohama, and took plenty of pictures as we roamed everywhere from Chinatown to the bay.
  • Day 4 - I had to check out the youth scene in Tokyo before I left, so I spent my fourth and final day in Harajuku and nearby Meiji Shrine. Afterwards, I trekked over to the Imperial Palace and the surrounding Tokyo station area.
• 2nd Trip
  • Day 1 - I don't remember what I did on this particular day, but whatever it was I didn't take many pictures.
  • Day 2 - Most of these pictures are from a place called Odaiba, which is built on reclaimed land near Tokyo Bay and packed with pretty cool-looking buildings and some decent beaches. I also took a few pictures in Shinjuku the same day.
• 3rd Trip
  • Day 1 - This is the day I arrived after 20 hours of hitchhiking across Japan, so I didn't take too many pictures because I was sleeping most of the afternoon.
  • Day 2 - I got inside the Imperial Gardens this time and took plenty of pictures. I generally just roamed around the rest of the day and took random pictures.