Once My Looks Go, I've Got Nothing

Welcome to the final installment of my Tokyo vacation chronicle! For those of you just joining us, you can read Part 1 , Part 2 , and Part 3 first if you're into the whole chronology thing. Now, onward to the conclusion! Eric and Azusa's wedding was nigh, so Sheila and I bid a fond farewell to Shinjuku and tackled our next challenge: figuring out how to get to the wedding site. The ceremony was to be located in a small town named Kawaguchiko near the foot of Mt. Fuji, a picturesque hamlet that unfortunately was not reachable by the Tokyo subway system we had so recently mastered. Thus, we spent the majority of Friday trying to ascertain specifically which train tickets to purchase that would enable us to make it to our destination. It was more than a little stressful, especially given our...less than fresh state of mind after the last few days' festivities. Fortunately, we were able to eventually meet up with the spouses-to-be at the train station and move onwards to ...

  A Whopper of an Error Given how well the previous day's excursion into the more touristy sections of Tokyo had gone, it seemed like a good idea to continue along that path on Wednesday. As such, Sheila and I planned to go visit the Imperial Palace in the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo. I mean, how often do you get to see something like that? We don't even have an emperor in America, at least according to Wikipedia. Before we set out to Chiyoda, though, we needed to fuel up for the day ahead. We decided to have a nutritious breakfast at Burger King; after all, as the old adage goes, you are what you eat, and what better to be than a king? And if there is one single word to describe how I felt ordering some breakfast hot dogs, it would be "regal." Or at least briefly regal, until I realized that the cashier gave us change for a 1,000 yen bill when I had in fact handed her 10,000. At that point, you could say I was fairly nonplussed. Even when both parties are fluent in...