Spring break is here… time for the final trip that had been booked long ago. And another repeat place on this trip – that’s how much we like it 🙂
I can’t start the trip report off without mentioning that this will be the first time for me on an intercontinental flight in economy class since September 5, 2016. It’s been quite a run! A reset is good once in a while, helped along by an OTA (online travel agency) mess up. All good, the trip was salvaged and some cash saved.
We are on WestJet’s non-stop flight to Tokyo-Narita today!
Back here, wine is served out of a box :-p
The meals were edible, but just barely. Not really that good, except the glazed donut that came with the main meal. We did bring some snacks to supplement.
Well, here we are in Narita airport. We survived!!!
I was pretty tired though, now being 0200 at home. I got a Boss coffee from a vending machine to tide me over.
We stayed in the neighbourhood of Sangenjaya, a couple of subway stops west of Shibuya. It was a mix of residential, with lots of small restaurants and bars.
This was our AirBnb – the whole house. It was very efficient! On this trip, we are joined by my friend Dicky and his kids Charlotte and Frederick, whom we lived close to in Kincora in Calgary.
Our local subway entrance beneath the elevated highway. Curiously enough, in Asia, elevated highways don’t seem to cut off the neighbourhood parts from each other like they do in North America. I’m not sure why that is.
Now we know we’re in Tokyo – here’s the subway on a Saturday morning.
Some of the stations had this Coco Desk – a sort of temporary workspace compartment that you could rent for short term use. Complete with air conditioning and Wi-Fi.
Google Translate is always interesting.
Our first stop of the trip is TeamLab Borderless. I’m still not sure how to describe it – digital interactive art installation maybe? On our previous trip we visited TeamLab Planets. They are a similar idea but the interactive exhibits feel very different between the two. The kids loved it.
One of the only duplicate rooms that we noticed was the falling light room. It was just as cool as last time.
Possibly the coolest exhibit, which we visited right at the end, was an aquarium of sorts, with what looked like hand drawn aquatic life swimming around on the walls. We found out why! They actually are hand drawn figures! You draw/color in your creature, and once done it gets scanned into the system and floats around the room, maybe for the rest of the day?!
We also had green tea and gelato in the hip cafe inside.
Then it was off to Ueno.
Sushi for lunch – yum!
And Ueno Park. Some of the varieties of cherry trees are now in bloom. Others, just barely budding. We’re still about a week too early I’m afraid. But it’s a beautiful day and there are tons of people out.
We popped into the San Rio Characters cafe again which is just beside the corner of the park, but just had drinks this time.
After that, I wanted to catch a scening view of the Tokyo Skytree from a vantage point that had been on my mind since last trip. Dicky and Fred went to a specialty knife shop while me and the girls ventured out here.
We were at the terminal station of the Hanzomon Line, so that means we boarded a virtually empty train to head back home. Bonus!!
Unfortunately, everyone was pretty tired from the full day out and jet lag, so our dinner wasn’t quite so exotic.
The next day, we ventured out to Tokyo Character Street – an area below Tokyo Station that has dozens of character themed stores.
And then a delicious ramen for lunch.
The afternoon was spent with a visit to the gardens surrounding the Imperial Palace.
Because this was the first weekend that Inui Street through the East Gardens was open, there was a huge line to get inside the complex, as there was a security check to pass through. We got to go through the much shorter family line on the right!
Same situation in here – still a few days too early – but it was still very pleasant.
Onwards we go, to Shinjuku.
I’m not sure of the significance of these adorable penguins that were in a display in the passageway between Shinjuku Station west gate and the government building complex, but they were cute!
We’re back up at the 45th floor free observatory. Definitely worth the price of admission!
There was a good amount of colour over here, and would have been a good place to return for Sakura viewing away from the hordes.
Everyone else was tired and headed back to the Airbnb, but I wanted to make another stop that probably wouldn’t have interested anyone else. I wanted to see this elaborate railway bridge / junction system close to Akihabara. I got what I came for!
Back in Sangenjaya, it was so peaceful.
The kids just wanted fast food dinner from Family Mart (ramen, sandwiches), so we got that for them, and Dicky and I headed to a Yakiniku restaurant down the street for some nice meats.
We supplemented our meat with “salad salad” which was quite good.
The following day, our day began at Hibiya Park.
Yes, very good for children.
Down the street, we revisited the Success Steps up to Atago Jinja. Climbed them again for good luck!
And again, a little further down… Zojo-ji Temple.
As we headed back towards the railway station, this building with the cranes caught my eye. Turns out this is a replacement building for an older one, similar in height, that was completely dismantled a couple of years ago!
Mmmmm… the Yamanote Line – the spirit of Tokyo!
We’re all back in Akihabara now. The kids wanted to do some shopping.
And I wanted a Pocari Sweat – from a vending machine.
We went back over to Shinjuku again. First to see the 3D kitty.
And then to catch the light show at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building!
Again, afterwards, the kids were all tired and got takeout to eat in the house. Dicky and I went to an Izakaya down the street, which is more or less a small pub focused on drinks with small plates of food. We had to use translate to read the menu and it was delicious. Definitely no tourists in here!
Fast forward several days where we spent time outside of Tokyo (those posts to come later)…. And we’re back for our final full day in Japan. It seemed like it made the most sense to add this final day to the rest of the Tokyo post. We’re at the end of our day’s journey to our hotel out by Tokyo Disney!
Staying on site was cost prohibitive, but we managed by getting up early and being in line at Tokyo DisneySea just after 0700. As you can see, there were already a lot of people here, over an hour before opening time. We chose to visit here again rather than Disneyland, because there’s only one DisneySea in the world and it’s right here. Plus we didn’t get to do all the rides last time!
It was worth it though. For myself and Ellie, anyway. We were able to get on Journey to the Center of the Earth first thing (as watching the line waiting time increase to 260 minutes – we only had to wait 100 minutes) which was closed on our last visit.
And that was the only ride that we had to wait more than 20 minutes for. The remaining rides that we did, we were able to purchase DPA (ie: fast pass to skip the line) or just less popular rides. I like the DPA system because you can purchase the passes on the day for rides that you really want to do. We also got one free 40th Disney 40th Anniversary pass to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea which allowed us to skip a 60 minute line.
The snacks here are cool – and inexpensive.
It was just a gorgeous day to be out in the park.
We also got to do Rapunzel’s Lantern Festival via DPA (15 minute wait vs 180 in line).
And Anna and Elsa’s Frozen Adventure, the most popular ride in the park! This was the first DPA that I’d purchased when we we entered in the morning, as it’s the most popular ride in the park and we didn’t get a chance last time. We almost didn’t get on as it was closed for several hours in the afternoon for urgent maintenance! Not long before we were about to throw in the towel and use the pass on another ride, the attraction opened up again but ONLY for those who had DPA purchased earlier in the day. It was a really cool ride!
Of course, the park is just stunning at night, and this time we hung around for the light show and fireworks. What a fun day at DisneySea. Great way to cap off our time in Japan.
Ellie's Adventures 