Japan Day 7

We have been gone for a week now, and we are still enjoying our time in Japan.  Even with Coronavirus creeping up slowly in numbers, we are still able to enjoy everything we have set out to do.

Today we got off to a later start since we didn't have much planned. We spent the day in two places. (still working through Finley's to do list) First was Akihabara City.  Here was Anime overload.  Plus Gachapon and Claw machines.  The kids had a great time.  We just explored the shops, and Arlington actually won one of the claw games.  We were shocked.  We roamed and snacked and shopped to Finley's content.

Our second stop was Shibuya.  We stopped at the Hachiko Statue, and walked across the famous Shibuya crossing.  We strolled the streets picking up good things to eat, and popping in and out of shops.  We even found a huge Nintendo store for poor Cainan who has been a great sport through this trip.  Mat has also introduced the kids to the 100yen shops ($1 stores).  They love them.

What we saw when we came out of the Shibuya subway station

 Hachiko Statue.  Hachiko was an Akita dog who used to meet his owner every day at Shibuya Station.  One day his owner died at work and never came home.  For nearly 10 years Hachiko would return to the station to wait for his owner after he died.  He represents loyalty and fidelity

So Shibuya Crossing is a HUGE scramble that you have to see to believe.  From every angle, pedestrians can cross all at the same time which makes it fun to watch.  We crossed it a few times and then I tried to film it from above so you could get a general idea.

This is us crossing

And this is taken from up above

If you want to see a better video (that isn't mine) - go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXtOdSgf6Ic

 Some views of Shibuya

 Finley spotted a Starbucks drink that was made with cherries.  Now that it is Cherry Blossom season, we see a lot of representation of that around the city.  She said this was delicious

I also took two extra pictures.  The first is the Subway map of just ONE of the 4 subway companies that run throughout Tokyo

The second is just a small example of the "lining up" for the subway.  These are not at all the stops, but it doesn't matter.  The Japanese line up one person behind the other anyway.  It is incredible.

Japan Day 6

Today we went to Disney Tokyo!  The kids were so excited that we were able to fit this in during our trip.  It was a pretty good weather day - pretty sunny and warm....ish.  And since it is still winter, the park wasn't that crowded. 

The kids were able to ride everything several times.  We snacked all day and explored the whole park and the shops and left when the parked closed.  It was a great day.

We have not been to 4 Disney parks - Disneyland California, Disneyworld Florida, Disneyland Paris France, and Disneyland Tokyo.  Pretty cool

The entrance

 In front of the castle.  It was under construction

 Arlington and Finley bought themselves headbands - Winnie the Poor and Monster's Inc

 Disney Tokyo does a really cool thing with its popcorn containers they offer.  They have about 50 different ones you can pick from and a ton of different popcorn kinds all throughout the park.  Mat picked this one for our take home container of popcorn - it is Steamboat Willie.  There were so many - it was really cool!  I think all the parks should jump on this instead of just the regular round tin.  So fun

 Our other fun food for the day was these little alien dumplings.  They were so cute!  And yummy

Japan Day 5

Still working our way throught Finley's wish list, we ticked a few more boxes off today.  AND - we may have added one thing to the list she didn't.  It happens.

This morning we started out at teamLAB Borderless museum.  It was amazing.  We spent several hours in this museum walking through all the moveable art.  All the kids loved it as well.  We had such a great time.  I took a ton of pictures and videos so you could see what we saw, but if you want the full effect, go to their website HERE.  This is an extremely popular museum, so we got our tickets will ahead of time of our visit.  The tickets are untimed, which is nice, but usually it is sold out weeks in advanced, so I am glad we had our ready to go.

Huge ferris wheel outside the museum

 The art was really beautiful

Here is some video of the room

 Here is a video of that room:

Room with lanterns - it was really cool.

 

 Finley and I in the lantern room

 We walked through this room which these circles were like the tops of flowers

 room with a lot of balloons - the kids had fun with these

 In this room the kids could color a picture of a sea animal, and then the workers scanned it and it went up on the wall and was moving around.  It was cool.  This is Cainan's

 And Arlington's

 And Finley's

The waves were cool

We did get green tea and ice cream as part of our tickets, and it was fun to eat it in this room.  When we set down the bowls, it started to fill with digital flowers - the kids thought it was cool.

After the museum, we walked around the Koto area of Tokyo.  It is along the water, so it was quite breezy and really pretty.  That area is fairly new.  We saw the Gundam Statue (that was not on Finley's list - that was Mat's list), and went to the Toyota Car Showroom (again - Mat's list) - which ended up being a lot of fun.  They had a place for kids (And adults if they wanted) to drive a small course with cars.  Arlington opted to try it.  She and Finley had some fun doing that.

Arlington had to take a little driving test before she could take Finley in the car (since she doesn't have a driver's license yet).  IT was funny to watch

Finley and Arlington on the course:

Mat and Cainan doing some simulation driving

 Orange Toyota Mat liked

 Cainan in the driver's seat.  Yep - Japan drives on the left as well

We saw the Fuji Business building, the Statue of Liberty Replica, and the Olympic Rings on the water.  We also got a really nice view of downtown Tokyo and was able to take in its full effect.

Gundam Statue

 Fuji Building

Statue of Libery replica

 Olympic rings out on the water

 Tokyo across the water

 Huge bridge

 Downtown Tokyo

After all of this, it was late afternoon, so we headed back into the city to do some shopping.  That is at the top of Finley's list - lots of shopping.  Today she wanted to go to a regular fashion store.  She loves the way Japanese people dress (muted, flowy - almost baggy - clothes) and so while Mat and Cainan did some guy stuff, the girls and I went into a 7 floor clothing shop so Finley could buy a few things.  She had a great time in there.  I will have to get her to model some of the clothes at some point so you can see what we are talking about.  They aren't flashy dressers.  It is perfect for Finley.

Another great day! 

Japan Day 4

Today was the coldest day we have had so far.  It was overcast and windy, so I was glad we did a few indoor activities today.

We started our day at the Edo museum.  Tokyo's original name was Edo, and this museum was all about its past history.  It was a huge museum and we explored it for several hours.

this was a ceremonial float - it was quite impressive

this gave us a little giggle.  No binoculars for us!

After the museum, we decided to do a little shopping with the kids.  There was a huge shopping district right beside the museum called Ameyayokocho.  Streets were lined with vendors, shops, and small street restaurants.  We had lunch there and tried a few new things.  And I did use my chopsticks today!  Not well, but I did use them.

Finley and Arlington walking down the shopping street

My lunch.  It was soy and fish sauce noodles with pork. 

Finley tried fried octopus!  She loved it

After lunch we took the kids into a 6 floor Japanese toy store which was incredible.  It was just jammed with any toy you could think of.  They loved it.  They also tried their hands at a Claw machine (very big here) in a center that had rows and rows of them, and then picked some Gachapon (another huge thing here - toy vending machines) from a 3 floored Gachapon center.  They had a great afternoon.

The claw machines.  There were several rows of these

 A small sampling of the Gachapon vending machines

This evening we walked around the Ueno Park and saw two temples.  We didn't stay long because it was starting to rain, but the park was really beautiful.

Uneo Kaneiji Temple

 Ueno Kiyomizo Temple

 I took this one for my parents.  It is the Lion's International Totem Pole at Ueno Park

On our way home, we did stop and grab some dinner back in Ameyayokocho.  It was another fun eating day for sure! 

I took a picture of the menu board at one of the food stands

 Tonights dinner I had fried breaded mozarella cheese and potato bits on a stick

 I had a light dinner because I wanted another brown sugar boboa tea.  So good

 For dessert tonight Finley and I both got these melon breads filled with custard creme.  They were delicious and cute