Day 9 – Yushukan Museum, Cherry Blossoms, Airport

As I write this final blog for our spur of the moment trip to Tokyo, I do so from the Narita Express – the airport train.

This morning I finished squeezing everything in our one suitcase and have made a guess that it is about 30kg. Kath has an allowance of 46kg and each item can be 32kg – so we should be okay! We checked out of our rooms and had the hotel hold our bags while we went out until it was time to go to the airport.

I grabbed an orange juice from the Lawsons – cause that will make me better, and we decided to take the local train out to the Yushukan Museum (Japanese War Museum). We arrived and managed to use a bunch of coins to buy our entry tickets. The museum exceeded my expectations as we had read reviews that said that there was not much in English. I would say that over 40% of the exhibits had English translations available.

The museum pretty much talked at a very high level about the wars and Japanese military they have been involved in since the 1800s. There were some interesting displays of their armour and weapons on display too. There half a floor honouring soldiers who had died in duty and some letters and notes they had done when in battle that were for their family back home.

There were some miniature submarines and planes on display as well which was cool to see.

We had a look around the shrine and gardens and even saw some (okay really part of one tree) of cherry blossoms in bloom.

We made our way back to Shinjuku for lunch which we grabbed at a restaurant by the hotel – by far the best chicken kaarage of the trip, picked up our bags and are now sitting on the train to the airport.

Kath and I were upgraded to Business Class for the trip home, so we are very thankful for that. Reece has an exit row, so its not all bad for him either for his first trip overseas.

Our next big trip is to finish our 7 Marathons/Half Marathon Continents in July this year where we are off to run in Africa. There will be photos of this trip shared once we get home and have some better wifi available.

Day 8 – Unicorn Gundam, Eifle Tower and Team Labs

So I started to resign myself to the fact that perhaps I have more than an allergy issue going on and it might be starting to develop in to a cold. After some cold and flu tablets we headed out with a mask in hand. First a quick stop in to Mister Donut, a donut shop I have been wanting to try all trip). We then headed off for a quick stop to Shibuya for some last minute things we wanted from a shop there (aka cheap alcohol and some other bits and pieces).

After weighing ourselves down with incredibly cheap duty free, we headed out to Koto City to see the giant Gundam Unicorn statue. This is the 3rd time we have been out that way to visit the statue and each time it still impresses me with how large it is – I am secretly hoping one day they can make it hover or jump or something cool.

From there we headed down to the Eifle Tower replica statue and had a look at that. The day was cold but incredibly clear, so we /could see right out to Mt Fuji – the clearest sight we have ever had from Tokyo. We had a small break in the sun and I ate my donut – it was super fresh and tasty.

We made our way back to the Gundam Statue for the 11am “show”. We really had no idea what to expect but on the sign we could see that something happened at 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 hrs each day. As 11am rolled around some theme music and sounds came on. There were some flashing lights from within his suit and also some bits that popped out of the suit – no jumping or hovering to my disappointment. We had a look around in Diver City as Kath wanted to go to the Lego store there. It turned out to be a smaller shop and the Lego store was actually over a few building.

We made our way over to the other building and up to the 6th floor to find the Lego Store. The store had some stuff that we haven’t seen available online in a while, but nothing that really stuck our fancy to buy. After a look around some other stores we decided to make our way towards TeamLabs Planets exhibition. We rode the monorail over there (which I think then puts us on every type of train available to us in Tokyo) and then decided to go one stop further for some lunch.

We found a building food court to get some lunch. Reece had some Takoyoki and Kath and I had a chicken burger each. The burger was really fresh and had a great sauce (honey mustard and kewpie may). The “chips” were more like wedges and were a big let down of the meal.

With full bellies we opted to embrace the nice, albeit windy weather and walked over to TeamLabs Planets. I didn’t really have a lot of expectations, a lot of people have raved about how great it was – but full disclaimer, I don’t think I am a true appreciator of art, well especially not when there are a lot of people around.

The whole exhibit is “shoe free” and you have to put your bags and shoes in to lockers as you first enter, you also have to remove socks and roll up your pants to knee height. The first exhibit you go through is walking up a “ramp” that has running water – this is very highly chlorinated and I think is meant to be “cleansing”. At the top you were provided towels to dry off your feet – their washing bill must be extremely high.

I won’t describe each room in detail, but examples of rooms were lights all hanging from the sky, one room had giant balls in it that changed colours, there was another water room that had “white” water with projections of koi and the like in it (this was the knee deep water room), Reece tripped over twice in a room that was soft ground, there was a room that had flower projects that “fell” (this room made me feel really unwell like the room was spinning), a room with orchards that rose and fell from the roof (that room didn’t make the allergies happy), and a room that had silver egg type things to create an alien world.

On average they say people spent 1.5-2 hours there, and we realised we were there for about 45mins in total. I didn’t feel like we rushed through, but it was crowded and you were constantly surrounded by people trying to get the perfect selfie – which to be honest it actually ruining a lot of experiences in my opinion because people are too busy trying to get that perfect shot they don’t care if they are ruining it for others who aren’t interested in photos but rather in the actual experience (sounding like an old nana now I know).

After we cleared out our lockers and put our shoes and socks back on we decided to make our way back to the hotel to start to pack our bags – some of us may have been very ambitious when we bought 1 suitcase to share knowing that we would buy things but not realising we would need extra luggage space for just that.

We decided that we would go to CoCo Curry House for our last dinner and thankfully they had space. Curry, as per usual, was delicious. From there Reece wanted to have one last 1L cocktail, so we went to the Hub British pub by our hotel where Kath and Reece had their 1L beverages – I stuck to a couple of cups of water.

I was still not feeling great, so after that drink we went to the hotel for an early evening.

Day 7 – Tokyo DisneySea

We left early today, as we wanted to arrive at the park at opening to try and beat the crowds and to book in some fast passes to beat some queues for rides.

We got the train to Tokyo Station, then the train out of the city to the station that has the Disney Tram/monorail connection. The monorail is cool and as all previous years, has the cool mickey windows.

We arrived about 10-15 minutes before park opening at 9am, and there is a massive number of people waiting as well. We join the back of one line. It’s cold and windy today… Cindy and I have beanies on.

We wait in line to get in for around an hour… during that time, there is an earthquake. It doesn’t last long, but the staff come down the line to make everyone sit/squat on the ground.. maybe waiting to see if there are any aftershocks. There are none, but we all have an emergency alert text on our screen, telling us there is an earthquake in both Japanese and English.

We finally enter the park and I am able to try book in some fast passes… and they are all sold out except like at 8pm… that sucks.

We go to our favourite ride first… 160 minute wait the app says… but when we get there and line up it’s moving a little quickly. I rush to the bathroom and come back and meet Cindy and Reeece in the queue. I write 2 blog post while waiting and when done, we are almost to the start. The ride was good and we were out about half an hour earlier.

After this, we are hungry… It’s after 12… we try to find somewhere to eat, but either restaurants have a massive wait (like 45+ minutes), or they are super expensive. The buffet we went to last time appears closed. Cindy and I just opt for a sausage roll… but not like Australian sausage rolls. It’s half a small baguette with a circular hole cut into the bread flesh, and the sausage is stuck into the hole. It was one of the places with a short queue, it tasted better than it looked but it was just OK. It filled us up and took the hangry away.

We then opted to do single rider rides for the 2 rides in the park that offer it. These are awesome rides, so it was great to skip the MASIVE queues. We did two rides in less than half an hour. The rides were good and we didn’t need to wait too long for each other at the end.

We then lined up for another ride, which took about an hour, and we knew it was an okay ride, but it had one of the shorter waits. It was a slower seated ride, it was nice to just sit down.

Cindy’s allergies / sinuses are playing up, so we may not last for the night show (another 3 hour wait from when I am typing this).we are currently waiting for another shorter ride, we have never done this ride as it’s more aimed at children, but Reece suggested it. We get go go on these circular boat things and go around a water course. It should be fun. It was a good ride, Cindy really enjoyed it.

It’s pretty cold today, especially in the wind. Without the wind and in the sun, it’s lovely. Cindy and I still have our beanies on and have had them on all day.

This trip to Disney, it seems like there are more people, but less food/restaurant stops. Everything is a queue. They don’t have good popcorn buckets to choose from either, so at least there is no urging Cindy that we don’t need another awesome popcorn bucket, haha. They have cool character hats, though this year. Groups of friends are all matchy matching with big character heads – perfect way to keep your head warm. Cindy and I are in our OG Disney t-shirts, but they are hiding under our jackets.

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We ended up leaving earlier to go back to Shinjuku. They had cancelled the afternoon water shows due to the wind… so we didn’t want to hang out for the night show for it to be cancelled. We got back to Shinjuku after 2 changes, and I found a good gyoza place nearish to the hotel.

It was dead when we entered, but they asked if we had reservations… we didn’t. They were nice to squeeze us in and asked if we could be out in an hour. We are quick eaters, so if they get us the food quick, we will  eat it.

Dinner was delicious! Best gyoza of the trip. They also did a really yummy honey mustard chicken. We got a few different varieties of dumplings. We ended up putting in a second order for more chicken and a smaller plate of dumplings. We were that hungry and didn’t take any photos.

After dinner, we stopped for some ice cream from 711 and had dessert and a night cap in our room (I had a Juicy Hazy IPA – it was tasty) before bedtime. Only two more sleeps left till we come home (not including the night flying).

Day 6 – Baseball

Writing this also from the same line as the previous entry at Tokyo DisneySea… 140-minute wait for one ride is just insane.. anyway, on with the blog for yesterday.

We had a lie in after the night before. The baseball at Tokyo Dome was our plan for the day. The gates opened at 11am, we arrived a little early and found a bakery that was opened, and each grabbed some pastry things each. We got them to take away and found a nice spot in the sun to eat. They were tasty.

We entered via gate 21 and found our seats reasonably easy. We bought these tickets directly this time. Last time we came, you had to book through an intermediary and they would deliver the tickets to your hotel. This meant you got no real say on where you sat. Last time, we were up in the nose bleeds. This time, we were close and near first place. We wore our jerseys, but it was really cold inside (even with the stadium having a roof), so they were under our coats the whole time.

I got a little sleep waiting for the game to start but was energised when the game started. This game was a training match before their season starts this weekend. It was very even for the first few innings, both pitchers and teams doing well and not allowing any runs or too many hits.

Tokyo Giants hit a homerun in the 4th innings, which separated the teams for a little bit until the 6th innings. The other team’s pitcher was getting tired and allowed full bases, and it started to get away and Tokyo got another homerun and some good hits and allowed 5 players to get home before they changed pitchers.

I went and grabbed food at some stage and missed a super quick innings where nothing happened. Reece also ordered a beer from one of the beer runners. Super fit ladies carrying small kegs on their back. They had more choices this time. Most were different varieties of beer, but one was doing whisky highballs, another was doing (we think) so-chu lemon sour. It was too cold, so I didn’t get a beer. Shocking, I know.

That was the game, Tokyo Giants managed to stop any runs home and won the game 6-0.

We went back to Shinjuku and looked at the Don Quijote store, but after seeing the one in Shibuyu, it was underwhelming. Cindy has also had enough of the pillows, so we stopped at a Daiso, and she bought a pillow.

We stopped and got some money out and a beverage and went for a rest before meeting back up for dinner.

The famous Golden Gai is right behind our hotel, so we wandered through that, but it was all fairly closed ( it doesn’t really start to open up until like 8 pm). The restaurant I found that said it was open looked closed. So we went to a Korean BBQ place, and we chose to grill some waygu, rib fillet, and chicken. It was tasty but expensive.

It was super cold and breezy walking back through the Golden Gai, but we stopped for ice cream (Lawsons) for dessert and ate that in our room before bed.

Cindy prefers the 711 ice cream over the Lawson ice cream.

Not as much much walking today, but we were still tired.

Day 5 – Asakusa, Skytree Tower and a food and drink tour

I am writing this post from a line within Tokyo DisneySea themepark.

We gave ourselves a slow start, knowing nothing would be open for a while.

We decided to head out to Asakusa for the day.

We got off a station early as there was this famous chocolate/patisserie shop I wanted to visit. We got a seat up some incredibly steep stairs and realised we needed to go down to see the menu and order. We order 2 European hot chocolates, which are liquid hot melted chocolate and a normal hot chocolate. I also got a chefs tasting platter that uses chocolate from different countries in the world to make a small dessert.

Unfortunately, the European Hot Chocolates were made with 100% dark chocolate and were quite bitter, nothing compared to the hot chocolates in Italy we had, which must have used more milk chocolate. The tasting tray was good, but nothing special.

We then walked about a kilometre to see the Senso-ji shrine and walk down Nakamise -dori Street, the street has a large gate at the beginning of it which is a famous street with food and tourist shops lining the sides heading to the large Shrine. Like everywhere, it was busy. This shrine is probably the largest and most popular shrine to see.

They also had food vendor stalls, but we weren’t game to try any and risk our stomachs not agreeing. But they smelt nice.

This area had many different old buildings from back in the day, we went one direction and came across another much smaller shrine with a lot less people.

We then walked to the water as I had read there could be cherry blossoms… so there were 2 trees starting to bloom, and that’s where the flock of people were taking photos. Next week will be even busier when more trees are blossoming 🌸

We walked across the bridge to a park I had marked and another shrine. The park was unfortunately under renovations, but the shrine was nice to spot.

We were close to Tokyo Skytree, and Reece wanted to go up, so we walked there and stood outside to book online to avoid the queue to buy a ticket. We had about half an hour to kill, so we wandered around the shops, and I spotted a cute Kirby Cafe you can actually go in and eat… however, it’s reservation only, which book out ages in advance. It’s really hard to be spontaneous in Japan.

We went to the Tokyo Skytree and scanned our booking code to get tickets to the 135th floor. It took 50 seconds to get the elevator up, and then we got to check out Tokyo from above. It was a nice day, but it was not clear enough to see Mt Fuji.

Reece and Cindy got a big, cute stamp in their information flyer. When we got back to the ground, Reece checked out the souvenir store, while Cindy and I sussed out somewhere to go for lunch.

Unless you get somewhere on opening, there is always a line. We jumped into a line and waited quite some time, and we gave our order while waiting. We made it inside and had yummy pork curry.

After a now late lunch, we started our long journey back to Shinjuku… we booked a food and drink tour at 5 pm (us old Nana’s didn’t want the later ones). We got to the hotel and were able to change and then straight back out to find the meeting spot.

Trying to find the right exit in Shinjuku for the first time needing an exact exit is hard. But after 1 mishap, we found the exit and guide with a minute to spare. I had read reviews that some people are left behind if they are late. Not today, though. We waited for a bit for other people. The group size, including us, was 7. We left after 10 minutes, and the guide marked 2 people as no-shows.

We started by walking down a small alleyway with tiny restaurants that all had steep stairs to more seating above. Around the corner were slightly larger rooms, but still small. Our first stop was here. We went up the steep stairs. We got to choose 2 drinks to try and 2 types of food.

I got so-chu high ball, and Cindy and Reece got a so-chu, soda with a half fresh lemon/ grapefruit, respectively, that they had to juice themselves and pour into the drink. They really enjoyed it. Their second drink was a so-chu lemon sour soda thing. Also tasty. So-chu is like a Japanese vodka.

All three of us got a wagyu beef skewer and an assorted 3 meat skewer. I didn’t mind 2 of the three… the third was tough, chewy, and weird. I spat mine out (politely). It turned out to be chicken heart… gross. The other weird one was gut and was a little tough but edible… the 2 people who were missing met up with the group here and had to catch up.

After this stop, we walked, and the guide showed us a shortcut to get from shinjuku West to Shinjuku East. It was so much easier than the Saturday night trying to figure out how to do it. We walked down the main stretch of shinjuku and down one of the side streets to our second stop. Here we had u limited drinks for 40 minutes and 2 choices of food unless you got the big plate of chicken. Cindy got 2 plates of dumplings, and I got the chicken, and we shared. I stuck with beer here, and Cindy had so-chu lemon sours. Reece tried plum wine and really liked it. The guide ordered him an office the menu pear wine to try too. He preferred the plum.

The food here was tasty. Good chicken and dumplings. We enjoyed talking to the other people. They were similar ages to Cindy and me and all from the US.

Our last stop for the night was up on the 10th floor for sake. It was a small but incredible little bar that you would have to be a local to know about. The guide gave us a choice to pick one of 4 sakes to try. Cindy got the mildest one, and Reece and I got a slightly more fragrant one that the guide recommended. It was potent, but it was okay to sip. Reece and Cindy weren’t fans as it was too strong. We chatted a while here, and the guide left. The group wanted to go somewhere else. We were tired but up for a night cap. We tried to talk them into the British pub near the hotel for a cheap drink, but the guys wanted to go to a bar/show. I didn’t want to go anywhere. I had to pay a cover. The place they took us to was more girl entertainment show with a minimum cover of 1000 yen that didn’t include a drink. This isn’t our type of thing, so we said goodnight and stopped by a 711 and grabbed a drink and some chips, and we had our night cap in our room.

The tour was good and the guide was good, probably not worth the price we paid but it was nice anyway.