Japan: Tokyo

Be warned, Japan will be one long post cos I want to remember everything the second time around!

Sunday 23rd April

Travel day! Got to our apartment around 2am – oof! It’s a 6 hour flight from Bangkok to Tokyo. I forgot how FAR it is from everywhere here. I’ll never forget when we went to Sydney on holiday and we were like well, while we are on this side of the world….13 hours later on the flight I was like blimey, barely worth it! (it was, Sydney is great!).

Monday 24th April

We GORGED ourselves on Tokyo – big day just wandering around Shinjuku. Saw the big Godzilla statue, ate kaiten zushi lunch (conveyor belt sushi) – which the kids loved, I think – although C doesn’t like sushi (whaaaat!). Ate some rainbow cheese dog thing, did print club. An exploring day, which I’m here for!

Is it the same as 20 years ago? Yes, kinda. Still the bright lights and random things that we loved Japan for – shops selling ONLY capsule toys (that’s new, but random!), a guy walking his pet meerkat, ‘cat’ cafes in abundance (it’s a no from me!), print club still exists, everyone with ‘kawaii’ items – saw a woman on the train with some kids character apple headphone things. Love it ALL!

Here’s a video – can’t work out how to get non-sh*te music on it!

Tuesday 25th April

More exploring but Shibuya today. This is where we used to go out clubbing 20 years ago. We used to get the ‘slow train’ from Hamamatsu, go out in Tokyo for the night, hit up karaoke and then Shibuya Starbucks until the first train home around 5am. Blimey, good times though! So we took the kids to that Bucks.

We also found a CD shop (!) so C saw her FIRST CD LOLs. And a J pop stand up thing, so couldn’t resist!

Followed by 11am karaoke, of course! Kids are ON BOARD – phew, knew they would love it!

Puri kura next – print club! You take pics in a booth then decorate it afterwards on a screen and they come out like this… our first attempt was terrible, no stamps came up at all. Probably a gaijin rookie mistake. That’s the joy of Japan – you often have no idea of what you’re doing so you just give it a go. One thing that IS different is ALL of the print club machines filter the hell out of you and give you these massive eyes. We can’t seem to turn it off (again, probs a rookie gaijin thing, but I don’t think so!). So I look about 8 years old (here for the no wrinkles and grey hair!).

Then a wander round Harajuku which I don’t remember at all. I think it has changed massively – lots of pet cafes (um it’s a hard no from me for the ferret cafe – so wrong!) and random food shops. And a capsule toy shop – only selling those round plastic ball things you get in Sainsbury’s!

And we went to a ‘Harajuku’ girl clothes shop which was fabulous – I was always v straight laced when I was younger. I wish I’d been my spirit aged 20 cos I’d have tried wearing this stuff. Sadly we are missing Sunday which is when everyone gets dressed up. 20 years ago, it was fairly fringe but I think it’s more mainstream now.

Crepes

Rainbow candy floss

Went to Sanrio shop where all of the latest characters are – including some old skool ones from our day, Bad Batz Maru and Pompompurin. In fact there is a Pompompurin next door! H got a Cinamoroll toy thing which is awesome.

Picked up dinner in a department store (in the station) – you know, next to a lady just browsing in her yukata!

Wednesday 26th April

Went to a fab ‘Edo’ period museum which had some fake houses in that style – the kids loved it, played ‘shops’ for ages. Such a big hit for them.

Ha ha then did a touristy Sumo wrestler lunch thing where you meet some ex-wrestlers, get dressed up in a sumo outfit and fight them. It was actually really interesting. Did you know they join a ‘stable’ aka training academy aged 15 years old – they are all in Tokyo. So ‘scouts’ find suitable kids and I guess they move to Tokyo. It’s really strict in the stable, everything is regimented, from food to sleep. They train everyday 7am – 10am. It doesn’t seem like that much to me, but I’m not sure how long footballers train for!

Thursday 27th April

Asakusa today! First up, the giant poo. The temple. I do remember it here, it’s fab. Loads of people dressed up in yukata visiting the shrine. Golden Week is next week so things are starting to get busy.

Introduced the kids to our favourite lunch – katsu don – deep fried pork cutlet with onions and egg on rice.

Visited kitchen street where they sell plastic food. We *had* to buy a tempura prawn for our fridge!

This is not real food! 👇

We bumped into a guy who had a pet meerkat – only in Japan!!

Went to the world’s smallest fairground.

Then went up the tower for sunset – gorgeous.

Friday 28th April

Oooh today we went to Tokyo teamLab – what an experience. It is an immersive experience, with water rooms, garden rooms etc. The kids (and we!) loved it. In fact, when we had finished, we snuck in again to do it twice and visit our favourite rooms! Here’s a photo dump!

Mind blown by how grey my hair is looking here – growing out slowly but surely!

In the evening, the kids did their presentations to school about Nepal – including discussing animals being sacrificed!! Not sure HH is ready for that!

Saturday 29th April

Started off with an early lunch at a really famous ramen place – it was DELISH. The best thing was the experience! You queue up outside, then inside there are about 15 seats in a long row. And the queue is behind you as you are eating #awks – so it’s a eat and go kind of joint!

Then we went to the footie to see FC Tokyo vs Niigata. Such an experience in Japan – their fans are all really coordinated and all do a jumping together thing. We used to go to see Jubilo Iwata 20 years ago and it was the same!

Dinner was another kaiten zushi place – you order the foot individually and arrives on a belt exactly where you are sitting. I’m not sure how the tech works, perhaps it’s actual magic! And this is H 👇when he ‘accidentally’ ordered an ice cream dessert – there’s a downside to us all having an ipad to order from!