Kon'nichiwa Japan!
July 31 - Aug 5th, 2023
Kon'nichiwa Nihon! We are now in Japan! Tokyo is our first stop on this last leg of our Asia trip. I can't believe we've been traveling for 5 weeks already! Three weeks in Japan and then we are on our way home to Maui for a short break. This part of the trip will be interesting, because other than getting ourselves to Osaka on Aug 16th for Dexter's World YoYo Competition, we don't really have any definite plans. In the next week, we will solidify some locations but we have 6 nights in Tokyo - plenty of time to get a taste for the city.
We stayed at the Minn Ueno-Iriya Hotel in Iriya. It is near Asakusa where the Shensoji Temple and the Tokyo Skytree are located. Google maps said it was only a 24 minute walk to the temple, so we hit the pavement. We started out at around 11am (got some homeschooling done in the morning), so the sun was hot and it was humid. You would think after 5 weeks, we would be used to Asian summer weather by now. Mentally, I'm OK, but physically, my body still sweats the big-drop sweat and I was soaked after 5 minutes of walking. The kids were also showered in their own sweat, and "tired" after about 2 blocks. Hydration is key. To get to the subway or bus, we would have had to walk almost as far, so we just marched on. . .
23 minutes later, we arrived. The Shensoji Temple was crowded with people visiting the temple, praying and finding their fortunes. We didn't spend too much time there, but we DID pull our fortune fo 100yen. First you shake a can of sticks and pull one out. Each stick has a number. You find the drawer with the number on it and take out a fortune from that drawer. Dexter and I got a "regular" fortune, after making our wish, so we kept ours. Scot and Max got "bad" fortunes, which you can tie on a cable and leave there. Other fortunes that I know of are "good" and "best," which most people would want to keep. Leading up to the temple is Nakamise market, which is a road lined with market stalls. It's well known for its traditional architecture and pretty lanterns.
Next, we walked to the Tokyo Skytree. This tower is HUGE! It is one of the tallest "freestanding" towers in the world. Next to the Burj Khalifa (828 meters) and Merdeka 118 (678.9 meters), the Tokyo Skytree is listed as the 3rd tallest at 634 meters tall with viewing areas at 350 meters and 450 meters. I was amazed that the elevator was very quiet and FAST! We were up at the 350 meters in less than 50 seconds!
We took the subway to Shibuya Scramble Crossing intersection and experienced the craziness! All traffic is stopped to allow pedestrians to take over the intersection and cross. Here, Max fullfilled his desire to see a Tokyo with huge monitors on the buildings and Dexter fulfilled his longing to go to a Yoyo store called Rewind. It took some back and forth on the street to find the store, but we finally realized it was on the 4th floor inside one of the non-descript buildings.
The next day we explored Odaiba, which is a small island in Tokyo Bay. It is known as Tokyo's entertainment island with shopping, arcardes, indoor amusement parks and museums. Our kids have outgrown many of the attractions and rides, but we still had fun walking around and shopping a bit at Legoland. We had dinner at a place called "Kua-aina Burger" (can't take the Hawaii out of the Listavich's!) with a window seat overlooking the Rainbow Bridge and their replica of the Statue of Liberty.
On our last day in Tokyo, we wanted to visit the Studio Ghibli Museum. Unfortunately we did not know you needed a reservation to enter, so we had to pivot our plans. Luckily the Ghibli Museum is in the Inokashira Park which has walking paths, fountains and a zoo and aquarium! The zoo/aquarium was small and cute but not very well attended. The highlight for me was an enclosure with a bunch of squirrels. The little forest is totally their turf - they run, climb and lay around just wherever they feel like it. It made me giggle when one ran by brushing my foot. No way would that happen in New York or San Francisco!
Next is Bullet Train!. . .
