This will be a quick post, mainly because we didn’t do a heck of a lot in Tokyo. On Wednesday, we took the train from Kawazu to Tokyo. It was pouring rain when we left so we were thankful to not have to switch trains until we got to Tokyo Station. We took the Superview Odoriko train which had large windows to view the scenery. We were on the ocean side but since it was raining, it wasn’t the best view.
Tokyo Station is like a mini city; in fact they refer to it as Tokyo Station City and the main areas are called streets. We transferred to the Keiyo Line to Maihama and then transferred to the Disney Resort Line. This is a dedicated monorail line for Disney with four stops but you have to pay to ride so we bought a three day pass to start.
Once we checked into up hotel, we headed out into the city. It was pouring rain and after wandering around looking for somewhere to eat and getting soaked, we headed into the station and eventually found a tempura place. The English menu was limited so we ordered a few things from the waitress who understood a bit of English. The food was good but it was a pretty expensive meal (most things here are expensive).
We then went back to Maihama and checked out a bit of Ikspiari which is the Tokyo version of Downtown Disney. They were playing previews of “Frozen” and I really wished I was still going to be in Japan when it opens (March 14) because it would be fun to hear the characters sing in Japanese!
Thursday was our full day in Tokyo….at least that was the plan. We had planned to do a hop on hop off bus tour but it was cold and windy so we wanted to sit downstairs rather than on the open top. They said “it’s too cold, you have to sit upstairs, only luggage downstairs”. It felt like a lost in translation moment and we had no desire to freeze for 2500 yen so we took the train to Hama-rikyu gardens which was the hunting grounds for a 17th century shogun. It was very pretty and reminded me of Central Park in NYC because you can see the skyscrapers all around.
In addition to a large peony garden (not in bloom) there were plum and cherry trees in early blooming stages and a 300 year old pine tree.
We took the train to Shibuya which is famous for its giant scramble crossing. This one makes the three we have in Toronto seem lame!
After this we went to Shinjuku which is famous for all the neon on it’s buildings at night. We wandered around looking for somewhere we might want to eat dinner when we got hungry. It was really cold and at this point we decided we were over Tokyo. Mom even said “I want to go to Disney” so we headed back on the train to Tokyo Station, grabbed some bread and took the train to Disney.
We checked out the rest of Ikspiari which is much bigger than we thought it was and grabbed a bite at a Hawaiian hamburger/sandwich restaurant and then headed to our hotel.
Tara with Styles 