Last Japan post
So we didn’t write about our 3 days in Tokyo while we were in Japan, and I’m feeling a bit burned out by all the Japan blogging and want to get on to current day events… so here’s a quick summary of those days… then no more Japan!
We took the subway a lot in Tokyo, which was usally pretty crowded. Riley quickly became obsessed with hanging from the rings… she’s pretty strong! She could hold her own wait for a few seconds, but mostly she wanted us to swing her around on them.
On our first day in Tokyo we walked all around downtown tokyo, starting at the Hama Rikyu gardens, which is basically just a huge park in the middle of the city… nice but not super exciting.
Chasing pigeons at the park never seems to get old…
From the park we took a water bus up the river to Asakusa, passing assorted large modern high-rise buildings squished next to old wooden temples. Riley liked the boat, especially the churning water at the back. She tried her darndest to throw the guidebook in the river, but thankfully was not successful.
We walked along some ridiculously busy streets crammed with vendors selling everyting you can imagine, then saw some equally crowded temples…
Then off to the zoo! Riley was kinda shocked by the elephants, which were making a lot of noise (lots of the animals in the zoo seemed mad actually, and were stalking around), but ultimately she decided she liked them and started doing the elephant sign she learned at daycare. It’s gotta be surprising to learn elephants are actually HUGE when you’re used to them being little fuzzy stuffed animals.
The tigers walked right alongside the glass, so you could get really close…
Riley’s favorite part by far was the bird house with tons of tiny little birds (which is funny because without Riley, Sage and I would probably have skipped the birds, but they were actually pretty cool). We sat and watched a monkey swing around his cage for a long time too.
The next day we started out in Shibuya. It was Earth day, so there was a huge festival going on with lots of Japanese hippies (who are way more fashionable and clean then American hippies) selling all kinds of eco-stuff. We bought some random food on sticks (chicken?) then sat on the steps with a cute little family with dogs. They asked to take our picture, so we took a picture of them too…
From there we headed through Yoyogi park, which was filled with bands playing a mix of heavy metal and rock music. They were all right next to each other though, and playing quite loud, but entertaining nonetheless. The most entertaining though, was the random teenagers who hang out on the bridge by the entrance to the Meiji Shrine. They’re a mix of goth and cartoon characters, and they want to have their picture taken. There were lots of Japanese tourists doing just that…
There seemed to be multiple fancy weddings taking place at the Meiji Shrine, where we got told off (very politely) several times for sitting in the wrong place (on the floor, on the steps…)
We then headed past Harajuku station (Riley was wearing her Harajuku Lovers t-shirt, and we were hoping for a good photo-op with her and a station sign, but it didn’t work out).
We walked down Takeshita-dori, which was crammed with young people wearing outrageous outfits. It was hard to take pictures because it was so crowded. The outfits were impressive though.
By the time we reached the end we were exausted and decide to go home and rest up for our big evening out. Brad’s friend’s wife aggreed to babysit for Riley (while she slept) so we could experience a little Tokyo night life. Brad and George’s friends work at Tokyo Disney as face characters (snow white, peter pan etc) and we met up with some of their Disney friends, who proceeded to talk about their crazy fans while we listened amazed. I finally asked the guys who they played, and they were Princes! Apparently there are 4 Princes: Prince Charming, Prince Philip, The Prince, the beast Prince. We were informed in great detail about the differences between these princes. One guy (the chain smoker) has been a prince for 4 years so he was quite the expert. I couldn’t resist having my picture taken with them beofre we left the bar, it was just too funny.
After the bars, RT and the Prince dragged us to karaoke, which turned out to be really fun! Even Brad sang. Good times.
The next day we flew home! Nothing really eventful to report there, it was a pretty easy overnight flight…
More Tokyo pictures here: First day Second day Last day