Vacation – Tokyo, Japan
After spending two full days in South Korea, we took a two hour flight to Tokyo during our Easter break. Last year we wanted to go see the Cherry Blossoms in Japan, but we decided too late in the year and all hotels and flights were full. This year Matt made our reservations early and we were able to travel to Tokyo and also Kyoto. While in Tokyo we stayed at the Hyatt in Shinjuku and had a superb tour guide that we found through Viator.com. Yuka was fantastic with the kids and had everything lined up for us. She even made changes last minute to our itinerary since the weather was bad. We highly recommend her to anyone wanting to visit Tokyo. She use to work for an Australian tour company, so she has an Australian accent when she speaks English!
Day 1
Our first stop was to Tsukiji fish market. This market has been open since 1935, but will be moving to the other side of the river soon since the building is so old.
With over 60,000 employees at Tsukiji fish market, not many people get to ride on these trucks that they use to take the fish orders from vendor to customer. But, we got lucky and a nice man invited the kids to jump on for a photo.
We were blessed with beautiful weather while exploring Hama-Rikyu Garden.
We saw a couple of different bride/grooms while walking the Hama-Rikyu Garden. This couple were nice enough to let us take a picture with them during their photo shoot.
We came to Japan to see the Cherry Blossom Trees and we had beautiful weather for a family photo.
We took advantage of the nice weather and had bento box lunch outside with locals.
Sensoji Temple is the oldest Buddha Temple in Tokyo. It is home to a small gold Goddess of Mercy statue.
Just outside the gate of Sensoji Temple is Nakamise Shopping street which is a large souvenir shopping area.
Day 2
(can’t remember everything we did on this day)
We went to the Honda showroom and got to see the famous Honda robot: ASIMO.
Mason really liked the motorcycles at the Honda showroom.
We got to experience the Shibuya Scramble at this crazy intersection.
Day 3
Our tour guide arranged a private Aikido class, which we all loved.
Blake even got in on the action of learning the proper way to fall in the Aikido class.
It was rainy and cold, but we made it to see The Great Buddha “Kamakura” which is 13.4 meters high including pedestal.
A big hit for us was making our own “Cup of Noodles”. We designed the cup, picked the seasoning and ingredients. And then got it packaged and ready to take home.
We walked around the Cup Noodles museum and learned about the history of Cup Noodles and also played at the interactive displays.
We went to the Yokohama Science Center where TeamLab had a special exhibit. Mason colored a character on paper and then had it scanned into an interactive simulation where it animates and interacts with other characters on the screen.
Last place to visit was Meiji Shrine. It is a really large forested garden area that the city has been cultivating for decades.
We had a great time in Tokyo. Especially since we had such a wonderful tour guide. Yuka made our time there great, even though it was rainy and cold two out of the three days we were there.
Mason left his jacket in the van our first day in Tokyo. Our tour guide helped us contact the van company so we could get it back. On our last day (and after paying $10 USD) we got a package that had his jacket in it. But, it was this black jacket that fits Tia, rather than his silver hooded jacket that fits him!
More photos of Tokyo here.
