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- 2025年1月14日 21:32〜2025年1月19日
- 5泊
- ☁️ 6 °C
- 海抜: 12 m
日本Nijūbashimae Eki35°40’56” N 139°45’44” E
Tokyo - Day 1

Excited to be in Tokyo!
We arrived on Tuesday night, except Andrea, who came on Sunday for work (although Monday was the Coming of Age public holiday!).
The Prince Sakura Tower hotel we stayed in in Shinagawa is perfect. Warm toilet seats, big beds, vitamin juice for breakfast, and a massage chair in the basement. Possibly related to the massage button on the phone?
Day one was packed. First, we had to navigate the train system and buy a Suica travel card. No mean feat. Then, a walk through Tokyo's biggest park took us to the Meiji Shinto shrine to buy amulets and meet Andrea's colleague Aki. The Japanese flock to this and other shrines in January to buy good luck/health/family/happiness amulets for the year. They return them at the end when the priests burn them. We watched a man almost get arrested for wearing a samurai sword, which turned out to be an umbrella 🤣
Next stop Takeshita Street for the weird pet clothes shops, souvenir and costume stores. A major drawcard for Val and the girls.
Lunch at Kura sushi was a big success, the kids laughed so much. Aki was on hand to explain the ordering and plate disposal systems. And to tell us about his toy poodle with its 45 outfits and 10,000 followers on Instagram (!!).
The Shibuya Sky tower offered spectacular views of this sprawling, enormous city of more than 15 million inhabitants, but only a hazy view of Mount Fuji.
Across the busy and famous Shibuya crossing to Loft department store where Ali quickly gave up trying to persuade the kids to spend their money wisely. Andrea and Ali supervised at a seated distance while James and Mario went to an Irish pub to watch the football. Seems perfectly fair.
Quick dash across to the Harry Harajuku animal café for much excitement among the kids to be handling hedgehogs, otters and chinchillas. Mario had to go to Japan to learn about these animals from his home region.
Our ramen dinner was a highlight for everyone once we'd scrambled to work out how to order first from the vending machine at the entrance. A curious ticketing, form-filling, cosy single booth experience eating meticulously prepared ramen that left us all fulfilled. Helpful (or not really?) little wooden signs hang in each booth so you can communicate to your waiter's torso (can't see their heads from the booth) if it's too noisy for you or if you don't understand the ordering system.
So far, Japan is a mix of quietness, confusing and convoluted form-filling bureaucracy for every tiny thing, helpful and friendly people, and a lot of shops selling cutesy, useless stuff.
Mario managed to almost-but-not quite lose his Suica travel card, money and waterbottle. Andrea successfully navigated us around the city by outsourcing it to Aki. Ali learned how to order extremely sugary drinks containing no sugar from the vending machines. James fell in love with a chinchilla, and the kids laughed a lot, took millions of photos and videos, and went to bed very happy.もっと詳しく