Day 4 - Gotokuji temple wanderings

Woke at the usual 5am here, 6am back home. We had the usual 7-11 breakfast and decided where to go for the day. We decided to head to Gotokuji temple, stopping along the way. AI helped craft a journey.

We were at Yokohama station shortly after 9am and rode the Toyoko line to Jiyugaoka station. We got off here and then looked that it was far from where we were heading. We had missed a step, so we got back on the train, but following AI had us on the wrong platform, so we rode the train that was heading in the wrong direction. Google maps sorted the correct platform and we switched directions at the next stop that was only a few minutes further.

We then got off at Todoroki station. This was a tiny station you could walk through. It was 9:44am when we had our first ice cream of the day and headed into Todoroki ravine. This is a 700m long path through the ravine and was a cooler temp and nice experience.

After the ravine we rode another 2 stops along to Futako-Tamagawa station and found the gluten free Cafe Tamakuchen. Here hubby got a pack of cakes, and a cinema scroll to take away, then we decided to eat in and have a piece of their cheesecake. These were very good, and didn't taste gluten free.

Our next stop was to ride the Den-en-toshi line from here to Sangenjaya and go up to the 26th floor of Carrot Tower. The view was nice and free, but not as good as others. After this we headed down and rode the Setagaya line which is a street car style train to Miyanosaka station. From here it was a short walk to Gotokuji temple. This was the lucky cat temple, and was busy with lots of tourists. We had to wait until 1pm for the shop to open so we could get the kids a lucky cat. This was a hot wait in the sun.

Once the cats were acquired we headed back to the station, with a stop off for icecream and water. We headed back to Sangenjaya and decided to do some shopping. Our plan was to head to Kanda for a sports store, then Tokyo station, then Ginza. At Kanda we found shoes for the girl at a sale price. Then it was off to Tokyo station where we found our way to Character street Lego store, but they had no minifigures from the new series. Then it was off to Ginza where we went to the Uniqlo flagship store and hubby bought 5 pieces of clothing.

By now we were hungry, we tried freshness burger, but the staff looked grumpy so we left, we were going to head back to Yokohama, so we walked to Shimbashi station, but the Keiyu line was cancelled due to personal injury. So we changed back, and headed to the Ginza line to take us to Shibuya. Here we found food at a gluten free ramen place and had dinner after 6pm.

A few quick detours to some shops, then we headed to Shibuya station to catch the busy Tokoyo line to Yokohama. Here we dropped off our shopping, then headed straight back out to buy things at Don Quixote. It was about 11pm by the time we got back to the hotel. An onsen was had and was well deserved. In bed just before midnight.Read more