Culture and a View

Out on foot for some culture this morning. First though, breakfast. Flapjack Jack's didn't work for us last time due to crowds and spacial restraints but being in thr general vicinity of todays route, we thought we'd give it another go. Success!
We folded the pram and squeezed in for three pancake sets; 2 blueberry jam and one plain with maple syrup plus a couple juices!
Then onwards for a 30minute morning walk north towards the Samurai and Ninja museum. This was an excellent small group guided tour that gave a presentation about the history of Samurai, and detailed information about sumarai armour, weapons, traditions and ninja. The guide made it, keeping Nat and the boys thoroughly engaged. The tour was topped off with a ninja throwing experience for everyone, including the kids. Nat was the best at it! That wasn't all, the boys and I also got to try on a bunch of Samurai armour.
This took us to lunchtime and a delicious ramen experience for us all.
From here, a short walk to the Sensō-ji Temple, Tokyos oldest temple. Sadly, the area has been ravaged by tourism, and is now overwhelmed with food traffic and a long tacky marketplace to get to the main building itself. The boys both threw in 100yen for a fortune, a good result for Axel, not so for a gutted Ryland.
Moving on, we'd continue our hike towards the Tokyo Skytree and Solamachi Mall attached by about 2pm. We purchased sunset tickets (5pm) for the skytree, giving us plenty of time to explore the area. The mall was a little underwhelming, more crowded than interesting, little shops of interest. Exhausted, we stopped a while at a tapas-like restaurant for refreshments and a light, overpriced dinner. We found a playground area too little too late (430pm due to return for skytree) and the most random animal 'centre' called 'Lovely Animore". Hold on, do my eyes deceive me, is that a sloth and.... a toucan?!?! In plain few. Id wanted so long to find a toucan to show the boys. We didnt have time to pay entry, and any initial wonder and excitement was soon replaced with sorrow. I thought the Ueno zoo was a bit dicey for animal welfare... hey, this place looked the Nara Deer look they were living the dream. How are places like this allowed to operate, rare animals looking malnourished, terrified, mistreated, bored, in boxes or confined spaces. Check the google reviews if you dare.
The trip up the Skytree was awesome. Visibility was a LITTLE limited with rain and some fog, but you could still see alot and really appreciate how vast just a portion of Tokyo is. We enjoyed the view in daylight, and dark as lights progressively illuminated the cityscape. Our ticket puchase took us to not only the first observation deck on 450, but the Galleria 100m up as well. That one had a quirky toy story exhibition also which added to the excitement for the kids.
Finally, we wrapped up, headed down and decided tp metro it back to within 10m walk of the hotel. We'd covered quite some ground on foot!
Tomorrow's plans are a little unsure for the morning, but Ryland and I will be going to a sumo tournament in the evening.Read more