Day 12 "Odaiba, Joypolis, Panasonic Center and Christmas Lights"

Day 12 (December 25, 2018)

I got up a little early to re-evaluate the remainder of our itinerary.  I had come to another realization that everything was taking a very long time to accomplish in Tokyo (longer than Kyoto), even with the level of intent and organization I had.  A few snap decisions were made to book a fireworks cruise for Saturday the 29th (instead of fighting it out for a spot on the pier that night), it was expensive, but I had hoped it would be worth it.  The other cruise I had booked for another (non-fireworks) night was cancelled on me a few days prior due to low booking numbers, so I was scrambling to find another option. After this was changed, it would mean that we would no longer be visiting Odaiba on Saturday night.  Keep in mind, Comiket was also running (my poor planning) and I was trying to AVOID the crowds that came with it so everything ended up being shuffled last minute.  I previously had some plans for the day (Christmas!), but wasn’t 100% sure of most of them.  With those thoughts in mind, we made a snap decision to go to Odaiba sooner rather than later and headed out by 9AM. With a morning of research behind me, we also ventured on to a bus for the first time in order to save time and money getting to the station, this routine would become our everyday for the remainder of the trip. Once we figured out which bus stop and which direction, it was all gravy from there (no wrong bus this time!). We were all looking forward to playing at Joypolis, walking their malls and taking in the tourists sites Odaiba had to offer.  I did still wanted to see illuminations that night since it was Christmas and all, so our itinerary was changed to a simple "Odaiba and Illuminations" for the day.  On the topic of illuminations, I found them hard to research online, after some searching I picked out what was one of the better reviewed “large displays” that synced to music in another district and hoped for the best.

It was a beautiful clear day, the trek to Odaiba was long, but the majority of it was on scenic trains so we didn’t mind.  Another one of those “I could do this everyday for the rest of my life” moments.  Once we disembarked the train, it was a short walk around the bay area before heading inside Joypolis right as they were opening.  It was pretty dead there, exactly what I had hoped based off our timing, day of the week and it still actually be a holiday of some sort (though not Federally sanctioned here).

The place was a little smaller than I remembered and there actually wasn’t a LOT of attractions we could do together as a family (a disappointment from J-World the day before where we could all do everything!).  We opt for the entry only tickets and purchase just enough attraction tickets to play some of the larger games, which wasn’t much.  Matt got in a run at the Initial D cars, still there as they were in 2010, and I took Terra to play at one of the best arcades we had seen.  The prices to play were fair, the attendants were quick to move prizes for her and they had a large selection of picture booths and capsule machines to use as well.   It would turn out to be the only time we set aside the concentration it takes to use a Purikiri booth the entire trip.  It was fun, I’m glad we went, but overall I was surprised by how our visit actually turned out, I would rank many of our other experiences (including J-World) above it.  We decided to leave after nearly three hours spent playing arcade games and a few of the carnival and large game attractions (the Olympics game here is an "experience" and will set you back a 600yen ticket!). After three hours, it was lunch time and we weren't thrilled with the cafe on site, we quickly went through their store, purchased a few things and decided to head over to the attached mall "Aqua City Odaiba" for food.

We ended up eating at a buffet place called "The Oven", which was a strange dining experience for us in Japan, but Odaiba tries to be more Western than most of Tokyo so we figured “why not”.  It was Christmas and they displayed a chocolate fountain at the entrance for crying out loud! The food ended up closer to the American buffet standard, definitely nothing to write home about, but we did have a nice view from our table.  With still plenty of time left in the day, we spend some of it browsing around the mall, complete with a robotic receptionist (that was pretty creepy) and finally wandered into the Panasonic Center.

We fondly remembered stumbling into here back in 2010 while simply killing time waiting for Anime Fair to open and wished we had more time to explore it back then.  This time it looked different than I remembered, but they did have some pretty cool exhibits focused on the 2020 Olympics; on the second floor they had some hands-on science experiments and Nintendo demonstrations going.  It was an entertaining (free) stop, but not as engaging as I hoped it would be. I think if you had even more time to dive into some of the experiences offered and paid for the theater (I'm not positive what they were showing/demonstrating inside), then you could get more out of the place. We were only inside for about an hour before heading out, there was one more place from my memory we simply had to visit on our "free" Odaiba day, the 100 yen store named "Can*Do". I bought so many things here, even made it a point to stop in on our last day to finish picking up souvenirs.  Nobody would ever guess these items were bought for 100yen, I love a good 100yen store SO much while traveling in Japan and this was one of the best!

With it now 4:30PM and getting dark, it was time to head to that final item on the agenda. Unfortunately, all I had was a confusing set of directions to (what was advertised as) the largest illuminations display in Tokyo, Caretta Shiodome.  Wasn’t sure what to expect, but I knew it was outdoors and thought it was a quick “walkthrough” experience, it was Christmas so I would have never put us in middle of a huge indoor attraction right as it was getting dark enough to see it (on purpose).  When we finally found it at 5:15PM, it was encircled in a courtyard surrounded by outdoor mall buildings and it was PACKED.  Tokyo+Christmas=Couples vying for a romantic evening.  It took 30 minutes of filtering around a huge crowded circle to even see the lights, all while Matt’s semi-panic attack sets in from being utterly surrounded by people.  Sadly, even once we got “inside” the area, we could barely even see it.  Only being able to snap this and a few more pictures before quickly being shuffled back out.  Though the music they picked, from Tangled, went very well with the dazzling display and I did throughly enjoy it for about 5 of the 30 minutes, I couldn't recommend this experience to anyone.  I couldn’t help but think our Christmas night could have been better spent, but the damage was done and we DID get to see some of the lights I was promised by research. We shuffled back out through the mall, searching for food and coming across a few more oddities along the way.  I honestly do not recall how/where dinner ended up being and what we did (if anything) with the remainder of the night.  I do recall how much colder it seemed to be getting in the mornings and evenings though and we likely turned in pretty early. All that remains in my records for the remainder of this evening is a picture, I'll let you try to fill in the blanks.

Day 11 "Asakusa, Kawaii Monster Cafe, Shibuya and Jump World"

Day 11 (December 24, 2018)

It was a pretty cool and crisp morning and we had two major things on the agenda: Kawaii Monster cafe for lunch (in Harajuku) and J-World before it closed at 9:30PM in Ikebukuro (Sunshine City Mall).  I wasn’t 100% sure of what to expect from either location and just how long everything would take. We also had the issue of Terra freaking out over losing Fluffy, so I tried to appease her by checking and retracing as many steps as we could from the day before.  There were other things on my “whenever we get a chance” list such as the Tourism Center and Senso-ji.  Both were free to visit and literally within our walking path between the apartment and metro station we were using daily.  Since they both also opened by 8AM, it made sense to make them our first stops as we waited for the Drum Museum from the prior day to open at 10AM (to check for Fluffy).  The view from the tourism center was pretty great, but it was cold and windy so I think we only stayed up there for 5 minutes total, I also attempted to inquire about a cruise to see the fireworks in Odaiba that coming weekend, but they were sadly not very helpful in that respect.  Good place for a quick/free visit, especially if you are looking for a view and good pictures of the Asakusa region, but I wouldn't count on anything trip changing to come from a visit here.

Next came the obligatory visit to Senso-ji, being the main hall was under renovation in 2010, this would be our first visit here. The shopping street was just starting to open, so the walk down to the shrine was a relatively quick one. We did the offering/praying down the main hall and once again were able to admire the huge before and after restoration of the main adornments abound. I am a huge fan of the dragon on the ceiling for the main gate, so we were sure to snap some pictures and admire, what would be, our only sane (not too crowded) visit to the area. A little browsing and shopping at the early morning stores down the shopping street, many of which were still working on opening for the day as it was super early for Japan time and we were off once again.  Spending time ducking back into the Drum Museum from the prior day and striking out finding Fluffy, it was time to start heading towards Harajuku so we wouldn’t miss our reservation.  Did I mention is was a cold and blustery day?  Yeeeeah.

Harajuku isn’t too far from Asakusa, but it was still a walk to the cafe from the nearest train station. With the tall tightly packed buildings of the area, the wind was even stronger once we emerged to street level.  Sucking it up and walking briskly, any hope of “window shopping” or tucking into a few stores to buy accessories or see cute things vanished from my mind quickly.  Instead we tuck our heads inside our scarves and walk to the cafe as quickly as possible.  Like most things in Japan, you would never guess from the standard “office building” look on the outside what would be waiting for you inside the doors of the 4th floor concrete structure. It was one of the craziest places we’d seen in Japan, everything people imagine after watching viral videos and the “only in Japan” nonsense.  If you simply search “Kawaii Monster Cafe” you will be assaulted with enough internet videos to entertain you for hours.  And yes, it was exactly like that.  Our senses were happily assaulted for nearly two hours while lights flashed, the hostesses would dance and sing and, of course, you were treated to overpriced colored food.  The likes of which tasted pretty good, but nothing more outstanding than my more favored street food of the country.  Terra was a mix of elation, overwhelmed and embarrassed all at the same time.  It was pretty awesome, I would definitely recommend it, but maybe plan on a dessert instead of a meal instead.  I have also obtained info to allude to this place becoming a crazy adults only burlesque with plenty of mixed drinks at night, based off of what I saw, I could see that being its own kind of fun.

Once we had enough with the overwhelming sounds and lights, our stomachs full and frostbite wearing off, it was time to drop by the Voyagin office to get our Ghibli tickets.  Ghibli tickets are still just stupid to obtain, if you are in the country it is a simple matter of running into a 7-11 and using a kiosk to purchase them for about 1,000yen.  However, if you are outside of the country it is a nightmare of waiting in a virtual line that begins exactly 90 days from the day you would like to visit, don’t be a day early or late, to request the day and time you want.  I had put plenty of research in and thought I had this down, but I somehow STILL screwed it up and ended up with the Voyagin service to have someone located in country purchase at the 30 days mark from one of those 7-11’s, at a mere triple markup.  So, 12,000yen, a few emails and a physical trip to their office later we were finally set to go to Ghibli later in the week.  The walk wasn’t as bad as the wind was a bit calmer, but it was a steady 20 minutes from Harajuku to their Shibuya HQ.  A lot of back alleyways and nothing of interest to note, except for one of the strangest (and only) graffiti seen in the country (seen here).  Don’t ask me to translate the meaning, I don’t understand it either.

After leaving their office, the Shibuya station made the most sense from where we were so we simply continued our walk until Hachiko came into view.  There was a SOLID line to take a picture with him!  It was becoming obvious the Christmas season was here and things were about to start getting hectic. Still stuck on the fact that Fluffy was missing, I promised Terra we would run through Akihabara station to check the lost and found there (which, funnily enough, was difficult to find!).  If she left him on a train, he would have been there. We also tried to run through a few of the stores we weren’t able to check the night before, but after wasting upwards of 2 hours looking, it was time to call it and head to J-World.

Based off blogs and reviews I had read of J-World it was a barely-worth-mentioning overpriced stop.  But I still wanted to see it, grab pictures with the photo op spots and eat at their themed cafe if nothing else. I obtained discount tickets to get in months prior and so it was a must-see for me, however I only allowed us about 3 hours during the evening to explore the place.  By this time, their closing had been announced and they were on the last few months of operation. It is closed now, but due to this turn of events, they had a special hunt going on where you had to complete missions to receive a coin upon leaving.  I was also aware we would be located within a mall, a mall I knew next to nothing about.

Oh goodness, once arriving at Sunshine City (several train stations and another 20 minute walk from Shibuya), regret washed over me immediately. I wished we had set aside the majority of the day and not a mere 3 hours.  The mall itself was huge, with a bunch of shops I would have rather gone into. Music also filled the air, turned out they were having a Christmas party/concert with (what seemed to me) a Korean boy band.  We stood and watched them perform one song before making a B-line for J-World. Let me just start by saying, I don’t know what people were experiencing when they reviewed this place.  It was pretty darn awesome!  Especially with a 6 year-old in tow.  Almost every single thing you could experience had more than enough English guidance to get by, the cafe had a wide array of themed options and there were two floors with activities and photo ops.  I think we could have easily spent 5-6 hours here, but instead we scarfed down some Naruto ramen and immediately started on our list of experiences we had to attend/get stamps from in order to obtain our coin.

It was so much fun, Terra took Choppers merry-go-round, we played Choppers save-the-day with backpacks and all, a few “hit the touch panel” type games, riding on a nimbus cloud, shooting a kamehameha, finding the Dragonballs and a Naruto spy ninja type game that accumulated in you throwing as many plastic balls at the screen as you could manage. Some games had subtitles on the videos and some didn’t, but all were simple enough to understand and enjoy either way. Every game had a set of English instructions for you to read before starting, which made it clear enough to make your way through. We made it through our entire “to-do” list just in the nick of time.  Even with a little disappointment at most of the “side attractions” not being open, one being from My Hero Academia and another was a basketball game from Kuroko’s Basketball, I would assume.  It was still a fun-filled evening and I think we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  We shut the place down too, staying right up to the 9:30PM final bell (most games shut between 8:30PM and 9PM).  The “shop” inside was the only thing I found lackluster, I literally found nothing to purchase, which was a surprise. After the experience, I would have highly recommended a visit here and to allow plenty of time, a little sad that it’s gone now.

We obtained our coins and headed back to Asakusa to turn in for the night.  It was a relaxing walk from Sunshine city to the station, but was still 20 minutes after being exhausted so I don’t remember the entire thing.  At this point, we were aware that a taxi from Asakusa station to the apartment was pretty easy to find and well worth the 700yen, so we opted for one this night and turned in shortly before 11PM.

Day 10 "Rubber Ducky Onsen and Akihabara"

Day 10 (December 23, 2018)

Following my theme of “places I must visit because I saw them on NHK” the goal this day was the “rubber ducky onsen”.  I saw it in passing on one of the tourist videos available at NHK and had to do some deep internet diving to even find the exact place.  Past that, it took several emails to confirm that a private reservation would, in fact, net us a “ducky onsen” experience.  For the record, the real name of this place was Maenohara Onsen Sayano Yudokoro (more info here) and those rubber duckies are actually changed out to fit the season, so we would be treated to the "winter animal" set instead. Per Japanese law, only same sex is allowed in any public bath or onsen past 10 years of age.  That being said, Matt once again decided he didn’t want to bathe with other naked males (this happened in 2010 as well) and decided to go on a walking trip around Asakusa while I took Terra to the fated destination.  I was SUPER nervous at first as it was only our second day in Tokyo and this trip required an hour of train travel with several line transfers, as well as a 15 minute walk from the nearest station.  I packed up our things and left with more than 2 hours to spare with a set of “don’t lose me rules” ahead of time for Terra.  It turned out to be a super relaxing ride to the countryside (still astounds me how close “countryside” is to central Tokyo).  We got off the train and start walking via Google Map GPS services to the doorstep of our destination.  Plenty of parks along the way, families out enjoying the brisk morning and scenery to behold.

To this day, I have never had the nerve or felt safe enough to take Terra to D.C. by myself, yet not one single time did I have the same reservations here.  It was so refreshing.  Staff inside the onsen spoke just enough English and had English signage to get us exactly what/where we needed to be.  It was a large resort/onsen bathhouse location and was not busy upon our early arrival time.  We had to remove our shoes and use lockers at the entrance, then were given towels and shown to the private bath down an outdoor hallway.  Once inside it looked like a large changing room with adjoining bath, which was surrounded by the outdoors/greenery!  It was also special in the fact that you were encouraged to wear a swimsuit and take pictures for social media (usually clothing in the bath or onsen is a huge taboo). So, of course, we did just that!

It was a huge traditional tub with washroom once entering the outdoor environment, one of the most interesting places I had ever been.  A great mix of entertainment and relaxation, because how could you not smile and take pictures while being surrounded by hundreds of rubber animals?  Terra (as expected) had way too much fun playing with the animals while I could just relax after the photo taking had ended.  Our reservation was for an hour and half, we were done right around that mark and fully relaxed.  It was SO NICE.  Hands down, would go here again and take every woman I knew with me.

After the refreshing morning, it was off for lunch and the Asakusa drum museum, where we met back up with Matt seamlessly. The “panda cafe” we thought he found ended up being a small kids play area/eatery upstairs and a burger joint downstairs, unfortunately.  Since we didn’t really fall into the “small kid” category, it was decided a quick burger lunch would commence and then we could head over to the drum museum.  No photography was allowed inside (explaining my lack of pictures for this paragraph).  It was an entertaining hour or so where we could all get hands-on playing various drums and musical instruments of Asian heritage.  I would overall leave a positive review of the place, but wouldn’t go out of my way to visit or recommend it (more info here if interested).  If you find yourself in the area with time to kill, or with small children, then perhaps the 700yen ticket per person would be worth it.

With time still left in the day, but not enough to knock out anything major, it was discussed to throw the first trip to Akihabara in. The “tech shrine” (Kanda Myoujin) was the first must-see, but turned out to be a way further walk than I had originally mapped.  It was a solid 20 minutes from the station and accumulated in a very steep climb up a lot of stairs.  There wasn’t much to see here, a few basic torii and prayer hall with plenty of anime girl themed charms and omiyage.  Purchased a few standard “ward off evil tech virus” charms (which turned out to be expensive at 1500yen each!) and one set of omiyage cakes and back off into the shopping district we headed.

One of the major stores on my list was the Animegane (Anime Glasses) store, where you could purchase frames (or even full glasses after an exam) stylized in anime or gaming themes.  They had ones from SOA with the sword as the sides of the glasses, Evangelion, Cardcaptor Sakura and more.  I ended up with a pair of silver/blue frames from Azure Lane for 12,000yen and was more than happy to just get lenses when we got home.  I still get compliments on these as they are my everyday pair right now!  Close enough to anime/gaming for otaku, but far enough that a casual person has no clue.

Akihabara is a spinning daze of places to visit and areas to bookmark when doing research.  It was such a huge mish-mash of cafes, shopping, shrines and arcades that it becomes difficult to find purpose on which ones to enter next or where you should be aiming to go.  We ended up wandering in and out of more anime, gaming, arcade and capsule machine shops than I could count within a few hours.  Dinner for the night was set for the “Train Cafe” I located while doing “cafe shopping” online.  My intention was to find a place with fun food and displays that both Terra and Matt would enjoy, but pictures/information on this place were a little obscure. From what I could tell it would be worth it with train model displays, train themed food and you even paid to enter with a “train” ticket stub.  I THOUGHT it would be a fun place to eat.  Instead, when we finally located it on the 4th floor of a back alley of Aki, up one of the rickiest elevators we would see the entire trip, we were greeted more by the creepier “old guy patron” atmosphere with cute waitresses dressed like train conductors and a smoke filled bar atmosphere.

I DID see one other family within the small 30 seat or so dining area, so we entered and I hoped for the best.  Things never really got better though, there was the standard “maid cafe” attempts at entertainment and they did have a small working train model in the corner Terra enjoyed, but overall the food was subpar for Tokyo, the prices were too high and the smoke filled atmosphere was a little much for me.  They didn’t even have anything on the menu Terra wanted to eat, so it was a big letdown, especially after stumbling into the awesome train diner a few nights before in Kyoto!  To top it all off, when I went to gather our bags to leave it was noticed that the beloved “Fluffy” was missing!  Oh, the chaos this would cause.  He was our instagram buddy and in almost every picture thus far.  We quickly retraced our steps into MOST of the shopping areas we could remember/find and even all the way back to the shrine, but come up empty-handed.  This Fluffy was determined to stay in Akihabara forever. Slightly defeated by the second-half of the day, it was time to return to Asakusa and turn in for the night.

Day 9 - Family Japan - "Kyoto to Tokyo, Asakusa and Tokyo Solamachi"

Day 9 (December 22, 2018)

On this hectic logistical nightmare of a Saturday, we were obligated to return to Tokyo.  Looking back at the morning, I see we don’t have any photos and I really do know why.  We left the house by 7:15AM and emailed the owner to complete the check-out process, our Shinkasen from Kyoto to Shinagawa left at 7:45AM so there was no time to waste. We are dragging one large suitcase, two smaller suitcases and Terra had her own bag to drag along, this on top of the laptop backpack I am carrying and a full backpack he has on.  It was still way too much luggage despite our best efforts and I decide to make a concrete effort to get this luggage number down even lower on our next trip!  The Shinkansen ride out to Asakusa was the “normal” 3 hours or so, we then disembark to several options, but decide to go through Ueno (Shinagawa > Ueno) to the Asakusa metro line to get off at Asakusa station itself.  Even taking this option to get to the nearest station, we were looking at a 10-15 minute walk to the apartment according to Google Maps.  Here a series of unfortunate events unfolded where I realized the Japanese announcement (very odd to not have several languages spoken) on the metro explained if you were in a wheelchair/needed an elevator you should be getting off from a different car on the train (a car we were far from at this point and it was already stopping).  I tried to voice my concerns as we disembarked, and all to quickly find out my broken Japanese did in fact hear correctly that yes, we were screwed.  There were only stairs here, in the underground metro station, 5 stories underground.  After stopping a station worker to double check, he kind of chuckled and said “no elevator”... we would not be the only stupid tourist to make this mistake.  I was justified later by seeing NUMEROUS tourists dragging bags up these stairs during our stay at the little apartment in Asakusa.

With a full workout in already, taking turns dragging the cases up a flight and coming back to the next, we made it to street level where our “10-15 minute walk” began.  Thinking we wouldn’t easily find a taxi that could hold everything and not 100% sure to where we were heading, walking was the only logical choice.  It was a straight shot, with the Sumida River and Tokyo Skytree on our right the entire time, would have been nice (and turned out to be nice), when not burdened by a huge amount of luggage.  But alas, it took a solid 20 minutes in this sad state, and we finally stumbled into the apartment at 11:40AM.  It was a generous size for a Tokyo apartment and I got it for a steal of a price ($700USD for two weeks), with two bedrooms, a dining/kitchen area, full bathroom and balconies overlooking both the Sumida River and Tokyo Skytree.  Falling asleep to the lights and glow of the tower turned out to be pretty cool indeed.

With the logistical nightmare behind us (and very glad I made the decision early on we would only be moving our bags once this trip!), it was off to the Tokyo Edo museum.  I wanted to see the Kamikiri (paper cutting) demonstration later that afternoon (there was one at 1PM and one at 3PM), so off we went again. Trying to navigate Tokyo for the first time in over 8 years was a challenge. I still feel that visiting Japan and visiting Tokyo are different sides of the same coin, the overall feeling is the same, but the method in which things work is totally different.  We discern that a small metro trip to a certain station and then a taxi ride right up to the museum was the best way, as it was also raining at this point and we were pretty darn hungry from the workout.  The taxi driver did not speak English (this is Tokyo, they lied to me!), but finally understood which museum we were talking about after a few attempts to communicate. It seemed he had never driven there before, for a major museum I was super confused by this and never found out why it was so difficult to locate. We finally got inside the museum, check our umbrella into their umbrella locker (I loved those inventions) and get our tickets. After that, it was time to head straight to the floor with the cafe. A nice traditional lunch was had (think grilled fish, fried chicken, ramen noodles), it was pretty delicious for standard museum food. There was also an exhibit from an anime movie that I wasn't familiar with, right there on the cafe floor. Once we ate and paid, it was time to get to the main exhibition hall. The first thing that greets you once inside is a replica of Edo bridge as it once stood, pretty cool sight to see.  The exhibit halls only made up this floor and the floor beneath it (of an 8 story building).  Something you will often see in Tokyo is a huge building where only several of the floors are public space.  Making the most out of the space they do have and utilizing other floors for office, education or government usage.  The main floor here had a lot of replicas of the (Edo) Tokyo area from various time periods, complete with castles and building layouts and the lower floor contained working replicas of farming equipment, technology from the decades, full size house replicas you could enter and finally some fine art.  The middle of the lower floor also contained the demonstration/exhibit stage where the Kamikiri took place.  Being we had to eat first, it was 1:45PM or so by this time.  We started by looking at (and taking pictures) of the dioramas and emperor items on display at the top floor, then slowly moving to the lower exhibits closer to the performance stage. The demonstration started exactly at 3PM and had a few rows of tables in front of the stage with papers and scissors set out, the performance itself was interesting, but I was disappointed that the “master” only did two pieces. After that, she then expected the crowd to do their own with little to no instructions.
 
Terra ended up frustrated by how badly both of hers turned out, so I quickly turned her attention to some of the bicycles and carriages we could get on and take pictures with instead.  Overall it was a very “standard” museum, the likes of a Smithsonian stateside.  I did enjoy most of the exhibits, but it is difficult to entertain a six year old for very long in such places.  As a result I end up getting separated from Matt and glancing over most of the items on display while walking her around.  I would probably go back again depending on what they seasonally have out and what demonstrations were going, but it wasn't a must see overall (especially with a kid in tow).

Having not been in Japan since 2010, I was unaware of exactly how Asakusa looked and was set up now.  The Skytree changed the entire landscape, it wasn’t just a tower, but adjoining malls and an entire shopping district from what we had seen during the construction phase.  That being said, I did stumble across another Japanese trip bloggers journey there recently and came to understand that one of the two malls displayed rolling exhibits on the 8th floor and that a Macross Ship model was currently there.  Since it was close to the apartment and we were already exhausted it was decided this would be the only other thing accomplished for the day.  As expected, this area was super crowded on a Saturday afternoon.  There were some tourists, but it was mainly locals or other Japanese in the mall, Skytower and adjoining shops.  We found a second Ghibli store (now realizing these were a thing) and some other shops to duck into before setting our sites on the 8th floor goal. 

A series of escalators led us up the correct path to the Macross ship, to our surprise, there was also a live robotic demonstrations going on across from it on the same floor.  It turned out to be a great time chatting with the engineers there, most of which seemed to be college students that LOVED practicing their English on us.  It was super enjoyable to play with Mars rover-like bots, bots that rescue people and others that are being used in situations like Fukushima.  They were really developing the next generation here.

And where there is a large mall in Tokyo, there's a Pokemon Center!  This one being one of their “standard sizes”, we always enjoyed seeing what the exclusive merchandise was, checking the capsule machines and looking at their statues and this visit was no different.  The exclusive here was “Pikachu with Skytree” merchandise, from pencils to plushies they had an entire stand just for merchandise with this image.  As seen here, the stores mascot was Rayquaza, pretty cool all lit up. We left the mall around dinner time to head to our first CoCo curry.  Like most foreigners, I apparently fall into line with “I love CoCo curry”.  Probably a little too much based on how many times we ended up at this spot over two weeks, up to this point we had avoided the “fast food” trap aside from the necessary McDonald’s trips.  Oh, but I did enjoy knowing where to go for something quick, cheap and tasty.  After my standard curry dinner and way too much water, we headed over to the grocery store in order to stock the apartment with breakfast staples and hop a taxi back across the river to the apartment.  We were literally located ACROSS the Sumida River from Solamachi, but to walk to bridge, over and back down the road it would take a solid 45 minutes.  Not worth it in the blustery air with groceries in hand.  We had to wait in line at a taxi stand (also a new and quizzical experience for us), but finally get inside a taxi and within 10 minutes and 1,000 yen we were dropped a block from the apartment door and done for the night, very exhausted for a 7PM turn-in.

Day 8 - Family Japan - "Fushimi Inari Taisha, Kiyomizu-dera, Ramen and Teramachi-dori"

Day 8 (December 21, 2018)

We get an early start; eating breakfast at the house and making it to the station by 7:45AM.  Lucky us, we were going the opposite way of rush hour and arrived on the outskirts of Kyoto within 15 minutes, it was instant countryside on our short ride over to Fushimi Inari Taisha, I was really surprised by the sudden change of atmosphere! A bustling Friday rush hour in Kyoto, turned upside-down within a 15 minute train ride. There were still a few major sites to still see on our last day in Kyoto and the first stop technically never closes, so early was best for the first time in a week.  As a little back-story, on our first trip to Japan in 2010, I missed the iconic pictures of the rows of gates you tend to see in all of the Kyoto (or any traditional Japan) tourist's pictures.  It was simply a matter of overlooking the correct spots and time constrictions.  This time, it was a point I hit early while planning the agenda and came up with one defining answer, Fushimi Inari Taisha, luck would have it that going out on a crisp morning made it all that much better.

We study the maps and guides upon entry (I will admit, I didn’t do as much in depth research as I should have) and decided we only had the stamina, cold weather clothing and time to do the “short” tour, which took out climbing up the mountain trail and through the back of the property to the last set of gates.  We instead took a stroll through the rows upon rows of sponsored gates, halfway through was a stopping point to purchase and fill out a prayer plaque (aptly shaped like a fox!). Probably due to it being a Friday morning and closer to the holiday season, we had more people/tourists to contend with than in previous outings. With that in mind, Matt was irritated on more than one occasion while trying to take pictures, but myself and Terra did our best to enjoy the time we had in this area, we were finished long before Japan started to operate (10AM in case you haven’t caught that yet). Entering into a few early rising souvenir shops before leaving, most selling specialty fox charms, plushies and the like, some of the cutest items we would see the entire trip.  It was a pleasant morning as we head back to Kyoto Station at 9:15AM to hop a bus to Kiyomizu-dera and a more trying walking experience.

One of my favorite views the entire trip

We arrived at our destination with little issues, other than at Kiyomizu-dera, you get dropped at the bottom of the hill/mountain.  It made for one heck of a trek up during such a crisp morning. With it being a Friday at one of the most popular tourist spots in Kyoto, we were also greeted by droves of people, I should have known things were on a upswing from how many people were in the countryside.  The entire grounds were as breathtaking as could be, with most of the buildings either newly restored or in the process of restoration (look at those colors).  Once at the top, you are treated to some extraordinary views, there is no doubt why this is in the top 3 must visit spots for the region.  We later learn the tower (seen in the large picture above) was where mothers go to pray for a safe delivery/healthy child birth.  How mothers are expected to MAKE the trek, I am not sure.  Perhaps just being able to get to the tower to will prove you are up for the challenge of a healthy delivery!  We never made it out to that tower and instead took a stroll through the nearby grounds, to include a short walk into the cemetery area (serene and beautiful, but a few minutes there was enough for me).  After the obligatory waiting in line to drink from the stream, we were off to find lunch.  Looking back on it, I wish would could have allowed 3-4 hours at least, we took around 2 hours total without really stopping and did get to visit any of the snack/tea shops on site either.  Most of which have significant background and acclaim.

With it well into lunch time, we were all starving.  Seeing many advertisements down the nearby shopping street for Udon, we decided to be the difficult people we are and that we would eat Ramen instead.  This prompted a quick look to the Google in order to set our next destination, because, of course, there were no ramen shops nearby! After quickly picking up a few souvenirs and popping into the the first Ghibli shop we saw of the trip (there would be more to come) it was on to what was according to Google the top rated Ramen shop, but it was still all of the way in Gion and we were walking!

Trusting our lives and stomachs to Google Maps, we walked the winding path down through Kyoto where it seemed no travelers had been before. 26 minutes later, I know because Google tells me so, and we arrive at a non-descript ramen shop. I was relieved to see a classic ramen “vending” ticket machine to order from, complete with English menu and one full table in the back of the empty restaurant (we were smack between lunch and dinner time at this point).  Musoshin in the Gion district (Trip Advisor Here) was about to live up to their reputation. Within minutes, the best ramen of our lives was delivered!

With bellies full and a little bit of the afternoon left, we head for the last huge mark on my agenda for the area.  Going to Teramachi street specifically to see the Torii gate that was built before the shopping street and now juts into it based off poor construction measurements.  It was one of the oddities I saw on NHK and really wanted to see it for myself for some odd reason!  After some train switching and a lot of walking, we succeeded in finding the exact spot!  

The area on the right here goes into a second hand anime store. The owner even built his own shrine/offering to the gate intrusion as it has brought customers into his business for years now, very interesting indeed!  His prices were super fair and there were a lot of treasures just hiding in the packed store from anime series out of print for 20+ years, lucky on a weekday afternoon we had plenty of time to slowly browse, being the only customers in the shop.  Was a super fun place, the exact opposite of what Akihabara and now even Nakano have become in Tokyo (hectic and overpriced in many shops).

With the last item marked off my list of must-sees, we end up walking through the streets of Kyoto aimlessly for awhile and happened upon one of their many small playgrounds.  With Terra being horribly patient with our shrine visits all morning, not only did I reward her with some anime goods in the aforementioned shop, but a trip into the park to get some energy out as well.  Seisho Children's Park was a great little stop, it was a nice little area where we could swing, use a REAL slide and teeter-totter for a few minutes. 

I miss REAL slides!

Walking towards the nearest train station, we end back up in the middle of a shopping district, this time with a more American feel.  There was a Disney Store and other outlets abound, most of which had their own Japanese flair of merchandise. Again, we do a lot of browsing, but not much buying. With nightfall coming within an hour and packing to do, we decided to head back for the apartment via train.  We still needed dinner and I promised Terra one more visit to the arcade (we had stopped in two or three times already), so it was to Aeon mall for one last trip.  Matt was tired/busy thinking about the logistics, so myself and Terra went off to roam the mall one last night, this time by ourselves.  Always dangerous (for our wallet) in such places!  After scouring the food floor for a place Terra would actually be excited to eat at, I happen to take a second look at a location in the toy/arcade area instead.  I should have known if it was located in such a place, it was kid friendly!  We go in hesitantly as the front of the cafe was a literal hobby/train store.  Upon further inspection, someone offered to seat us at a table and we sit down to find we are in a train cafe, with real working model of Kyoto!  To include the fire festival, lighting up each mountain during our meal, it was super cool and all I could think is “Matt should be seeing this”.  I took plenty of photos and Terra was sure to rub it in his face….er….show them to him later.  She got some of those REAL octopus sausages (unlike the ones I attempt from hot dogs in the States) and I got a pretty darn good cheeseburger.  The service was slow, but the food was good and we were watching the trains anyway.  We were the only customers in the place until the end of our meal, which made me think the staff was slacking off with the service a little.

We finished the night by playing a few rounds of arcade games (Taiko and Mario Kart were becoming fast favorites and with no lines and 100yen for 2 player games, it was hard to say no).  Then back we went to finish our nightly routine, packing and sleeping for the long ride back to Tokyo in the morning.

Day 7 - Family Japan - "Nara - Todai-ji and Deer!"

Day 7 (December 20, 2018)

Realizing just how much we could realistically fit into a day by this time, we had cut our itinerary and had just two small things on the list for the day, they were both in Nara.  First, Todai-ji to see the giant Buddha statue and second, feed and play with the deer.  Giving up on breakfast out we made breakfast at the house and headed to Nara closer to 8AM to make room for roaming. The train ride from Kyoto to Nara was a solid hour, but a straight shot at least.

Arriving in the main station of Nara, not only was the "deer" theme painfully obvious, but we had the same dilemma of transportation. Bus (confusing), walking or taxi. Considering everything we had been through with each, it was a taxi once again.  This time it was at a little higher of a price, clocking in around 1,300 yen, but totally worth it to drive straight to the Nara park entrance.  We head out of the taxi and straight into the park where Todai-ji (and, of course) the deer were located.  As expected, Terra was immediately freaking out at all the "cute deer!", but I decide to be maybe a little mean to her and test her patience, so off to Todai-ji we go first.  If you have never been to Nara, the deer are EVERYWHERE.  Though most of them just walk by or stay sitting down side-eyeing you to make sure you don't have "the crackers".  I showed Terra the empty hand move as soon as we got out of the car, so every time one would look at her, she would do it.

It was pretty hilarious.

Walking to the Todai-ji entrance took about 45 minutes of easy strolling. We decided to self-tour the building (they offered tours, but I wasn't going to put Terra through that again), the entrance fee was cheap at 500 yen for the Great Buddha Hall alone (again, we opted to not visit the museum for Terra's sake). The view of the courtyard once through the massive Nandaimon Gate was serene. The building itself was entirely open to the elements, making it was a little chilly inside. The main Buddha statue was located in the back and stunningly huge, the hand was 8 feet tall alone.  Surrounding the area were various prayer candles, tithing boxes and goods for sale (which included a ton of deer related merchandise, of course).

There were also some other exhibits showing how large the complex used to be and how it was rebuilt around the statue several times after fires or other disasters, the current one being constructed in 1709 at only two thirds the size of the original.  After exiting the hall, they had small shops, gardens and shrines scattered about. We spent some time outside reading a few historic signs, making wishes on the statue and explaining to Terra what all that incense and praying was about. With it still being well before lunch, around 11AM, it was another leisurely stroll back towards, what we though was, the exit of the park. We enjoyed the scenery and even got to see some fall foliage, it was pretty late in the season so a very pleasant surprise. Enjoying the walk, we came across the Kasuganocho shrine and some other smaller complexes, I can once again highly recommend just setting time aside to get lost in the area.

After walking 45 minutes or so, we came across a small row of shops near the back of the park.  It was here that we decided to feed a small grouping of deer (there were maybe 10 in total within sight), we fed six or seven of them, with one being a little more aggressive and sticking his whole head into my coat pocket (where the crackers were for a few seconds), but overall they were simply entertaining and not dangerous at all.  It was cute and funny watching her try to feed the small one, only for it to get knocked out of the way by a larger one. We finish up here and decide to try and walk to a station and browse along the way. Turned out the station was a long ways off, we must have been walking in the wrong direction initially.  Getting stuck behind multiple gatherings of school children, and then tourists, we decided to give up and find a taxi about half-way to the station of target, this put us on the train at 12:30PM with just a snack in our stomachs. Getting back to Kyoto shortly after lunch time, we decide that this weekday afternoon would be a better time to try the tofu place I remembered from 2010 (the one we failed to eat at upon our Saturday arrival), after that today would be one of the best to get any shopping done.  We do successfully obtain the tofu lunch set!

Unfortunately, it did not hold up to the taste I had from 2010. Though the meal was presented nicely, it turned out to be mostly tasteless, small portions and super expensive compared to our other outings.  I would no longer recommend it.  We did get a pretty good view while waiting and some much needed rest of our legs during the meal at least.

Being one of our last full days in Kyoto and still pretty early, we decide on going up Kyoto tower (directly across from Kyoto station, in which we were dining). It was only 3PM, so we would have plenty of time to go up, get a view and some pictures and then scoot back over to the other side of Kyoto for some shopping. Once we got inside, it was more obvious why there weren't more people around. The view wasn’t very grand as the day had become cloudy and misty, but we had fun going up to the top and doing the tourist thing anyway. One of those “while in Kyoto you must do” sort of things rather than a highlight of our journey. We grabbed a few neat souvenirs from the shop (one being a Kyoto Tower/Boku no Hero Academia file folder) and moved on.

Going back to the Pokemon center first, as we were begged by Terra to pick up (what we now knew) the exclusive Pikachu hime doll plushies and browse around for a bit. We stop into Animate and a few other stores, but leave without buying much. There were also a lot of Christmas decorations to admire on display.  This included a NYC Macy's style window display, Terra stopped and watched the train going around for some time.  Very busy with a lot of sites to see, but we gave up early and hopped in a taxi to get back to the mall across from the house. Taking a little bit of time in the mall we get some delicious crepes at a shop we walked past several times and actually shopped together for dinner for a change, getting back by our self-imposed curfew of 7PM.  The next day would be our last in Kyoto and we had two huge things to mark off the list, both Fushimi Inari and Kiyomizu-dera.  Lucky for us, Fushimi Inari was a rare breed that it had no “hours”, so we planned to get a super early start.

Day 6 - Family Japan - "Hime-ji, Oden and Relaxing"

Day 6 (December 19, 2018)

I woke up surprised by the fact I could even walk, not only that, but I was only in a little bit of "over-walking" pain. Getting a good amount of sleep was certainly helping, but I cannot recommend enough to "train" a little before such a heavy walking trip and proper nutrition. We were being sure to eat regularly and I was drinking tea in the morning and night with herbal boosters. With a good start, there was only one major goal in sight, Hime-ji castle. I had some "side" things on the agenda depending on how it went, but Hime-ji castle was the only true target.  We took it a bit slower than previous days, grabbing breakfast at a local cafe named Nakayama in Kyoto Station (which turned out to be a salad with half a boiled egg, I wouldn't recommend it) we hop on a train to Hime-ji and arrive after 45 minutes.  The weather was a decent partly cloudy and 50F or so, as it had been most days thus far.  Far better than the low 40's and rain experienced on our last visit in 2010.

Hime-ji came into view immediately after exiting the station.  Weighing a few options (walking, bus or taxi), we decided on a taxi. After crunching the numbers, it turned out most bus fares for short distances equaled the same as a taxi when you are paying for 2 adults and a child (600 yen vs 800-1,000 yen). The taxi ride down the main road of Hime-ji took less than 5 minutes, leaving us to walk up to the castle around 12:30PM.  Doing a ton of research online before leaving, it looked like English tours were no longer offered.  I scoured multiple yelp reviews, travel reviews and official tourist sites and never found a trace of information on them. However, to my surprise, it turned out they were still in full swing!  They had people holding signs out front of where you buy your normal tickets, then you go into a little office they have set up out front to "sign up" for the English tour.  Which, comically, was given by an old Japanese man that kept forgetting his English words.

It costs 1,000 yen per adult for the English tour, on top of the normal admission cost of 1,040 yen, but I still found it to be worth it (kids get in at about half that rate), there was only one other couple on the same tour as us, so we got to ask plenty of questions. It lasted about 2 hours and was great overall experience, I really enjoyed seeing the restored version of the castle, there were a lot of things changed and improved upon from our 2010 tour. Being one of the only remaining original castles left in Japan, I would recommend it to anyone with their eye on true historic sites. The English tour covered the basics of architecture, how some of the restoration was done and what the castle looked like originally before being modified and open to tourists, they also had some artifacts and displays inside of original armor, weapons and more. Traveling with a kid, I "lost" Terra about half-way through and struggled to entertain her a few times, but it was well worth it and she made it (walking the entire time) without too much complaining.  The white restored exterior was dazzling, completely different than the looked in 2010 (the previous restoration was going on 50 years at that point).

Though our castle experience was satisfying, we were still reluctant to leave the castle grounds without touring the garden or getting to some of the photo spots I had earmarked before coming. However, by this time, we hadn’t eaten lunch yet and were STARVING.  As soon as we left the castle ground and crossed the street, we happened across a small izakaya named Legare (located on the second floor of a shopping building), it was empty at this odd time of day. They had some great food, but I did get the impression the server thought we were a bit crazy ordering unagi for the 6 year old, but at this point, she deserved it to eat whatever she wanted.  I got my Hime-ji oden and Matt got a katsudon.  Everything was excellent and we headed out with renewed energy.

Deciding most of the "side" things wouldn't happen, as it was already 4:30PM and the sun was starting to go down, we started walking back towards the station.  I still wanted to find the "Hime-ji oden cake", which I had the address to through some hunting down after seeing it on an NHK program and doing some online research.  Turned out they were located smack dab in the middle of a shopping arcade and we actually found it!
Grabbing some to go (I would save this for a train snack on the way back to Kyoto), we continued a slow walk through the main shopping areas of Himeji, browsing into a few stores and happening across an arcade.  A few Taiko games and one UFO prize (the "kitty" from Wreck-it-Ralph as a keychain plush) later we decide to actually head back to Kyoto, trying to get her to sleep at a more normal time that the previous two nights didn't afford. The town and atmosphere of Hime-ji had me taking a few more deep breaths to take it all in.  This day was definitely a slower pace and more purposeful than our trip had been thus far.  I very much enjoy the way this castle town is laid out in a thoughtful labyrinth of streets, shopping arcades and malls. Everything literally surrounds the castle, I understood why there are so many bridal stores and boutiques in the area, I could only imagine having a ceremony down one of these streets with Hime-ji castle as the backdrop!

Once back, I decide on a grocery shopping trip to get eggs and other breakfast food. On my way to the mall from Kyoto Station, I tried to pay a little more attention to the surroundings, people, advertisements. It's all laid out to be "normal", I think people simply overlook how ingenious most of it is set up, the infrastructure is a complete 180 from the mish-mash seen stateside, even the advertisements are less annoying and more entertaining (I love stair advertising, we saw this a few times). I get the shopping accomplished in less time than before and then head out with some McDonalds for the kiddo's dinner and a bento for us, quickly becoming my go-to dinner.  I once again head back on my own, though sadly, it was raining this time! I learned to just keep an umbrella on me after this, even if rain wasn't in the forecast. I walked a little faster than previous trips and end up in the apartment door within 5 minutes.  No fear of being followed and nothing more besides a bit irritated at the sudden rain.  This time the kiddo is asleep by 8PM and I can get some thoughts on paper and a few episodes of anime in before heading to bed myself, score.