Week 1 - Tokyo

Week 1 (2 - 5 Dec)

We arrived in Tokyo after about 9 hours flight from Sydney.  The girls were fantastic on the flight although didn’t think much of airline food (such discerning food critics and yes even with a celebrity chef’s name on the packaging the output still tastes synthetic and bland).  We flew into Narita Airport, arrived at about 4.30pm and caught the Express JR train to Shinjuku – which took about 90 mins (thank goodness we didn’t get a taxi).  When we arrived at Shinjuku station (the busiest in the world) it was absolutely freezing (about 6 degrees) but luckily we only had a 3 mins walk to the Century Southern Tower Hotel.  At A$225p/n, the hotel was lovely, big rooms for Tokyo, no minibar or room service but very comfortable and clean.  At about 4am we woke to an earth tremor and the room moving (just a little but enough to wake you – bit freaky at 24 stories above the ground).  Apparently this happens every few days somewhere in Japan – which is comforting!

Tokyo is huge with some saying it’s the largest city in the world.  The city covers 618 square kms and has a population of 17 million people during the day it certainly isn’t small.  It’s also so spaced out that I’m not sure you could stay anywhere that’s perfect for everything.  In the morning, having caught a train to Tokyo station and having spent an hour walking around looking for the Marinuchi Building hoping to grab something to eat, I was wondering why on earth I’d dragged the family all this way.  The objective was to see the Imperial Gardens but as it was raining so hard we had to stay underground (which is fine as that’s were all the shops and entrances to the food and shopping areas are).  Apart from not really knowing our way around we also discovered that not much opened until about 11 or 12 o’clock.  Eventually a lovely Japanese woman asked if she could help us and walked us the 100 metres to the entrance.  We had our Sushi and headed home.

The next day the rain had gone and so we headed off again to see the Imperial Palace and gardens.  I’m not sure if we saw the palace.  There were a number of buildings but access to all was forbidden on the day we were there.  The gardens are large and we spent a good couple of hours wandering around.  Big A could see Tokyo Tower in the distance so we headed off on foot (for the next 5 hours).  They say that guys have difficulty with measurements often thinking that things are “longer” and “bigger” than they actually are…well not Big A.  It would have been fine if we didn’t have Middle and Little A’s chants of “I’m starving” to contend with.  Who teaches kids that when hungry, bypass the word “hungry” and go straight for “starving”?  Kids bellies really do change your priorities when you travel.  I’m a foodie but Big A isn’t so eating is always a negotiation between always and never. Luckily for me, when it comes to eating, it’s 3 : 1,  (Big A would say he’s outnumbered on a lot of other things too!).   On this occasion though, Big A won out.

During the 5 hour walk and constant “I’m starving” chants we at least managed to get a bit of sight seeing in and covered off not only the Imperial Gardens but also Tokyo Tower (built to resemble the Eiffel Tower) and the Senso-ji, the most famous Buddist temple in Asakusa where we asked for good-luck in the incense sticks the kids burned and coins they tossed.  Asakusa is also home to Tokyo’s oldest geisha district with 45 active working geisha – but we didn’t see any unfortunately.  The walk also gave us the opportunity to see some pretty fantastic local areas and the contrast of seeing a brand new Bentley parked outside a traditional Japanese townhouse.  Popped into KFC (as you do) and the girls had a photo taken with two Harajuku girls which was fantastic as I just find their style so beautiful. That night we went for a walk around the local area behind the First Kitchen which is across from Shinjuku Station (west exit) and the Luminer shopping centre. I was keen for us to eat “locally” and of course we were on a budget.  So we ended up eating at a traditional noodle bar.  Middle A was particularly interested in how they cooked and served the noodles which was a bit like watching my old grandmother wash the laundry 30 years ago in a big old boiler.   So we got our noodles and broth and then we had to add our “cold” tempura sides. It all sounds ok but the A’s were not happy.  I added soy, shallots and chili to mine but they had theirs plan which made them bland.  The broiled pork cutlet was the highlight for them – which even when writing this, just doesn’t sound right (which might explain why I didn’t order it)!   In addition to the cold tempura vegies and unflavoured noodles the kids were also struggling to eat their noodles with chopsticks – very funny for me but not so much for them. Perhaps this is what made the pork the highlight as it’s the only thing they really ate.  Big A has declared that it is the worst meal he’s ever eaten (and that includes a specialty served up by his dad of microwaved mince with a raw egg in the middle).

On the last day we went for a walk to Yoyogi Park (but it was closed) and Shinjuku Gyoen where the girls played for a couple of hours.  We were short of Yen so couldn’t do much and headed to the airport about 5 hours early.  

In summary I am glad we went to Tokyo and would go back there but it really feels like a city you’d appreciate more if you had money and were more familiar with the geography and language.  Off to Hawaii….

Big A’s Perspective “

Ha…the flight to Tokyo would have been a delight for the Child Bride….I had the 2 girls next to me and she had a seat on her own!!!

As for Tokyo…I considered it to be big city that was clean with very few homeless and little graffiti….and the people are lovely and very courteous.

I am not in love with Japanese food but am subjected to it enough via the local sushi train to at least be OK with it….but ‘real’ Japanese food is not sushi train food…I found it very difficult to find decent Japanese food at a reasonable price that didn’t taste like dirty old underpants.

The Imperial Palace gardens were great …although you can’t go ‘inside’ the palace …unlike some of the other great palaces of the world which was a little disappointing but overall it was still impressive.

Tokyo has a great train transport system…..but for a travelling family is relatively expensive even with a strong Aussie dollar and when we visited it was cold and wet which didn’t help the overall impression….so overall I though it  offered little for a family with small kids….i’d only go back without kids….as for the  Harajuku girls…what the????