Day 4 - Ghibli Museum and Tokyo Skytree

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Had the hotel buffet breakfast again before leaving at 8:30. We reached Ghibli Museum just before opening time at 10am. Ghibli tickets sell out within an hour or so. They go on sale for a month on the first day of that month at 10am. I had registered but even though I logged in at that time, I was still customer 3,000 plus in the queue. The queue moved quickly and I got on after about 45 minutes, but by then, the days we are in Tokyo were already sold out. I then googled and found out Klook and Trip.com sell them. I already knew about Klook but the price is outrageous, at bout $90 each. Normal prices are just $10 for adults, $1 for toddlers. I paid $130 for ours, so $90 extra, but at $40 each it was still good value, as it was a great museum and for foreigners an easier way, if not the only way to get tickets. The museum is purpose built and designed in the style of Ghibli and is an attraction in itself. We didn't leave until 13:00 and took our first bus ride back to Kichijoji Station.

Our next stop was the Shimo-kitazawa area which is a Bohemian area with lots of second-hand clothing and cafes. We had afternoon tea at Mr Donuts which was recommended by a friend of Krissy's. Shimo-kitazawa was a bit underwhelming, although Daisy did buy a pair of shoes. Perhaps it was because we live in Newtown, a pretty Bohemian part of the world already, so it wasn't anything different to us.



We then went straight to Tokyo Skytree, scrapping the planned visit to the nearby Senso-ji Temple. Just as well, because there were a lot of people lining up. As we had a pre-paid ticket we managed to get through quicker, but by the time we reached the top, the sun was almost set. The smog obscured the last few minutes. We did enjoy the night views of Tokyo but not the crowd. Way to packed for our liking. We took just as long, if not longer, to get back down. We took Oscar to the Pokemon Center shop in the Skytree shops and ended up having dinner at Din Tai Fung. Then decided to catch a bus home for a change. We've discovered it's just a flat $2.20 per ride on Tokyo buses and it stopped even closer to our hotel and we didn’t have to change trains twice. So a much easier journey home.

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Comments

[Graeme Sandstrom]

Wow Ray -you are e keeping everyone on there toes. I’m getting tired just reading it! What a great holiday!

[ozray]

Driving
Krissy is doing the driving but only the one day in Kawaguchuchiko.