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Published: March 26th 2008
Sydney airport
finally on our way All trips have their preparation, and ours was certainly no exception.
At long last on Sunday 23rd March, 2008; we were finally away. Albert was the stand out performer on the first day. The poor chap was apprehensive on take-offs; the main presenting symptoms being white knuckes, pallor of color and a look of fear on his face. The kids in general loved the long flight - being wined and dined while they watched movies.
After a long days travel we arrived at Sawanoya Ryokan about 2100 (local time). Slept well.
Our first day we woke to a rainy day, and ventured our way into Tokyo. We went to the Sony building to look at the latest in electronic gadgets. The weather won, and we went back to our ryokan early, a bit cold and wet.
Tuesday (our second day in Tokyo), was a great day. We began at the Tsukiji Fish Market, this is the largest fish market in Japan, and considering the country lives on seafood, has an enormous amount of fish through daily.
Next, the Mori building at Roppongi Hills. The 52nd floor here has an observation floor
Tokyo at Night
Electric corner with great views over the city.
We then subway-ed into the middle of the city and walked to the Imperial Palace. This is surrounded by a huge moat. While we were admiring the view, some large fish swam up to us. After feeding them Tim Tam crumbs we then saw the sign outlawing this. Whoops.
That night we dined in town, mainly because we wanted to look at the 'electical corner' as we call it, at night time. This is the major intersection where all the buildings light up at night like a Christmas tree.
Today we went to Tokyo Disneyland. The 26th of March will always have a special meaning in my heart for the rest of my life, for it is the day where Japanese children have a spring holiday. It must be a new national tradition that they all must flock to the nearest American theme park. The place was packed .
You attend these places knowing that you will have to wait in line for a ride, but queing to enter a cafeteria does not go down well.
The day had its moments, but was mainly fun. We went
Spider Sculpture
Mori Tower Roppongi Hills to a few shows and watched the Street Parade.
The subway system here is massive. It is actually quite easy to work out, by far the hardest thing to work out is which ticket to buy. Without the aid of English speaking foreign legion coming to our aid we would probably still be there now staring at the ticket machine. Today Vinny from Brazil was our saviour.
The final word for the day is about......vending machines. They are absolutely everywhere, with a wide range of merchandise to be had. For 100 yen (about 1 aussie dollar) the kids can buy a can of HOT chocolate in a can , or if they push the wrong button I may end up with a cold Japanese Malt beer.
Sayonara.
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The Harrop's
non-member comment
great start
Looks like a great start. never mind the weather as it is cold and rainy here with snow in the hills. Japan must be a real eye opener, that electric corner is the one they show on most tv shots of tokyo, a rival to time square in NY that you will see later. keep it up and we'll keep watching. Bruce,Sheryl and kids