Hit and Run - Japan

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Hit and Run, six countries, one month, two girls!

We had one month of school for winter break. A whole month to explore Asia. After looking at a lot of different routes and working out the best financially Val and I decided to do Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, The Philippines, Taiwan and Japan.

We are in Tokyo!! Nine whole days in Tokyo!

I have always wanted to go to Tokyo, mainly because I would love to ski there. I didn't get to do that this trip but Tokyo was amazing.

As mentioned before I'm a big Disney fan and Tokyo has a Disney so for the first four and a half days of our trip to Tokyo, I went there. The first two days Val joined me and we spent time going on the rides, taking photos and meeting characters. It was so cold at night. We were both freezing. On the third day I went alone and completed the rides Val and I hadn't managed to do.

There are two parks Disney Land and Disney Sea. On the fourth and fifth day I went to Disney Sea. It was a park aimed for generally older people. The roller coasters were here and other rides that wouldn't be suitable for younger children. On the first day I got as many rides in as possible leaving only three for the next day. For one ride I got a fast past ticket that allows you to queue jump at a certain time of the day. I had to queue for the other two rides, 100 minutes each! Luckily I had my kindle to read while waiting. The rides were definitely worth the wait.

Tokyo was the third Disney I have visited and my favourite, especially Tokyo Sea.

After visiting Disney we changed hotels so we were closer to the city. Our hotel in the city was actually in a camping show room. We were given a tent and a sleeping bag that were in the show room and told we had to be out by 11am when the open and couldn't come back until 6pm when they shut. They did have a lounge area upstairs that consisted of a few camping chairs we could use during the day.

When we arrived there were people asking questions as you checked in and at first we didn't think anything of it. That was until we were asked if they could interview us for Japanese News. There was going to be a segment on tourists in Tokyo and where they are staying. Obviously our hotel being a camping shop people were curious as to why we were staying there.

The next day they interviewed us again in the morning, wanting to know about our first night here. We were then asked if the interviewer could follow us around and film us during the day. We agreed and off we all went. We went to the Pokèmon Center and all the time were being recorded and asked questions. We then went to an anime shop. After buying us a drink and the reporter left us there. It was mid-afternoon now and we were both tired. We headed back to our tents. Val went up to the lounge and had a rest, I went out to a local market and had a look around buying some food while I was out.

We were staying near the river and the Tokyo Sky Tree Tower so on our second day we walked along the river heading in the direction of the tower. When we arrived we went to the 33rd floor the highest you can go without paying an entrance fee. At around mid-afternoon we had some lunch and Val headed back to the hostel, neither of us were sleeping well. I decided to stay and look around some more of the shops. It was while I was doing that, that I realised that even though I may come back to Japan again i may never be able to do the tower all the way again. So I bought my ticket and went up. The Sky Tree Tower is 634meters high and the tallest in the world. I was so happy I did it. The view was amazing. Seeing Tokyo from so high up in the dark with all the lights on made it worth it. It was great.

The next day was our last day however we spent it apart. Val had gone to a temple while I was at Disney one day and I really wanted to go and see it. I walked to the Senso-ji. The temple, also known as Asakusa Temple, is Tokyo's oldest and most popular Buddhist temple. It is said to have been established in 628AD. I then decided to get brunch in the market. I bought a few different items from different stalls. I then walked to the National History Museum which was in Ueno Park, Tokyo's most popular outdoor space. When I arrived at the park I saw the sign for the zoo. I love zoos and had read Tokyo's was good so I changed my mind and headed for the zoo, it was shut. So I headed towards the Museum again, which was also shut. I then saw the Science and Nature Museum so spent my afternoon there. I walked back to the hotel stopping for food on the way.

We had three days in Tokyo and even though we did a lot there is still so much left to do and I know I'll definitely be going back to Japan and Tokyo.

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