Sep 2018 holiday - Ghibli Museum

Finally, we had good weather in Tokyo!

Was searching for a sure-get way to order the Ghibli Museum tickets, and found this 3-in-1 museum tour on Klook.

We started off with a buffet lunch at the spectacular Hotel Gajoen Tokyo, which supposedly was the inspiration for one of the Ghibli films. The hotel was very traditional, grand and beautiful. It's highlight, the washroom!

This is the entrance to the washroom!

Inside the washroom

Ceiling of the washroom

Lobby

Aaron took this photo of us before we were ready ....

The buffet lunch was excellent too. Good start to the day, besides having good weather!

Next, the highlight of the day - Ghibli Museum. And I finally understood why I've never seen photos of friends in the museum - coz you're not allowed to take photos inside! I guess if they'd allowed visitors to take photos, it'll be really hard to control the human traffic, and visitors will not be able to enjoy the various exhibits and move faster.

So we took whatever we could outside.

The memory and experience of being in the museum was worth a lot more than any photos. For the kids, they were lucky that they were young enough to be able to get on the cat bus! Was really fun for them.

The last museum on the itinerary - the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum, where we saw artefacts and buildings from the Edo period.

Sep 2018 holiday - Mt Fuji

We'd heard from many people that one has to be very lucky to be able to see Mt Fuji, from anywhere. We were hopeful anyway, when we booked (1 month ahead) this day trip from klook.com. it's supposed to bring us all the way to Mt Fuji 5th station, with a few stops on the way:

- fruit picking and eating at Yamanashi Prefecture Sightseeing Orchard

- Kawaguchi Lakeside Park to see flowers

- lunch at Lakeside Restaurant

- Mt Kachi Kachi Ropeway

- Mt Fuji 5th station

Of course, we didn't expect there to be a typhoon sweeping across Japan during the first few days we were there. So the Mt Fuji trip turned out to be quite a washout. Our tour guide tried her best to enable us to see Mt Fuji by swapping the program around. We tried to go up to the 5th station first, while the weather was still friendly. But turned out, the roads were closed. So we ended up at the Mt Fuji Museum instead.

Then we took the cable car up to Mt Kachi Kachi Ropeway. 

This was the view we got:

We tried to make the most out of it ...

At one point, the clouds started to shift very quickly, revealing a bit of sun, and the colors of the towns below the mountain. We thought perhaps the sky will clear up and we could go up to the 5th station.

Unfortunately, that hope was short-lived. Dark clouds started coming in again, and the drizzle became heavy drops of rain.

We then went for lunch at the Lakeside Restaurant. We were served Houtou noodles, famous udon of the Yamanashi Prefecture. Was a bit like ban mian.

Next was fruit picking. Again, because of the typhoon, we couldn't go out to pick fruits. Instead, the orchard prepared loads of grapes for us to eat - as much as we could.

Final destination was the Kawaguchi Lakeside Park. That's probably a very pretty place, if the weather was good. Not so nice when we had to walk in the rain, with strong winds blowing!

  

The wind was so strong that it destroyed Aaron's umbrella!

So that was our Mt Fuji day trip. Better luck next time, hopefully.

We rounded off the evening by going to Shibuya, for more sneaker shopping! The winds were so strong, we felt we were going to be blown off at times!

It was quite an experience to be out there in the typhoon. But when we got back to the hotel, we saw on the news that what we'd experienced was really very mild. The typhoon in Osaka that day was so fierce that it caused massive destructions all over, and the Kansai airport had to be shut down because an ocean tanker hit and damaged the bridge that connects the airport to the mainland. We thank God that we were in Tokyo and not Osaka!

Sep 2018 holiday - Tsukiji Market + Harajuku

The rescheduled Tsukiji Market trip ... on a cloudy morning.

We started off with a yummy breakfast at the hotel.

Walking from the subway station to the market, Aaron spotted this cute little car, which he thinks is perfect him!

Entrance

1st thing we ate was grilled wagyu beef! Soooo good! Daddy also bought an $8 (!!!) skewer of fruits, which we forgot to take a photo of.

After walking around a bit, we went into a restaurant for lunch. Aaron had his fill of salmon sushi, while Daddy and I satisfied our craving for super fresh sashimi and sushi. Nadine was the most unadventurous - she had udon. And that's why we had to go into a restaurant with variety.

After lunch, we made our way to the Panasonic Center in the Odaiba area. Very far away. It's supposed to have lots of interactive activities for kids, and a Nintendo game area. But we didn't realise that the Center is closed on Mondays! Wasted trip, but we got to see Tokyo Bay, the port, the Rainbow Bridge, and other sights that we'd not have seen if we haven't gone all the way. Too bad it was a rainy day. Otherwise we would have gone to take the Palette Town Ferris Wheel.

We headed to Harajuku next, starting at the famous Takeshita Dori.

Daddy's mission for this trip - sneaker shopping. He was so pleased when we found the famous atmos! 

The rest of the afternoon was walking from 1 interesting shop to another, and sneaker shopping, as well spotting cute little cartoon figures and mascots in and outside shops.

We ended the day with ramen dinner in a quaint little shop before heading back to the hotel. Super tired from a full day of walking!

Sep 2018 holiday - Sumida Aquarium & Tokyo Skytree

After a good night's rest, we were ready to venture out.

We had planned to go to Tsukiji Fish Market. Thankfully, there was a tourist office at the Ueno subway station, where we went to enquire for directions; and the staff there told us that most of the shops are closed on Sundays!

So we decided to go to Tokyo Skytree and Sumida Aquarium.

There are many aquariums in Tokyo. Sumida is not one of the biggest or most impressive, but one of the most convenient. Still we got to see some interesting aquatic life, such as these worms.

But we spent less than 1 hour in the aquarium.

We went for lunch after that. Found a nice Japanese restaurant where Aaron had his fill of salmon sushi.

Next was the Skytree. Nadine was too scared to go up - claimed she was scared of heights. So Daddy brought Aaron up, while I stayed at the mall to have ice-cream with Nadine.

Just like the Eiffel Tower, there are different levels that visitors can go to at the Skytree ... and tickets prices differ for various decks too. Daddy and Aaron went up to  Floor 350, and here's the view:

We spent the rest of the time shopping at the huge Solamachi Mall next to the Skytree, before heading back to Ueno.

Daddy was very determined to find the yakiniku restaurant we saw on a Tokyo food program on Netflix. We walked down Ameyoko Street a couple of times before deciding that we probably can't find that particular restaurant, and should settle for an alternative. So we did. Still yakiniku, and extremely satisfying. First time Nadine ate so much beef! And we were too hungry to take photos!

Sep 2018 holiday - Tokyo: accommodation

Our first family vacation of the year (not counting church camp).

We're back to one of our favourite countries - Japan. This time, we decided to stay in Tokyo for a whole week and take our time to explore the place.

My Tokyo resident colleague recommended a lovely "social complex hotel" - Hotel Graphy Nezu at Ueno. It was a fantastic suggestion. A bit like a hostel, a bit like an AirBnB, a bit like a hotel. For a Tokyo hotel, the room was really big and spacious. And we love the hippie community feel, with excellent service.

We had deluxe room with 2 beds that were just nice for 4 of us.

The hotel was situated in the middle of a nice, quiet, middle-class neighbourhood; and within walking distance of shops, small restaurants (which we said we wanted to try but didn't get to), subway station, Ueno Park and museums (again, didn't get to go to any of them), as well as the Ameya-Yokocho shopping street.

Highly recommend this hotel for anyone who wants a spacious room in Tokyo, and a homey hotel experience!