Today we had to leave Disney, and head to the City of Tokyo. We were hopeful that we would be able to get our luggage delivered to our AirBnB, but unfortunately it takes a day…. And we didn’t pack the way we should have to just leave one bag and let the rest come the next day so we had to think of an alternative plan. After some discussion we decided to leave our luggage at the Disney Ambassador Hotel where we staying, head to our destinations of the day.
It was pouring rain this morning, and we had to get breakfast and Lola was not successful getting a breakfast buffet reservation. Unfortunately we couldn’t get through the mall, so we had to walk outside. We got soaked by the time we got to the restaurant. We were all excited to try the McDonald’s at breakfast. The manager came to make sure we meant to order a sandwich without the bun. AA and DD tried the Teriyaki McMuffin. They said it wasn’t too bad. Turner wasn’t doing too well, and seemed to be breaking out in a rash, so we stopped at the little convince store before heading on the train to Tokyo. The lady was super helpful and even had a children’s antihistamine and B an umbrella.
We got to the Station which was in between the our hotel and Disneyland. We talked to a person to figure out what tickets to get, and headed to Ueno Station where the Tokyo National Museum and Zoo were off of.
Once at the Museum we went around on the 2 floors learning about Japan treasures. It was amazing the range of artifacts, and the age of some of them. They had an arrow head from 3500 BC. There were also many of the stuff was from the 4th-10th century. We couldn’t believe how some of the stuff was just separated by you and a rope, and people respected it. There were items in the museum that were Important Cultural Property and others that you couldn’t take photos because they were likely owned by a private person or sacred property. There was art, swords, scrolls and maps. There were different sections that definitely had more interest of some than others, and it switched between all of them.
After we explored, Lola found a Japanese restaurant right outside called Yurinoki. We had to separate but we all enjoyed our first really cultural Japanese meals. Lola had the fried rice while Adam had a plate of variety. The kids had spaghetti and sauce and pork cutlet, while DD had a bento box, and MbMell had tempura and Udon Soup. AA even had some weird sweet bean soup, which has balls of white things that he thought was interesting.
We walked to the zoo after lunch where we had a great afternoon seeing the animals at the first modern zoo in Japan. It opened in 1882. Our legs were still pretty tired. They have over 300 species and we did not get to see them all. They had a large variety of animals. Highlights included a very small tiger, lots of interesting birds, 4 giant pandas, 2 polar bears, penguins and the most interesting small animal house, where we saw bushbabys, aardvarks and kangaroo rats that bounced so far. B was disappointed we missed the Vivarium by 2 minutes. We also got to see the baby Gorilla that actually celebrated its 2nd birthday today. An older Japanese man told us, and we saw later on a sign that it was actually May 31st! We didn’t have enough time to finish, but missed all the African animals, but that was ok.
We then headed back to Disney to get our luggage and try and make our way to our AirBnB. The train ride was pretty uneventful. Once back at Maihama Station at Disneyland Tokyo, we stopped for dinner. Lola found a Hawaiian Restaurant called Kaila, that she was pretty sure she could eat at. That wasn’t the case, but the staff tried really hard to get her something she could eat, and she ended up having a Hawaiian salad that consisted of smoked salmon, avocado and tomatoes. Everyone enjoyed their food and Longboard beer, even though we didn’t know we were supposed to use the QR code on the table to order, it it all worked out.
We walked back to the Ambassador Hotel to retrieve our bags and go to the washroom. Then all the way back to the station (this took about 30 minutes). Once at the station we bought our tickets and got on the train. We were to transfer and get on another train line at Ichikawashiohama Station, but once we got to the transfer the trains were so full and we each had a piece of luggage. We tried to split up (2 adults to 1 child ratio) but that still didn‘t work to get on. It was way too crowded. We tried for 2 trains and no success, so we ended up ordering a 2 taxis from the station and successfully made it to the Airbnb. T slept in the taxi with MBMell and DD while B and Lola looked out the window the whole time, as we got closer and closer to sky tree tower.
We got the kids to bed, and unpacked at our Airbnb. It is a very interesting set up, and 2 sets of stairs on 3 levels. Our body’s are sore and going up and down the stairs is a little difficult. Kids were happy to have their own beds in their own room, and the adults were happy to have a slightly larger beds and seperate rooms as we have been sleeping very close to each other in the other hotel. We settled in, made a plan for tomorrow and went to bed.
Another full day of walking tomorrow. Our legs and bodies are so tired.
Lola
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