Since we had already seen the great view of Mount Fuji, we decided to forego our original plans (another view of the mountain) due to the weather. We ended up being really lucky that we arrived so early the afternoon before - we could barely even see the mountain that morning (there was a view from the hostel). We felt bad for all the others there who weren't going to be able to see it properly - it's a very long way to come and not see Mount Fuji.
Anyway, we left around noon and had lunch at one of the train stations where we switched trains. There was this great, tiny ramen shop, exactly the type we love: You put your money in a machine, select what you want, get a ticket, and come to the counter. Within 4 minutes you have your food, and it is way healthier than any fast food we can get back home!
We arrived in Tokyo fairly early, but we were pretty beat from the long way there. Our hotel is really nice, but it just confirms our opinions that hostels are a million times better than hotels. They are just so much homier, it's great fun getting to know other people and hear about their travels, and there is loads of advice plastered all over the walls, not to mention the great staff that is really knowledgeable about the area.
Our hotel is located in a great place, just two stops from Tokyo Station (think Grand Central Station, but tons bigger and way more confusing, and not because of the Japanese). As it turns out, this area is the #1 spot in Tokyo for books, and the Klein Perez family loves books, so we just walked a bit among the shops and just had a lot of calm fun. It was raining and too late to really see anything, plus we had spent a lot of time in Tokyo on our last trip, so there wasn't anything major we still wanted to see.
The next morning, it was supposed to rain, so we split up to keep Sophie dry: Rony took her to this amazing indoor playground for kids, called Children's Palace) where she had an amazing time. Ordinarily, Talia would have given up the camera so that Rony could take pics of Sophie playing, however she went to the Penis Festival in Kawasaki, and if you don't have a pictures, it didn't happen.
You read right. The Festival of the Steel Phallus, to be precise. It's one of the last remaining fertility festivals in Japan. It's located in Kawasaki, about 25 minutes outside of Tokyo. The festival is actually a lot smaller than we expected it to be, but it was definitely worth the trip for Talia (and definitely not for Rony and Sophie).
Right when you arrive at the shrine (yeah, the festival takes place at a place of worship, which, by the way, also has a kindergarden), you are greeted by this nice guy:
They have all kinds of stands there, selling penis whistles and bandanas with reproductive organs on them, and also carving competitions:
Best of all, tons of candy! Really expensive candy, which originally I wanted to buy for work, but it was way too expensive.
Then the parade began, and Talia had a great spot. This was her favorite float, because it's lead by some really awesome and really creepy-looking ladies.
After the festival, Talia returned to the hotel to find Sophie and Rony trying to sleep. 15 minutes later, having given up, we all went to the Imperial Palace gardens, located fairly close to our hotel.
The palace itself is not only closed to the public, but can't be viewed, but the park itself is gorgeous, and this is a famous bridge:
We saw Israelis there, so we pretended not to understand, as usual. Someone overheard us talking, though, and she apparently spied on us, but we did not surrender any information!
Exhausted from so much activity that day, we made our way back to the hotel and decided to splurge on some nice, homemade McDonald's! As Rony and Sophie waited for Talia to arrive, Sophie received yet another gift - one of the McDonald's Happy Meals toys! Boy, have we been getting a lot of gifts!
We all fainted into bed, and the following morning, Talia took Sophie to the Children's (petting) Zoo and Rony went book shopping for himself. Or, at least, the plan was to go to the Children's Zoo, but as know on this trip, any correlation between our plans and what happens is purely coincidental.
Sophie fell asleep literally after we got off the Subway, so we sat in the park outside the zoo to let her sleep (a tired baby is an annoying baby, you can quote us on that one). Outside the zoo was a really great playground, and when Sophie woke up, her eyes shot open in so many directions so quickly that Talia thought they would seriously come out of their sockets.
As it turns out, the Children's Zoo was closed that day, but the playground itself was really fun, and Sophie was just going crazy on all the different contraptions. "This! This!" So Talia would take her there after literally three seconds, she would shriek and then point in a different direction, "This! This!" It was tons of fun, but incredibly exhausting.
After the playground, we went shopping! We went to the famous 100 Yen Store, Daiso, near Harajuku station, which is 3 floors of awesome, and then walked up and down Omotesando searching for awesome presents for our families, of which we found none. However, we did make it to Kiddie Town, a 6 (!!!) floor toy store that had an AnPanMan doll, which Sophie loves, and that alone made it worth it. She plays with it all the time! There is an entire floor dedicated to Hello Kitty and one for Snoopy, and boy, is that place incredible.
Our next and final stop that afternoon was a kids store where we bought Sophie her first pair of shoes. She's been wanting to walk a lot here, and the leather soft-sole shoes weren't cutting it anymore. We also replaced a couple items that we lost along the way. :-)
Here are the pictures from our first couple of days in Tokyo: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152718156235364.1073741836.906005363&type=1#!/media/set/?set=a.10152716081785364.1073741835.906005363&type=3
Anyway, we left around noon and had lunch at one of the train stations where we switched trains. There was this great, tiny ramen shop, exactly the type we love: You put your money in a machine, select what you want, get a ticket, and come to the counter. Within 4 minutes you have your food, and it is way healthier than any fast food we can get back home!
We arrived in Tokyo fairly early, but we were pretty beat from the long way there. Our hotel is really nice, but it just confirms our opinions that hostels are a million times better than hotels. They are just so much homier, it's great fun getting to know other people and hear about their travels, and there is loads of advice plastered all over the walls, not to mention the great staff that is really knowledgeable about the area.
Our hotel is located in a great place, just two stops from Tokyo Station (think Grand Central Station, but tons bigger and way more confusing, and not because of the Japanese). As it turns out, this area is the #1 spot in Tokyo for books, and the Klein Perez family loves books, so we just walked a bit among the shops and just had a lot of calm fun. It was raining and too late to really see anything, plus we had spent a lot of time in Tokyo on our last trip, so there wasn't anything major we still wanted to see.
The next morning, it was supposed to rain, so we split up to keep Sophie dry: Rony took her to this amazing indoor playground for kids, called Children's Palace) where she had an amazing time. Ordinarily, Talia would have given up the camera so that Rony could take pics of Sophie playing, however she went to the Penis Festival in Kawasaki, and if you don't have a pictures, it didn't happen.
You read right. The Festival of the Steel Phallus, to be precise. It's one of the last remaining fertility festivals in Japan. It's located in Kawasaki, about 25 minutes outside of Tokyo. The festival is actually a lot smaller than we expected it to be, but it was definitely worth the trip for Talia (and definitely not for Rony and Sophie).
Right when you arrive at the shrine (yeah, the festival takes place at a place of worship, which, by the way, also has a kindergarden), you are greeted by this nice guy:
The palace itself is not only closed to the public, but can't be viewed, but the park itself is gorgeous, and this is a famous bridge:
Exhausted from so much activity that day, we made our way back to the hotel and decided to splurge on some nice, homemade McDonald's! As Rony and Sophie waited for Talia to arrive, Sophie received yet another gift - one of the McDonald's Happy Meals toys! Boy, have we been getting a lot of gifts!
We all fainted into bed, and the following morning, Talia took Sophie to the Children's (petting) Zoo and Rony went book shopping for himself. Or, at least, the plan was to go to the Children's Zoo, but as know on this trip, any correlation between our plans and what happens is purely coincidental.
Sophie fell asleep literally after we got off the Subway, so we sat in the park outside the zoo to let her sleep (a tired baby is an annoying baby, you can quote us on that one). Outside the zoo was a really great playground, and when Sophie woke up, her eyes shot open in so many directions so quickly that Talia thought they would seriously come out of their sockets.
As it turns out, the Children's Zoo was closed that day, but the playground itself was really fun, and Sophie was just going crazy on all the different contraptions. "This! This!" So Talia would take her there after literally three seconds, she would shriek and then point in a different direction, "This! This!" It was tons of fun, but incredibly exhausting.
After the playground, we went shopping! We went to the famous 100 Yen Store, Daiso, near Harajuku station, which is 3 floors of awesome, and then walked up and down Omotesando searching for awesome presents for our families, of which we found none. However, we did make it to Kiddie Town, a 6 (!!!) floor toy store that had an AnPanMan doll, which Sophie loves, and that alone made it worth it. She plays with it all the time! There is an entire floor dedicated to Hello Kitty and one for Snoopy, and boy, is that place incredible.
Our next and final stop that afternoon was a kids store where we bought Sophie her first pair of shoes. She's been wanting to walk a lot here, and the leather soft-sole shoes weren't cutting it anymore. We also replaced a couple items that we lost along the way. :-)
Here are the pictures from our first couple of days in Tokyo: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152718156235364.1073741836.906005363&type=1#!/media/set/?set=a.10152716081785364.1073741835.906005363&type=3
"The festival is actually a lot smaller than we expected it to be..." I hear that's a problem in Japan. Not that I would know from experience...
ReplyDeleteLOL, got to love the Japanese :-)
ReplyDelete