Tokyo bici

On Monday morning I went to meet Kotaro from ONO Wheel Room near Harajuku. After a doppio at the café near I got sized up for my bike and we took off for a bike tour around Tokyo. We visited the Olympic stadium. The Imperial residence where the emperor receives foreign dignitaries. Then we went to a Shinto shrine which was overshadowed by Tokyo tower. At another Imperial site we rode through the outer gates of the Imperial palace and along the moat which I had visited earlier this trip. We stopped in at a Japanese tea house at the end for some food and beverages. I ordered what I thought was a chicken and bacon sandwich but it turned out to be one of each. Anyway I had been riding all morning so I feel like I earnt it.

We stopped in at a bike shop on the way home and I got a cap as a souvenir. Kotaro said he had raced for Japan in the Junior Men's at Richmond but crashed out early as it was raining and the juniors go full gas from the start. So I looked him up when I got home and here's his race history. https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/kotaro-ono/2015

It was fun riding around Japan and good to have a local guide especially an ex-pro! The Ono brothers (who the business is named after) restore old bikes. Kotaro's bike was pretty cool, it had some 80s Shimano Dura-Ace on it with down tube shifters. I walked back home after the tour through some neighbourhoods which still had houses in the middle of Tokyo!

When I got home, we went out for lunch, unfortunately it was getting close to 2pm at a lot of the kitchens close then. We found a Chinese place where Willow enjoyed some gyozas and dumplings for the first time without complaining. This opens up a whole new world of eating for us as we can now take her to yum cha! Willow has been relatively adventurous with the eating this holiday. Japan has undone some of the damage to her palate our trip to Portugal's crisps or white carbs did with every meal.

For dinner we went to a local Izakaya style place where you had to take your shoes off and sit in a tiny room on the floor with a cut out for your legs. It was some good eating but we ordered one of the specialties which looked like beef sashimi but turned out to be what we think was cold kidneys sliced up. We only were able to get through about half the plate before it was too strong to continue.

Guest update from Willow for Monday morning:

We went to this very fancy professional stationary store in Ginza. It had a level of like cute and appropriate kids stuff. When I got to that level I went and I looked at the stickers and the washi tape. Mumma wanted to start a new sticker collection because there were soooo many stickers. 

We went to Loft and there was tonnes and tonnes of levels, we went to another department store and also stopped in a Daiso.

Sunday fun day

Where's Willow?

 After finally having a bit of a relaxing start to the day, a sunny Sunday meant we were headed back to Harajuku and Yoyogi Park, as that's the place to be on a Sunday, and today was extra special and busy as it was their Tokyo Rainbow Pride day!   

We hopped the subway to Omotesando again and walked down a much more crowded street than it had been on early Thursday morning when we had just arrived! 

With heaps of people and lots of colour there were happy vibes on the walk up to Yoyogi Park. We saw the rockabillies that we have the other times we have been here - in 2010 and 2019. Pretty sure they are the same ones because they are getting ooooold (like us I guess 😂).

Willow getting into her sushi

With an hour or so before the pride march kicked off, we couldn't help but think, oh we are right around the corner from the Kura Sushi train! And since Willow has made a decent effort at experimenting with some new food (at least with sushi), we went back! 

After another cheap and successful ride on the Kura Sushi train, we joined the masses as we watched the parade and slowly made our way back to Yoyogi Park. Quite different to Sydney's mardi gras, it was much a more understated parade per se, but super family friendly and seemed to have a lot of allies marching as well so it seemed like a very supportive environment, which I think has slowly improved over the last decade or so.

Crossing the road with the masses was fun!

Relaxing in Yoyogi Park

Tokyo Rainbow Pride fair

Tokyo Rainbow Pride 2024

There was also a massive pride fair on with heaps of stalls - it seemed similar to Fair Day in Sydney, but without the asbestos. Not one to let a marketing opportunity be missed, we noticed that a lot of the stalls and groups marching in the parade were by companies or brands. So you would see companies like Yamaha, Astra Zeneca or LVMH waving their rainbow flags. I think they were company employees (and their families) who were not necessarily part of the gay community themselves but were encouraged to take part in support, which is a very positive thing to do, and it doesn't hurt to keep your brand visible of course!

Spy the Mario Karts!

Shibuya scramble crossing!

Pretty sushi

By now some clouds were starting to come over so we walked over to nearby Shibuya, with the famous and massively busy Shibuya scramble crossing. Willow was asleep in the pram last time we took her here so I'm glad she experienced it this time! There were a few rain drops by now so we stopped in at an ever faithful Hub for a cleansing shochu to rest our weary legs before making our way home. For dinner, we stayed closer to home in Akasuka, and enjoyed some very pretty sushi :)  

Budget cherry blossoms

Willow and I started the day off correctly with getting a banana muffin and doppio espresso respectively for first breakfast. Then on the way back to the hotel we picked up a bento box of fried chicken, rice and tamagoyaki to share back at the hotel for second breakfast and a tamagoyaki sando for Heidi.

Breakfast of champions

We couldn't book the Shinkansen tickets online with our credit cards and also there was a concern we wouldn't be able to sit together so we went to Tokyo station to book in person. Luckily we were able to sort it out there and get the tickets to sit together as there is a festive season in Japan when we are coming back from Osaka called Golden week where there's a lot of people travelling.

With the tickets secured, I saw a sign saying the Imperial palace was nearby so we went to check that out. Apparently you need to book a tour to get right into the grounds, but the walk around the outside was pretty cool and we got to see a few of the old guard castles from the outside. 

Our main goal of the day was to see the cherry blossoms at Meguro River. Apparently this spot is one of the best if you're trying to keep your Instagram game strong. Unfortunately we were a bit late in the season and got the temu version. There were still some clinging on which was a nice consolation prize.

Somewhat deflated, we needed some food to fill the void in our sad sakura hearts. So we hiked back up the hill to Meguro town and settled on some Mos Burger for lunch. Word to the wise, there seems to be a lot less English on menus and even the train station signage so come prepared in the Meguro district. Anyway luckily the menu had pictures and we managed to order 2 burgers and a 6 pieces of fried chicken, which didn't go to waste as we took 2 pieces of fried chicken home and Willow cained them in the comfort of our hotel room later.

After some rest and leftover fried chicken we went to Shinjuku to see the 3D cat billboard and Godzilla building. For dinner we went to a place called Gyopao Gyoza, it was quite popular apparently so we were lucky to get in and had a 45 minute time limit to cain all our dumplings. The gyopao was a soupy Taiwanese style dumpling which was like a massive massive xiao long bao soup dumpling that came out in a bubbling broth. Pretty tasty. Afterwards we went to the familiar old pretend English pub/bar chain called "The Hub" to kill some time until we had to go to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. 

It's the largest permanent light show projection/display in the world. It runs every night and the show changes. The show we saw ran for about 15 minutes and it was really nice. There's music played over speakers but not really loud, if you bring headphones apparently you can sync them up on the website. We went home after and found one of the streets in our area parallel to the one we normally walk down to the train station looked super cool so will hit it up at some point hopefully!

A feast for the senses

After more than 22,000 steps on 3.5 hours sleep the day before, we had a good night's sleep and were ready for our first full day in Tokyo, even though we felt like we had already seen so much!  

Sunflowers

With a 7-11 store directly under our hotel, we were familiar with the expected breakfast routine. No need for hotel breakfasts here - we are happy with the treats and delights you can get from the convenience stores (be it 7-11, FamilyMart or Lawson) to bring back to the room. Willow often loves her some fried chicken of course - this morning I enjoyed an egg sando: creamy egg in between fluffy crustless white bread - yum!

We were really excited about going back to see Borderless by the TeamLab crew that we saw back in 2019. It actually closed for several years as they got kicked out of their venue, but it has just only recently reopened in February in a brand new venue within walking distance from our hotel - lucky us! 

A little bit taller this time around

  Now in the new fancy Azabudai Hills complex which is full of  designer shops and Parisien-style gourmet stores and cafes, it's quite the contrast seeing the wealthy and well-dressed locals in amongst the throngs of tourists making their way to Borderless which is booked out well in advance every day.  

  Our tickets were booked for 11:30am so we needed a second breakfast to make sure we all had contented tummies for the couple of hours we would be in there for. So in this new fancy complex, I hate to say it, but sometimes you just need something that is quick and convenient and something that your picky 7 year old daughter will eat, so Starbucks it was! To be honest it wasn't that bad...

Appetites satiated we entered Borderless quickly and 

This was a new one!

watched a little video about how the exhibition is a series of many rooms, some large, some small, some hidden, but each ever-changing while we are there, and so the aim is to literally keep walking around and to get lost amongst the "borderless' displays. As they describe it: Artworks move out of rooms, relate to other works, influence each other, and at times intermingle, without boundaries. Through this group of works, one continuous world without boundaries is created.

But hey, this is our same-cation so we already knew all this.

We entered into a corridor with flowers sweeping across the walls set to a background ambient cinematic soundtrack. It even smelled like flowers in there! 

So we spent the next two hours wandering around. Some of it was familiar but there were so many new works and installations too. It is impossible to capture it on camera - we have a tonne of videos - but it really is truly amazing.  

Lilypads

Willow was definitely taller this time!

Flying carp on Tokyo Tower

 

  Afterwards we wandered over to the nearby Tokyo Tower, an orange and white Eiffel tower-looking communications and observation tower. You can go up it but we wanted to go and see the 333 carp streamers that are currently flying underneath. They hang them every spring for Children's Day, and there are 333 to represent the height of the tower. Pretty cool, and it was nice to have a sit-down!

We then got the subway back over to Roppongi but it was a bit of an awkward time to have our third meal of a day - many kitchens close in between 2-5pm - and we weren't super hungry so we walked back to the hotel and had some convenience snacks in the room while we rested :)

It wasn't long before we were heading back to Roppongi, to the 52nd floor of the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, called Tokyo City View, for some sunset views, just like last time of course 😂 

We bought our tickets in advance but it wasn't crowded at all - surprising considering it was a beautiful sunny Friday evening - but no complaints!

And what a stunning view it was, again, over the 

sprawling metropolis that is Tokyo. We couldn't see

Mount Fuji this time as there was a bit of smog 

about but the sunset was beautiful all the same.

Sunset views up high are my favourite

Bye sun

Once the sun had set we went in search of dinner. Ryan had looked up a nearby place which served omurice which is not my favourite but Ryan lured me in with promises of sashimi also being on the menu. When we got there though, hilariously, there were two sides of the restaurant - one "Western" and one "Japanese", and the omurice meant we had to go to the Western side haha. 

The truth was we were the only white gaijin in either side, and since we were ordering by the phone app I could have had some sashimi but I did the omurice anyway. It was fine. The staff were lovely and friendly, and Willow had a little mixed snack plate with a tiny little ball of strawberry ice cream for dessert so she was happy. We all were! So we again wandered back home, after another 20,000 steps, for a good night's rest!

Omurice

Willow loved her mixed plate

The ultimate same-cation

Well hello and welcome back folks! The last few years have been a helluva rollercoaster for everyone, but here we are - an impromptu OS trip! I've said it before and I'll say it again, the time to fire up the travel blog is always a favourite time of mine. And straight back to Japan we go 😂 Why?! Well it's me, hi, I'm the problem it's me . Due to health issues we can only travel so far in our 12 day window, but who wouldn't want to come back to Japan?! We had so much fun last time with a 3 year old - let's come back and see what it is like with our little sassy now 7 year old :) So here we go!! 

Just like last time, we had an overnight flight to Tokyo. It was a smooth, quick and seamless entry through Sydney Airport with barely any interaction with humans. Willow had some KFC in preparation for what will no doubt be 10 days filled with lots of chicken karaage and rice. The flight left soon after 9pm and we each managed to grab a few hours sleep, but it was an early arrival into Haneda Airport at 6am.

We got through Haneda OK, although as Japan is, they have all the technology but seem to fall over at the end. Like we went and had our fingerprints and photos digitally taken, but then everyone had to hand-fill out a landing card and there weren't enough benches or pens for everyone! But you do you Japan...

On the other side we sat down to use the wifi and have a coffee and regroup. Well Willow had an iced chocolate and she breathed a contented sigh and said "Ah Japan this is the life". Then I took her for her first experience of a Japanese toilet - last time she was still in nappies! 

On the early and quiet Monorail

We geared ourselves up to get to our hotel in Akasaka, knowing we couldn't check in until 3pm but at least we could dump our bags. We got a monorail most of the way there which was super quick and easy, then hailed a very luxurious taxi from the station not far away straight to the hotel door. Easy peasy... !

So how to kill 7 hours until 3pm on no sleep?! Well we hopped onto the nearest subway (which just happened to be next to a Harry Potter cafe, and the whole subway had Harry Potter-esque touches!) and went to Omotesando station, which in hindsight is exactly what we did on our first morning last time. We sure do love a same-cation. 

Being early it was very quiet so we meandered around, down to Harajuku. Even the normally heaving Takeshita Street was quiet! In search of more coffee, we wandered around the cool yet cute back little lanes of Harajuku and found a poky little place. We each had to order something, so Willow got a honey lemonade. Please let her have something healthy this trip!! 

An early and quiet Takeshita Street!

Then while we waited for a decent time to sit down to lunch, we wandered up past the Meiji Shrine and into the large and beautiful Yoyogi Park (which of course we've been to several times before) for a sit-down and to people watch. 

First family selfie outside the Meiji Shrine

Our own private booth at Kura Sushi

Finally it was time for some lunch! I had read about a nearby sushi train, Kura Sushi, that sounded pretty fun, especially since this one had some sushi crepes which we thought Willow might like to try! The Japanese sure do like their crepes!

We entered, took a ticket number which then gave us a number to our own private booth alongside a double decker sushi train! Even though Willow is not the biggest sushi fan (doesn't like seaweed...) she was delighted by the setup. 

The lower layer was a slow revolving train more similar to what you find at home with random things that you just take as you please. But you could also use an app on your phone to order specific things and they would zoom out at enormous speed on the top level and stop at your table! It was hilarious! Even drinks that didn't spill a drop! And the best thing was it was soooooo cheap. Most nigiri plates were under 200 yen, which at the current exchange rate is under A$2. Ryan and I went pretty nuts ordering all manner of things, also because it was hilarious each time they made their speedy arrival at our table, and the whole meal cost us about A$50! Rumour has it robots make some of the sushi, but hey, it was fun and extremely good value :)

With still another couple of hours to kill until 3pm we managed to walk all the way home, pretty much on fumes, back to the hotel and collapsed into the chairs at reception until the room was finally ready. The room, although tiny, is lovely and comfortable with everything we need and a lie down and shower was much appreciated by all.

After some R&R, we walked to the familiar haunts in nearby Roppongi in search of an early dinner, although Ryan and I kind of had already decided to go back to Menshou-Taketora that we loved last time and went to 3 times. We rave about it in the blog post here, ironically titled "Same-cationing", so now we are same-cationing the same-cation lol!

Ryan, happy to be back at Menshou-Taketora

Not only were we pleased to know it was still there after the pandemic, it was exactly the same and did not disappoint! We were taken to a private room, Willow was given a free juice and little bowl with spoon (just like last time when she was 3!) and we feasted away... It's actually a ramen place but we ordered everything but (ramens are sooooo big here!). 

We had the eggplant miso and cheese again, sizzling seafood plates, octopus and enoki mushrooms - even Willow had two gyoza! And her fried chicken of course... along with some beer and shochu and stuffed to the brim the whole meal cost under A$55. Amazing!

Completely beat but happy and satisfied we meandered home in what was some drizzle now and had a long night of slumber, for our first night in Tokyo :)

Sizzling octopus and enoki mushrooms