really nice flower fields
and plenty of room for the kids to run around
when we got to the dock, the line to get on the boat was crazy, so we just took the train to asakusa to see nakamise street and senso ji temple.
ate at a tempura place when we got into asakusa. food was good, but not mind blowing. however this was one of the more moderately priced tempura restaurants... most of them were crazy expensive. i wonder what the tempura was like in the nicer restaurants?
huge lantern at the entrance to nakamise street, a souvenir shop lined street leading to the temple
ah... looks like a few other people came to see the temple too
cherry blossoms blooming above nakamise street
senso ji temple, tokyos oldest and most significant temple
that night, we were hungry and had a hard time finding somewhere open to eat. we ended up in the TINIEST restaurant i have ever been in. the photo is taken with my gopro, which tends to make things look bigger than they are... but this place was seriously a CLOSET. you can see that nanci is practically touching both sides of the restaurant with each hand! you could maybe fit 8 people in this place to eat
but the food was pretty tasty!
the next day i woke up at 3am. to get sushi. sushi dai is the most popular place in the tsukiji fish market, and i had to try it! but the line is INSANE. i got there at 330am, and there were already a lot of people lined up! most likely jet-lagged tourists. it actually opened at 5am, and i didnt get seated until 6am. crazy man. but the line moves super slow because the meal is much more elaborate than daiwa sushi, which we tried a few days earlier. i brought my slr to take pics... forgot the battery though =(
these boys whip up a serious sushi breakfast
miso soup to start
first course, toro
snapper
baby snapper
uni
horse makarel
surf clam. when they set this down for you it is STILL MOVING
yellowtail
tuna roll
baby shrimp
spanish makarel
squid
and your choice to repeat one dish at the end... i opted for the toro again
each dish was GLORIOUS! would love to go back one day. nanci was supposed to go on a separate day but couldnt wake up early enough. snooze you lose sister! check out the line that had formed on my way out
when i got back to the room, we headed out to see the tokyo skytree. didnt get a pic of the actual skytree because the subway let us out right into the building
got plenty of pics of the view fro the top though, it was incredible. glad we went to tokyo tower before we went here cause this was MUCH higher
glass bottom floor here too
this day we were actually joined by a tokyo local, aoi, who we connected with through my friend kenny, who knows her. the kids had a lot of fun with her!
and it was nice to have a local help us navigate. after the skytree we went down into the sumida aquarium
after the aquarium, we hung out for some drinks with aoi. we had a really nice time with her, and look forward to her possibly moving to california soon!
ended the night at ippudo ramen in ginza, mmm so good!
we saved checking out the main cherry blossom sites for our last day to give them the most time to bloom. cherry blossom season is only a week long, so we got lucky that we caught them while we were there. the first place we went was naka meguro river. 800 cherry trees line the river, and it was seriously incredible to see! definitely a highlight of our whole trip
after meguro river, we headed over to ueno park, a popular place to have cherry blossom parties. we werent alone!
most of the cherry blossoms were white, so whenever there were pink ones there were tons of people crowding around it to take photos
if you ever get the chance, you really need to try to visit japan during cherry blossom season and see this in real life, its amazing!
we used google maps to get pretty much everywhere, and sometimes we ended up in the most random places. like this crazy shopping alley that we had to fight our way through on our way to akihabara
madness. imagine trying to push 2 strollers through this
stopped by the other gundam cafe in akihabara, but didnt eat there
akihabara is also known as electric town, since its a major district for consumer electronics, video games, anime, and computers. didnt do a whole lot here since we werent planning to buy any electronics
one thing that we didnt do was visit a maid cafe. all along the streets in akihabara there are these girls dressed in cute outfits trying to get people to go into these maid cafes. i read that its something you should try if you can, just because its so bizarre. i guess the waitresses are dressed in anime, and act as servants and the customers are the masters... they kneel by your table and stir sugar into your coffee, spoon feed you, etc. would have been interesting to see, but not top priority haha.
sat on the floor for our final meal of the trip
appetizers
shabu shabu
and two kinds of kobe beef, sooo good
thats almost it for tokyo. i got one last post coming for tokyo disneysea!
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