Tokyo Fun Trip: The City Tour

 I knew I would not be confident adventuring out into the city, so I signed up for the optional tour.  I'm glad I did.  The girls did not enjoy it as much as I did, but it got us out seeing cool stuff.

We went to the Tokyo Tower first.  I was worried about Delaney being afraid of heights, so we did not buy the tickets to go to the second viewing station. I wish we had.  But we did go up to the First Observation Statin, which is 150 meters up.  It was impressive, especially the "look down" window.

Next we drove by the Emperor's Imperial Palace, but we couldn't see much through the giant stone walls and blowing trees. We stopped at Asakusa, at the Sensoki Buddhist Temple.  Well, we stopped in the area and did a bit of wandering about to get to the Temple, sidetracked frequently by all the lovely souvenir shops.  It was very hot and we had to stop for some delicious popsicles.

We met back up with our tour group at the ferry and got on a super-cool boat for an hour cruise down the river.  We got off the ferry at Odaiba, where we spent an hour or so checking out the mall there. Then we got back on the bus and went back to the hotel.  We got back to our room with enough time for me to get dinner and change and head out to the Temple.

Delaney did not find the Tokyo Tower impressive from this perspective.  It is 333 meters (1,091 feet) high and is the second tallest structure in Japan.

150 meters up, and checking out the "look down" window. It is a window build into the floor and is awesome! 

Delaney was just a bit nervous to step out on it. 

And then Callie had to ham it up. 

It was pretty impressive. 

Yeah, I was there! 

Another great bathroom sign photo. 

We got a fantastic view of the city.  It really looks like it just goes on and on forever, from all directions.

This was interesting.  It is a baseball that was found in the very top of the tower when they were doing some work on it.  The question being, HOW on earth did it get 300 meters up into the antenna? They call it "the mystery ball".

Delaney was done and bored now. 

Driving through the city and this is what Callie was doing.   

Asakusa and the giant lantern that leads into the shopping area. 

 Who doesn't want to pose with a giant lantern behind them?

Hot girls, tasty popsicles and an awesome 5 story pagoda! 

So quintessentially Japanese!  Lovely ladies in traditional Yucatas, taking selfies in front of the temple.  Awesome.

 Delaney is finding her zen, but Callie is just hot.

I love it! 

Callie cracks me up. 

Waiting at the ferry.  Apparently that giant golden poo is some artsy thing on a building.  Weird. 

See Lego-man, must pose. 

And Callie does like to get creative. 

 The observation deck on top of the ferry. 

 It was so pretty and fun!

This was the cool boat we were on. 

A Statue of Liberty?  Well, why not? 

There is a also Death Star on top of the Mall! 

And a happy me, after a Temple session.  It turned out the Friday, 7pm session was even in English!

Tokyo Fun Trip: The Beginning

 After crunching numbers and looking at the options, we decided it was cost effective to go on the chartered tour done by the base, the "Tokyo Fun Trip".  I signed up to do it with Delaney and Callie.  My choice of companion was based solely on who would be easiest and wanted to go the most.  The middle girls won.

So, Wednesday evening at 10pm Dan dropped the 3 of us off and we got on the bus.  Yep, an all night bus ride.  What's more fun than that?!!  We were lucky in that the folks who had signed up to sit in front of us cancelled, so we were able to spread out more.  Still, there is really no way to comfortably sleep on a bus.  Callie seemed to do pretty well and probably slept close to 8 hours.  Delaney played and read, and only got 3-4 hours.  I may have gotten 5 on the bus, but I dozed off and on most of the drive, even if it wasn't actual sleep.

The busses here do not have bathrooms, and the bus will stop every 2 hours.  Somehow it helped to break up the drive and made it not as horrible.  Stops are only 15 minutes, but we had an hour for breakfast at 8.  Then there was another 2 hours of driving and we stopped at Yokosuka military base for 2 hours.  That was fun because they have a Dunkin Donuts!  We got a dozen for the road.  We had lunch there and did some shopping.  Then it was back on the bus for another 2 hours of driving to our hotel in Tokyo.

We got settled in and I decided we needed to find the Temple before I was going to go for reals.  Dan had said it was easy to get to, just turn left.  We walked and sweated for an hour and didn't find it.  I took the girls back to the hotel, because it was too hot and miserable.  I called Dan, got the accurate directions- 2 left turns!  It really was a 10 minute walk from the hotel, if you went the right way.

I was saturated with sweat by the time I got back to the hotel, and I'd promised the girls a dip in the pool.  That meant no time for a temple session Thursday night.  But the girls had a blast in the pool and it was quite refreshing.  We had a late dinner and went to bed.

The signs in the bathrooms are always great!

The rest stop neat Mt Fuji had a lot of Fuji themed stuff. 

Udon noodles for breakfast? 

They thought it a marvelous breakfast. 

Slushys are not to be found around us, so we were delighted to find a slushy machine at the rest stop. It was melon soda flavored.  Double score!

Delaney was in a fit of giggles over this sign and demanded I take a picture. 

 What is this?!!  American Girl Doll stuff at the Yokosuka Exchange?!!

This was the view from out (7th story) room.  See what that is right in the middle there?! 

 In the middle of crazy-busy downtown Tokyo is this lovely park.

And that lovely park is right next to the Tokyo Temple. 

Yep, I found it!  Can you see I'm dripping sweat?! 

 And it is near the Swiss Consulate.  I thought Mom and Dad might appreciate that.

Relaxing by the pool after a cooling dip. 

Bowlin', Bowlin', Bowlin'

I forgot to post about Bowling!  A week or so ago, a friend invited us to go bowling.  I was a bit astonished that all the kids wanted to go.  I was also quite delighted that we had such a good time.  I won, by the way!  I was on the team with Joshua, Marian and another friend.  And I was the only one to break 100... but not by much!

I forgot the camera, so the photos are from my phone.  Check out our good times: