The kids had Easter baskets on Sunday morning, courtesy of both sets of grandparents. All I had to do was put everything together, write a few clues, and hide the baskets. The kids were really excited and quickly found their baskets. After some coffee and breakfast we headed out to spend our holiday in Tokyo, rain or no (mostly rain).
On Thursday April 2nd, I hired a babysitter to watch the kids all day while I went and explored Tokyo. I left at about 8:45 a.m. and arrived in Tokyo around 10:00. My first stop was Harajuku Gardens. I only had about 15 minutes in the garden because I was trying to catch the next boat tour, but what I did see was really pretty and it was neat to see a park in the shadow of so many skyscrapers.
The cherry blossom were in full bloom
My next adventure was a boat tour that went up the river, going under 12 different bridges and eventually stopping in Asakusa (a district of Tokyo). The boat was already filling up when I got on and my first seat was down below and not so great for taking pictures.
The inside of the boat.
After the first stop, several people got off and I quickly took a place at the railing on top of the boat where I got to spend the rest of the tour. It was a beautiful sunny day out and just warm enough for short-sleeves! The sights were amazing and especially since many areas of the river bank were lined with flowering cherry trees. This was the best part of my self-guided tour!
The famous fish market seen from the water side.
Many bridges were very low and only a meter or so above our heads.
We didn't go under that tiny one, just by it :)
Here was a boat that was similar to the one I was on.
This is where the boat docked, right in the middle of the cherry blossom festival going on.
I seem to have a weird selfie smile.
There were lots of people just picnicing under the cherry trees (this is A THING)
My next stop was to explore the Asakusa area. There is a large shrine and pagoda that I went to, with lots of shopping and street food for sale around it.
This gate is famous for it's large lantern hanging in the middle.
The gate leads directly into an alley of shopping stalls.
This leads to a second large gate, as seen below.
And to the left there is a large pagoda.
From one of the food stalls I got snow crab on a stick.
Here is the entrance to the temple with incense burning outside.
They had self-serve fortunes here where you put in 100 yen, shake for a numbered stick, and then pull out the piece of paper that is in the corresponding numbered drawer.
I got No. 1 "Best fortune"!
Here is another view of the temple from the side.
And some more food stalls.
I got these enormous sweet potato fries.
Next it was time to head to the kitchen shopping district. There were stores upon stores filled with various kitchen wares. I got a new paring knife and few other kitchen gadgets.
They engraved my name in Katakana on the handle of the knife: アンナ
One of our sight-seeing goals this trip to Japan was to visit Nikko, a World Heritage site. We decided to day a trip to avoid having to find a hotel, so we got up early and left the apartment at about 6am. The trip took us to Tokyo where we transferred to a special line that ran out to Nikko, called the Tobu Skytree line, after grabbing our breakfast at a nearby Starbucks. We arrived in Nikko at around 10:20 (so 4 hours of train travel). We walked our way up Nikko's main street and stopped by a noodle shop that was recommended in our guide book but the owner's said they weren't going to be open for another 20 minutes. So we shopped around a little and came back to the best noodle dishes I have had in Japan! The Curry Udon was amazing, as well as the yakisoba. And the ceiling and every wall was covered in business cards, photos, and notes from previous customers attesting to how much they loved this little noodle shop. Not wanting to be left out, I wrote out a thank you on a strip of photos that we had got at the fair last year and tacked it up!
