We arrived in Tokyo Narita airport at around 5 PM, from the airport we had an amazing sunset view of Mount Fuji. It was surprisingly efficient to get our luggage go through the visa process and then clear customs. Unfortunately, we should have been travelling with the doctor’s letter for Aiden’s Vyvanse, luckily a customs agent was very understanding and helped us through. The airport was surprisingly quiet, the information directed us to the desk where we managed to send two bags ahead to Hakuba, to meet us when we arrive at the skiing. Given our long flight and the time change we looked up the cost of Uber to our AirBnb, the decision to take public transport was quickly made when we were quoted $350 into the city. Travelling outside of rush hour was clearly blessing and we made it to our AirBnb in about 90 minutes. There was some confusion regarding which building it was as the neighbouring buildings had the same address, the picture the landlord had sent was also confusing. Luckily, she responded quickly after we messaged and everything was figured out. After dumping our bags, we explored the local neighbourhood looking for quick and easy meal. We discovered many “cash only”, Japanese language menus without pictures and limited choice. We ended up ordering dinner in a fast-food place where you order from a vending machine. The placed served traditional Ramen, Gyoza, Japanese marinated chicken (later recognized as neck meat), and vegetables and fried rice. It was a great experience; the staff were amazingly helpful despite a complete language barrier. We then headed back to our temporary home, as we were all wrecked as it was for five in the morning our time. The kids slept in the bedroom that had the traditional Japanese style beds, with mattresses on the floor. Alastair and I took the western style master bedroom, grateful to each have our own bed in our sleep deprived state, his cracked rib continues to recover from its break that occurred while walking into the hospital when he was home working over Christmas and the long flight had exacerbated his pain.
The next morning after a very early wake up, secondary to jet lag we travelled via the metro to the Asakusa, the district where the famous Sensoji Temple is. This temple was built in 624 making it the oldest temple in Tokyo. We all enjoyed wandering the streets around the temple, people watching and checking out numerous different Japanese stores and food stalls. Aiden began his search for the Katana sword that he has coveted for so long. We spent more money than we meant to in our first Japanese stationary store but were happy with what we got. It is amazing to see all the vending machines, the stores filled with coin toy machines, pretty jewellery, kimonos and fans and tons of plastic trinket junk. The Sensoji temple was beautiful and very busy. The Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines all have Omikuji, fortune telling slips, there are trees or wooden racks where “less fortunate fortune slips” are folded and tied, symbolically transferring the burden of the less desirable fortune away by leaving it at the shrine. Aiden’s appropriate fortune suggested he was going on a good trip and provided feedback about how to treat others with kindness and respect. After our visit to the temple, we tried to visit a nearby sushi restaurant with a conveyor belt sushi that have been recommended in one of the YouTube videos. Unfortunately, there was a two hour wait for this restaurant, it was a chain, so we found one located a district closer to our Airbnb. Everyone enjoyed the lunch of traditional sushi and the novelty of choosing things off the conveyor belt. Following our lunch, we were all beginning to faid rapidly, feeling desperate to not allow a nap to help us get over jet lag we decided to go for a long walk. We visited a Botanical Garden in the district we were staying as I had seen it as a nearby attraction on Google maps earlier in the morning. This was clearly a local treat and not something frequent by many tourists. The solarium is heated by the burning of combustible garbage which also heats the local swimming pool. Japan’s garbage is divided into combustible and non-combustible, only recycling glass and thicker plastic, but burning paper and most of the food storage plastic (which is everywhere).
I loved the Botanical Gardens and aquarium. It was fantastic to see all of the Asian tropical fish, sand eels, turtles and even a tortoise. There was a massive stingray, we arrived at its feeding time, this was very cool and popular with the locals. Gardens featured, tropical plants particularly orchids. In the common area outside gardens entrances a recent the contestants to a recent Orchid competition where on display, at least 50 different orchids were present, the winners were incredible. We were able to catch a local bus 20 stops back to our Airbnb. This gave us a great opportunity to observe Tokyo on a Sunday afternoon. It was amazingly quiet, well run and clean. There is high density living with high-rises everywhere, tons of small restaurants, grocery stores, and everything else you could possibly need. People follow the traffic lights, the buses and trains run on time, there is no crowding or pushing to get on, everyone lines up respectfully. We observed many families out enjoying nature in local parks and at the Botanical gardens. There are very few trash cans, but no garbage and people are encouraged to take their garbage with them. On the trains and buses people are very quiet and respectful, moving over to ensure as many people can be seated or seated. Interestingly, about 50% of the population is wearing masks. We were happy to return to our Airbnb for restful evening.
