Day 5 - Tokyo Skytree

Got up later than we meant to because Fuyu's alarm didn't go off but we still had plenty of time to go to The Tokyo Skytree!

Fuyu looking at a map

We walked to the nearby station and caught a train to Ningyo-cho. There we changed to a different line to The Tokyo Skytree (Oshiage). Upon arriving we were instantly overwhelmed... THE PLACE IS HUGE!

A banner hanging as we went up the escalator

We took the huge escalator up and found a list of the different things to do there. There was one thing that stood out to me; THE SUMIDA AQUARIUM @u@
Fuyu and I lined up, paid and entered. It was so so amazing! The first section had fish, the next jellyfish, shellfish and an octopus and... the next section... had... penguins (they splashed us :'D)... and fur seals... and baby turtles... and more fish... and stingrays... and sharks... :'D
It was amazing! There was also this weird 'catch a ticket' game where I won a little Hello Kitty Penguin plushie <3

Lots of fish!

And jellyfish!

Me with the penguins!

More fish!

A stingray!

And a shark!

After that we made our way up up and up... but there was such a line to go to the top of The Skytree. We decided to come back and do that another day and also look at all of the shops and stalls that we had walked past. There was even a 31 floor skyscraper attatched FULL of restaurants and shops :'D

View from one of the walkways down at a garden on a lower level

We were very tired and sore by this stage so we made our way back to the hotel, picking up some snacks on the way as we hadn't had breakfast or lunch. Fuyu really wanted to have Ramen for dinner, so after we'd showered and relaxed a bit we headed out to look for somewhere to eat.

On the way we found a Pet Hotel... there were so many cute kitties inside :'D One munchkin cat came to the window and tried to sniff my hand :'D <3 <3 <3 <3
The staff members were taking turns walking the dogs and we could hear a cockatiel and see bunnies inside also :'D

After a little while we found a nice looking Ramen Bar... we had to order and pay at a little vending machine and give the man our order tickets. He poured us a glass of water each and asked what size we wanted. Fuyu ordered large :'D We sat down and waited as our food was cooked.
Not too much time passed and the man brought us out our Ramen; Fuyu ordered Shio Ramen and I got Shoyu Ramen. It was delicious <3 <3 <3 <3
We slurped in appreciation but couldn't finish the huge bowls. We thanked the men and left with bellies full!

The Ramen Bar

The vending/ordering machine

My Shoyu Ramen

Fuyu's Shio Ramen

Fuyu agrees that it was yummy!

Fuyu and I stopped in at a couple of Konbinis to grab some snacks (icecream, onigiri, sandwiches and chicken), drinks and refreshing wipes and we also passed the Pet Hotel again but they were put to bed and locked up for the night :)

Vending machines; there are a lot around. You can't go 10m without seeing at least one

Walking around

One of many 7/11 Konbinis

Made it back to the hotel and are currently relaxing watching Scary Movies (the parody movies, not actual horror/thriller movies :'D) and other movies!

Day 4 - Ginza

We woke up late and missed breakfast and ended up leaving the hotel after midday.

Our big thing to do today was Ginza. We knew, after finding ourselves there last night, that it wasn't too far to walk. Fuyu had his tablet hooked up to satellites to use the GPS jsut so we wouldn't get lost on our way :'D

We found the Triforce!

We didn't quite know we were there until we saw the very unique street lights that line the main street. We were very hungry and wanted to find somewhere to eat but I was very unsure of a lot of the places. Fuyu and I ended up walking around Ginza for a very long time (even navigating a very large and fancy department store) before we found somewhere to eat; we both had katsudon, Fuyu with a miso soup and salad as a side (that we shared) and me with a side of cold udon noodles.

A Department Store in Ginza

After eating we felt a lot better and headed out once again. I had picked a better outfit and thus wasn't feeling as hot and bothered!

We wandered around for awhile longer and found a book store that also had a bag/wallet/thing store and a few galleries. I bought a small activity/puzzle/game book and a few flip animation books (we've got to go back because one of them I picked up was the wrong one, I still like the one I got but I really liked one of the others too :'D)!

The Bookstore/Department Store where I got a couple of books

On the way back we passed a sweet shop and bought... a few things :'D

Lots of sweeties and snacks

After that we left and found our way back to the hotel on our own (well, with the tablet :P)

We did some laundry and organised a time for the hotel staff to change our sheets tomorrow and just relaxed. It started to get really late. I wasn't too hungry but Fuyu was getting really hungry. He held out as long as he could :'D
Fuyu looked up pizza places (it was either that, Sukiya again or Konbini food) and found a Pizza Hut and Dominos close by. By the time we got our act together it was too late for Pizza Hut so we walked to Dominos. We worked out that the new pair of Converse shoes I have are a size too small for me, not just new like we thought. I've been suffering from blisters and very sore feet :'D So tonight I wore my boots for the first time... SO COMFY :'D

We found the Dominos, it was very different. It wasn't a shop front exactly. There was a garage section out front and a small sliding glass ordering window. We ordered a couple of pizzas (margherita for me and american special aka pepperoni for Fuyu)... pizzas are very expensive in Japan. Two pizzas cost us 2800 yen :'D

Fuyu and I picked up our pizzas about 10 minutes later and walked back to the hotel... the pizzas smelt so good :'D Bakc in our room we opened the boxes to reveal two pizzas that looked exactly like the menu photos and tasted... just... so good! There is NO REASON WHY DOMINOS IN AUSTRALIA AND ALL OTHER PIZZA PLACES ARE SO BAD.

NO EXCUSE. AT ALL.

For the rest of the night we just chilled... it's just gone 3AM and we're listening to 'Because I Got High' and watching the Freestyle Wrestling at the Olympics on the TV... bahahaha :'D

Day 3 - The Pokemon Center!

Fuyu and I assigned one major thing to do each day... today's big thing to do was visit the Tokyo Pokemon Center!

We got up and had breakfast at the Hotel before returning to the room to find directions to the Pokemon Center. With a list written and bag packed we headed off.

I'll just say that it was quite the adventure getting there... Fuyu listed waypoints (buildings, landmarks etc on the way) to let us know that we were on the right track. We ended up trying to ask at a few convinience stores about some of the waypoints and got nowhere. I didn't really want to use the train... it's so stuffy down there and I wanted to walk. Unfortunately I had chosen some rather bad clothes to wear for walking so far :'D

We walked for a very long time and asked for directions in a large company building, don't know what business it was but the staff were very helpful.

After a bit longer we saw a 7/11 and Fuyu said we could ask for further directions. What he failed to see at first was the large Pikachu image on the building above the 7/11. We had unknowingly made it to the shopping building where the Pokemon Center sat on the second floor. We went in the 7/11 anyway and picked up a drink and some refreshing wipes. After refreshing ourselves (me) we made our way upstairs...

to the Pokemon Center!

It was... amazing... just... so cool. We spent about 2 hours there. I'm kinda bummed that I couldn't find my DS before I left because there was an event for Keldeo happening to coincide with the new Pokemon Movie. But hey, I've understood for many years that because I do not live in Japan or the US I will not get the opportunity to take part in many or any events at all. To date I have taken plart in one :P

I spent just under 1 man there... no regrets... at all :'D

We then tried to make our way back and find somewhere to eat (asking in at the 7/11 was a bit of a thing... the old man in there didn't want to deal with us and the nice girl gave us directions to a very far away restaurant)... oh dear :'D
After ages of walking around we were going to catch a train to get closer to the sushi place but by that stage I was very hot and exhausted... Fuyu decided to hail a taxi back to the hotel. We were really really tired so we kinda... just flooped onto the bed :'D

But the day wasn't over and we became hungry! I wanted sushi :'D
And so began another adventure!

It took a lot to get any information abot a sushi train eariler in the day so we kind of settled for ANY sushi as long as it was reasonably priced. We found one place that we had been directed to but it was kind of pricey. Eventually we found Sushizanmai!

We were loudly greeted upon entry by the chefs behind the counter and seated ourselves at a table near the windows away from the smoking businessmen. A waitress took our drink order and brought them to us whilst we looked over the menu (we found one in english which made it easy for me :'D) and filled in the order form.
The order form had all of the dishes listed and two colums; with wasabi and without wasabi. I ordered everything without and Fuyu with.

When the sushi came... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... I learned how to eat sushi properly and realised that I had been committing a horrid act against Japan when I had eaten sushi in Australia :P

After consuming amazing sushi we took another wander. We ended up... accidentally finding our way to Ginza :'D Fuyu and I were very tired and just wanted to get back to the hotel. After a little walking we hailed another taxi and got back.

Once back we relaxed and decided to pay the 1000 yen for access to the pay tv. We soon found out that a fair few of the 'foreign movies' were in Japanese anyway. I soon fell asleep but Fuyu stayed awake for a while longer.

Day 2 - Off to Tokyo

We got up early-ish and had the hotel's buffet breakfast. After that we returned to the room, packed, cleaned up and checked out!

Fuyu and I had to wait around for a while foor the bus that would take us back to Narita Airport. Once back at the Airport we had the wonderful experience of navigating the subway... it was... interesting... BUT WE MADE IT ONTO THE NARITA EXPRESS.

A couple of signs

Fuyu buying tickets to get as close as we could to our accommodation

It took a little while to get to the Tokyo Station and I took a lot of video on the way.

The Tokyo Station was even worse... we got lost... it was really busy... thankfully it was all colour coded so we just had to look for the deep red strips on signs. FINALLY we got to the train and got off at Hachibori Station.

"Kuro Neko" (Black Cat) is an all-purpose transport service here in Japan,
this is their logo; a mummy cat carrying a kitten

Outside we had no idea where to go. A Japanese lady saw Fuyu looking around and wanted to approach him. They got talking and she knew it was around but didn't know the exact directions to it so she pointed us in the direction of a Konbini and told us that someone in there would be able to point us in the right direction. She did try to get the attention of some business men but they ignored her :'D She was really kind.

SoftBank is a phone and internet company in Japan. They have an adorable
mascot that we call the SoftBank Dog

 We walked to the Konbini and Fuyu got directions from the guy in there. After a short walk we saw it, the APA Hotel. Check-out wasn't for less than an hour but they took our luggage. Fuyu asked for directions to the nearest 7/11 so he could get cashout - the staff here are so kind and helpful.

The APA Hotel peeking out from between a few buildings.

On the way we got a few drinks and a snack... I... had Melon Pan <3 We also found a Sukiyaki and Fuyu stopped in his tracks. He stated that we are going to eat there tonight. After we got some cash we made our way back to the hotel to check in. Funnily enough, we saw the kind woman from before! I didn't notice in time but Fuyu let onto her.

SunKus is one of the main Konbinis (Convinience Stores) here. The others are;
7/Eleven (7/11), Lawsons and Family Mart (Fami Ma)

Bakery section of a 7/11

Counter of a 7/11

Snack section of a 7/11

Magazine/Manga section of a 7/11

We got back to the hotel, checked in and made our way to the room.

The entrance!

After relaxing for quite a while we decided to make our way to Sukiya! Fuyu had Menma Gyuudon and I had a Yaki Tori Donburi. It was very nice but there was just so much food :'D

My Yaki Tori Donburi

Fuyu's Manma Gyuudon

Once we'd finished we decided to just go for a walk/wander around. We found our way back to the hotel and were exhausted. We chilled out and went to sleep :'D