We got up about 15 mins after we were supposed to and started getting ready. We showered and ate some wontons for breakfast. Byron drove us down to the train station and as we were running a bit late we had time to watch the sunrise over Loganlea while we waited for the next train. We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare and had very little trouble getting through customs. We have learnt our lessons over the last couple of years of travel. 

We flew with Jetstar and the flight was smooth, the meals were cheap at around $12.50 with good portion sizes and tasty options, just don’t read the ingredients list it was pages long. We ordered a chicken wrap and a toasted cheese sandwich. At one point Christine ordered a couple of bottle of water. We drank them and then realised that you could get cups of water for free. Once the airline staff realised that we were happy to drink the cups of water, they refunded our money for the bottled water and filled up our water bottles for us. We assured them that we didn’t need a refund, but they insisted. The staff were cleaning the loos at regular intervals during the flight, this kept them sanitary and was a significant departure from the time we flew with Scoot. 

We cleared customs no worries and then spoke to the lady manning the sky rail. She was a bit perplexed by us not knowing exactly where we wanted to go. But after one miss fire where we bought the wrong tickets, she refunded them and changed them to different tickets that had an express train that would put us a short walk from our accomodation.

We got off the train and went in search of food. Christine tracked down a good one that had delicious looking meals and the place was absolutely pumping. The only issue was that we would have to have sat separately. We went in search of another place and found what would turn out to be a tapas type bar where you had to buy a drinks before you could order small plates of food. We ordered a few plates of food that did not really fill us up, we were also a little concerned about eating raw chicken, especially on the first day of the vacation. Once again we found that we were learning rapidly of the things that we needed to be aware of on our adventure. 

After our food and drink we decided to walk to our accomodation, no sooner had we left the row of shops around the station and the streets of Tokyo fell practically silent. The only sound to be heard was the noise from the wheels on Scottys bag making a racket. There were still a few people around taking a silent evening stroll. It certainly wasn’t the busy sound of a city that never sleeps, this one goes to bed at six and sleeps well. We walked through a number of softly illuminated yet eerily silent alleyways lined with tiny houses, bicycles, scooters and tiny cars all parked in tiny spaces. One of the most noticeable things was that none of the bikes were locked up, they were simply parked out the front of the houses in the knowledge that they would still be there in the morning.

We quickly located our accomodation and used the keypad to gain entry. We had the two top floors and each floor had a combination lock box on the wall. We freed our keys from their lock boxes and had a look around the accomodation. Scotty had the room on the top floor and we had the 3rd floor apartment. Everything in the apartment was tiny, Cassian was in his element, the apartment made him look abnormally huge, he almost couldn’t fit down the hallway. There was a tiny little kitchen which had a tiny little shower cubical attached to it. There was a combination washing machine next the shower cubical. We were fascinated by the toilet, it was fully automated with a range of bidet settings. It would sense you entering the room and automatically lift the main lid. It would sense you getting up to leave and automatically flush. Otherwise there were a range of buttons on the wall that would wash and dry various bits as well as open and close the lid and seat. 

Once we were done trying to figure out all of the functions on the loo we went to check out the rooms. Both rooms had two mattresses on the floor. Cassian’s room had the classic wood and paper doors from every cartoon and show about Japan. We were under strict instructions to keep conversations and televisions low otherwise the police would come and evict us from the rooms. We had a reasonable nights sleep and everything was quite comfortable once we worked out how to use the things that we needed.

Japan Day 2

We got up reasonably early and made our way to a nearby restaurant for some breakfast. This is when we discovered that Tokyo goes to sleep at 6pm and sleeps until 7am, nothing was open before this time. We wandered the mostly empty streets checking out the sights and sounds of our local area until the restaurant finally opened. The food was a Japanese – Western fusion with a choice of toast with avocado and cheese, a tomato soup type dish, and rice flour pancakes. Christine and I shared the pancakes and avocado toast dishes. All of the meals came with a yogurt, fruit and granola bowl as well as unlimited drinks including juice, coffee and tea. The meals were excellent and once we were finished we all felt full and ready to tackle the day.

Bike hire 

We made our way over to Nezu station which was the closest station to our accomodation. We attempted to work out how we could navigate the subway lines so that we could change from the green line to the yellow line. We came up with a plan to catch the subway to a station where we could change to a red line that would then take us to a station where we could catch the yellow line. We made the first station and then ended up walking a couple of km to the station where the yellow line was leaving from, no red line to be found. Once we were on the yellow line we made our way to the Sumida park gardens where we were hoping to hire some Luup bikes. This proved to be pretty much impossible and explained why there were loads of Luup bikes and scooters all sitting in their docking stations and not being used. We managed to get most of the way through the app set up and then we came to the traffic test. After a number of attempts at the traffic test we decided that Luup bikes and scooters were not for us and that we were going to have to walk. 

Sumida Park

We walked along the river and then crossed a bridge that had two pyramid type structures on it. We came to an old shrine that was locked up and not accessible to the public, it was being maintained, but not well. Cassian said it a few times and continued to say it throughout our time in Japan, when he had been hear 10 years previously the place was absolutely pumping with standing room only. In comparison Tokyo is now extremely sparse on the ground. When we were catching the trains into the city a number of trains went past that were extremely packed but otherwise there was plenty of space on and around the streets even close to the heart of the city. Some theories were that a lot of tourists are not coming to Tokyo after the harsh 3 year lock downs that occurred around covid times, another is that people have left Tokyo for other places, or the declining population in Japan is finally catching up with them. A friend of Cassian’s who is currently teaching in Japan said that Tokyo is the only growing city in Japan and that many of the smaller outlaying cities have even less people in them. Possibly many elderly people are moving to Tokyo to be closer to various services. 

Lunch at Skytree

We walked to the Skytree tower and went in search of some food. The concept was to have a light snack and then have something more substantial at a later point. We found a Chinese restaurant that was serving some delicious food. Scotty opted for an Italian place right next door. Scotty ordered himself a salmon and spinach dish, while we ordered a couple of noodle dishes, a rice dish and a couple of steamed buns with red bean filling. By the time we were done we were all full and it was probably about lunch time anyway. 

Grumpy old men’s corner

At one point in our journey we had seen a Sizzler restaurant from a grumpy old men’s corner that we had found in the Skytree building, where a bunch of mostly old men sat in chairs that faced out into the city. They were reading books or looking at their phones. This is one interesting thing about Japan, it is not unusual to see people walking down the street or sitting in a restaurant reading a book. We circumnavigated the building and went in search of the building that contained the Sizzler. We eventually found it but it actually wasn’t that interesting. Apart from the Sizzler it contained a home appliance store and a supermarket. On the way to find it, we did however stumble into a beer festival and an entire floor of desert shops with every type of desert that you could imagine. 

The Skytree observation deck

At around 2pm we made our way to the Skytree observation deck for the actual Skytree viewing, Christine had booked it for Cassian, Scotty and myself, she was not keen on the height and had opted out. We caught the express elevator that travels at 600m per min which works out at about 36km per hour. Apart  from your ears popping and the speed on the screen, which I didn’t film as I wasn’t expecting it, there was no way to tell you were moving at any significant speed. From the viewing platform you had an un-restricted 360 degree view out over the city. I tried to capture some of it using the action camera. We wandered around the viewing platform and stood on the glass floor part. We took a stack of video and photographs and then made our way back down to Christine. 

The 7-11

We went to a 7-11 to get some water, while we were there Scotty bought a can of alcohol, one, because it was so cheap and, two, just for the novelty of being able to buy alcohol in a convenience store. It would have made a good substitute with which to fuel your car, and as such Scotty didn’t end up finishing it. Afterwards we shared a bacon, lettuce and tomato toasted sandwich with avocado and pineapple from a Hawaiian themed restaurant. The bloke sitting next to us was reading a book. 

We then navigated our way back to somewhere close to the Asakusa station where we were booked in for a ninja experience at the Ninja museum. The bloke doing the presentation went through the history of Japan including the feudal system, its creation, the samurai and where the ninjas fitted in to the whole picture. Ninjas were basically common people who were assassins outside of business hours. We finished off with a ninja star throwing competition. I made it into the final 3, but then choked under pressure. 

After the Ninja museum we wandered over to the nearby Senso-ji temple that was constructed around 600 CE. We took some photographs and video in the markets that surround the temple. By this stage we had walked around 30km and were a bit dehydrated and hungry. We went to Hoppy street a nearby street that is famous for its street food vendors. We couldn’t find anything that we were interested in trying, and we couldn’t figure out the bbq place that ended up in. As such we decided to give it a miss and headed for the subway. This time we were more successful with our navigation and ended up back at Nezu Station after changing trains a couple of times. We also asked a bloke at Udon Station who gave us a key piece of the puzzle and a map to carry around. This was also a perfect opportunity for Cassian to try out his Japanese skills.

We dropped Scotty, who was well and truely done with walking, back to the accomodation and went in search of food. We tried a cool looking place that served tacos but it was pumping and wasn’t going to have space until 9 pm, which was an hour away. We wandered back to an Italian place, we chatted with the owner in Italian and he organised a table for us. We ordered a Margarita pizza, some ravioli with basil and pesto and some sparkling water. The food was delicious and filling. Once again everything was quiet out in the streets, but inside these cosy nondescript little restaurants animated conversations were taking place at every table. I would love to have tried the Mexican place, it was upstairs and the owner was jovial and fun, but by this time we were cooked after the massive day. We wandered back to the accomodation, showered off, got organised for the next day and had some sleep.