The good thing about going to bed so early was that we were all wide awake at 5:30am!
I had intended for day one to just explore the hotel and the Ikspieri centre, so we achieved our goal as well as making up with the sleep bank. We did want to be out and about early today so I thought it worked out perfectly, and as the time difference between Sydney and Tokyo is only an hour, once we were caught up, jet lag is not a problem.
We had wondered if it would have been better to book the room from the previous day, but dH says then we would have gone to sleep earlier and been awake at midnight.
The freezing and drizzling weather had cleared and it looked like it was going to be a perfect day once the morning chill warmed up.
Our plan today was to visit the Ghibli Museum and then Asakusa and the Sensoji temple. We wanted to be at the Ghibli at 10:00 so headed to the subway about 8:00. We had bought our four day monorail passes previously so jumped on and headed for Maihama.
I have to admit defeat with the suica card machine as even though we found the English translation button, I wasn't sure if we were buying the right thing. So I found a window and asked "suica." -
"Hai" - and turned a calculator towards me with 2000 on it, I put up my hand for five and handed over the cash and we were done.
suica is great, it's a preloaded card, you swipe as you walk into the station and then again on your way out and it automatically deducts the correct fare, it would have been a nightmare buying 5 tickets everytime we wanted to catch a train. Suica can even be used on vending machines and shops around the station. Sydney tried to implement such a system, I don't know why it failed.
maihama is a simple station so it's easy to find the train to Tokyo, we headed to the platform and as it was 8:00am on Friday there were plenty of people around, but when the train pulled up, we were not prepared for the can of sardines that we were expected to join. What did impress us, there are lines marked on the platform and the train doors would line up as the doors open, everyone moves and stands on these lines and forms like a guard of honour for the passengers getting off, and only when everyone is off will anyone try and get on. Sounds simple, and it's how it should work, but doesn't seem to do so in Sydney.
The train was still packed, like seriously packed and we looked at each other and said, we will wait for the next one!
the next one came, and it was no better but we were at the front of the crowd of people trying to get on, so we just made sure one adult was at front and one at back and just pushed our way on. We all made it and it was a cozy ride to Tokyo station. DH had joked that he wanted to be pushed on a train, so he thought it was hilarious. Althougn I don't commute regularly on trains here, I have done before, but I can see that this would be really intimidating for people that are not used to it.
I had studied the subway map and knew we had to find the Chuo line, everything was well signed, but it was a serious walk between the platforms, like up three escalators, four horizontal travelators, a fair bit of walking, more escalators, around another corner, but as long as you know which line you are headed for everything is signed in English and colour coded. I felt like we were in that scene from Toy story where the follow the luggage through the airport, everyone was on their path and it all just worked. People automatically stand to the left on escalators, even if they are in pairs, it's just as easy to continue your conversation standing behind on an escalator - people that wanted to move faster than the escalator walked on the right.
We found the Chuo and headed to Mitaka - as this train was heading out of the city it wasn't as crowded and we enjoyed the ride out to the suburbs. We arrived at Mitaka, I knew there was a bus to he Ghibli, but we decided to walk it. I highly recommend the walk, along a canal in what seems a very pretty suburb. What struck us here, was the lack of rubbish, like not a single piece, and we had noticed it along the train lines as well. but this canal, which was really just a storm water in a highly built up area was really pretty .
We found the Ghibli and joined the queue. The museum is just beautiful and although we knew none of the characters, and weren't familiar with any of the work and most of the signage was in Japanese - it was a very beautiful building and the displays were amazing. A shame, but you are not allowed to take photos inside. My son was quickly reminded of this when he pulled out his phone to take photos. We bought a guide book that has lovely pics in it, but it's not the same as taking them your self. We watched a short animation, again all in Japanese, but we sort of got the gist.
By now we were getting hungry, it was before eleven and their cafe didnt open until then, there was a shop you could buy hot dogs, so we all had one, it was not the type of hot dog my kids are used to, more like a German sausage and it had pickles, so only three of us ate them.
We finished at the Ghibli and made our way back to the station, there was plenty of shops in the station and I told the kids to just find something they would eat, there are plenty of food choices eveywhere in Tokyo, I just had to relax about them always going for the fried western option. there was not a seat to be found anywhere, so we found a quiet corner and ate our lunch standing up.
Next stop, Asakusa, - this involved a change of trains,- it pays to study the subway map and hyperdia (website giving you directions between places) before you go. We found our station easily and then made our way up through the shopping stalls to the Sensoji temple. There are lots of little side streets and alleys and we just explored the area a bit, getting ourselves a bit lost in the process.
Our next destination was the Tokyo skytree, at 634 metres high, its the second tallest structure in the world, behind the Burj Khalifa - it's visible from just about everywhere, so we just headed towards it like a homing beacon - (take that centrepoint tower, at only 309 metres!! )
There is a huge shopping area that we explored , - I have to mention that DD and I were just in love with all the fashionistas in Tokyo, you don't see a single person that is not well dressed, all lovely and feminine without being sexual, everything mismatched but just goes, floral skirts with black tights and lace socks and converse boots, pastel coloured trench coats, -- LOVE IT, we could people watch all afternoon.
Skytree was only opened last year so tickets for the observation deck are extremely popular. We went to get in line it was around 3:30 - and were given a card saying we could come back at 7:00 !
So what to do??? We debated for a while, we had walked a fair bit and I knew we were pushing DD to her limit of being tied to the "chain gang", the boys wanted to go up, and so did I, I guess, but I didn't want wait around here for 3.5 hours. In the end we decided we would stay, but we split up and DD and I explored the shopping centre and ate, while the boys did a lot of walking around the area.
We met up at the agreed time of 6:30 and bought our tickets, now this wasn't a fast pass, this was just what time we were allowed to get in the queue. We got to the top and view certainly was impressive, without being able to set up a tripod and a wide angle lens, photos do not do it justice, it was obviously very crowded. We did the circuit and had to queue just as long for a lift to get down as we did to get up, but it was an icon ticked off our list.
I had read about a bus that takes you directly back to the Disney resort area from skytree without the hassle of changing trains so we found that for our trip back. We had to wait a while for the bus, but it was a comfortable ride, until a toddler decided to protest about something that wasn't going her way, she was so loud, and it was a long trip, as the bus seemed to go a long way out of the way stopping at other stations.
We got back to the Sheraton and DH says "are we eating?"
Seriously it was 9:30, don't you think they would get something to eat when we were split up. He grumbled and went off to Ikspieri with the boys.
Huge day, we all fell into bed exhausted!