Rest Day in Tokyo

Or so that was originally planned. In the end, we did not stay at home as planned. Instead we started the day by taking the subway to see the Imperial Palace Gardens. Remember that picture that I had posted earlier of the night view from our apartment? Well, we decided to go there and explore the beautiful grounds. And it was worth the time spent there. You had a wonderful time, walking around, and most importantly, jumping on the man holes as well as the leaves that were on the ground. It was then that we realised that this trip to Japan is also your first time walking on the roads and streets. After all, when we're back in Malaysia, most of the time is spent in malls.

Checking out the manholes!

We walked around, took some pictures and you enjoyed running around a garden too. There were many people enjoying the sun and the beautiful garden. As we were leaving you walked by yourself and lost balance. So... you had a bungalow on your forehead. It was all read and spotty as you'd fallen on the road. Poor little thing. Luckily you were easily consoled and continued the walk, jumping on the drain covers as we walked towards the exit.

Running around the Imperial Palace Gardens

We wanted to have a look at the Imperial Palace. Since it was a different entrance from the one we took, we had to walk a distance. That was when you started whinging and crying. We had to stop on and off to pacify you, but it only worked for a while before you started again. in the end, we gave up and mummy had to carry you in my arms, with you indicating that you wanted to be fed. We crossed the road, trying to make it to the subway station, but ended up on a park bench. It was a beautiful park, and so mummy fed you and you fell almost instantly to sleep. I had to carry you for a while more before we managed to put you in the stroller.

We had to change trains to finally arrive at the station to ride on the Yurikamome Elevated train. It was late and we were hungry too. So where did we stop? We stopped at Daiba Station to try to get lunch at Aquacity. But.. as always, all the restaurants had a long queue. Sigh.. so we walked to Decks to try our luck there. Not much choices, but we just made do with a simple lunch. Something that resembled Chinese food. You'd woken up just as we arrived at the station and so you joined us for lunch too.

Beautiful view in Decks

These 2 places weren't too interesting so we hopped on the train to go to Venus Fort. Ah.. that's my kind of place *grin*. Went to buy something that my friend and asked me to help her get. The outside is deceiving as it looked like some warehouse, but when you enter...behold... Venus Fort:

Cool eh? It's got lots of little shops and a beautiful fountain and the "sky" changes like the sky outside.

We had to head home soon, as Pek Kong was coming back to Japan from his trip today. But before we left, we decided to ride the train to the end of the line and back to the first station, Shimbashi. As we were the first to be on the train in Toyosu, we got to sit in the first seat to enjoy the beautiful view all the way back.

We changed trains to get back to Akasaka and you had your dinner while we waited for Pek Kong, in the end we went off for dinner as it was late and we weren't sure what time he'd be back. While you were sleeping we noticed that your cheeks were rather red. Looks like 2 possibilities: sun burn while we were walking in Imperial Palace gardens or heat from the heater in the elevated train. Hhmmm...

Our Trip Out of Tokyo

We had to wake up a little earlier on Monday. Our bullet train would be leaving Tokyo Station at 11am, but we needed to get there early, in case we got lost. Furthermore, lunch was to be on the train, so we needed to buy our bento lunches and drinks. We had our yummy lunch and soon we all fell asleep, despite the spectacular view.

We arrived in Shin-Osaka Station right on time. After a short walk, we arrived at Laforet, our company's corporate hotel. It was a simple hotel, but daddy loved the room. Have a look and see why:

Can't figure out why? Have a look again:

Got it? Yup, this massage chair. Daddy's favourite spot the moment we get into this room! And he was on it most nights after our long long walks.

Well, after checking in, we rushed off to the train station again. We wanted to either go to Nara or Himeiji. We hopped onto the train with the intention of heading to Osaka and changing trains to head to Nara. But we changed our minds when we noticed that we were on the special rapid headed for Himeiji. Yikes.. what a BIG mistake! It was the "slow train" heading to Himeiji, taking almost an hour to arrive at Himeiji. We rushed all the way to Himeiji Castle, but we were too late. Just missed the last entry at 4pm. So what to do? We took some pictures before heading back to the train station to book our Shinkansen tickets back to Shin-Osaka. Since we had time, we had dinner in Himeiji before heading home.

We woke up early on the next day to head to Himieji again, as we were behind schedule. Since we had already booked our tickets, we knew the time and did not have to rush for the non-reserved seats. We arrived at Himeiji and took a cab to the castle. Hehe.. save our legs to walk the castle grounds. It was a beautiful castle, being a UNESCO World Heritage too..

There were times when we entered the castle area and needed to remove our shoes. It was interesting. We even climbed the castle. It was 6 floors high. Ah Ma gave up after the 3rd floor. You on the other hand obviously followed us. So you got "imperial" treatment, being carried up the stairs by Ah Kong or Daddy. They had to take turns. Mummy could not carry you, as the steps were narrow and rather steep. We even got to stamp on our brochure to "prove" that we reached the top. There were 2 groups of school children at the top too. They were there on a school excursion. How lucky...

After that, we headed back towards the train station. But before that, we had our lunch. Ah Ma insisted that we had lunch in Himeiji as she had read somewhere that wheat was grown in Himieji and so the noodles there is delicious. And it sure was. We all had udon cooked in different styles. And everyone agreed that it was DELICOUS!

Next we took the Shinkansen to Kyoto, our first choice location which we did not manage to get a room. And now we know why we couldn't get a hotel room. The crowd there was AMAZING! So many people in all the places that we visited. So where did we go to? First stop by cab was to Sangjusangendo a temple with 1001 Kanon, Goddess of Mercy. Too bad no pictures were allowed. So we only walked in to have a look pray a little and off we went to the second stop.

Where to? Next stop is Kiyomizudera, another temple. But we didn't see much of the temple, instead enjoying the wonderful scenery there. We took lots of pictures, but here's one of the beautiful view. Amazing, don't you agree?

We were a little late, so we decided to catch the later Shinkansen and so dinner was at Kyoto Station. We originally planned to eat nearby, but it started to drizzle just as we were leaving the station, so we doubled back to the station, walked around, looking at the many restaurants before deciding on one restaurant. Remember how I said before the food that we have eaten is great? Well, the food in this restaurant was... not the best. Too bad.. We did a little shopping before heading to the platform to wait for our train. And so that's the end of our second day away from Tokyo.