After two nights in Hiroshima and our day trip to Miyajima Island we caught the bus to the train station, so we could catch the Shinkansen to Tokyo. I loved how the bus and taxi drivers always wore suits with white gloves.
Before we got on the bullet train, we bought some snacks at the station and another bento box. Kobe and I like the Japanese drink calpis soda, but we like the calpis water a lot more, so we were excited to find some at the konbini at the train station.
I had to get the Hiroshima bento and everything was so delicious.
The Shinkansen took about three hours and forty-five minutes from Hiroshima to Tokyo. The tickets for the Shinkansen were one of our major expenses while we were in Japan and it's also why I decided to fly into Osaka and out of Tokyo, so that we didn't have to pay for Shinkansen tickets again.
The time absolutely flew while we were on the train. I loved watching the view out the window - we would go past cities and then would fly past the countryside.
It actually feels like you are on a plane as the ride is so smooth, but it's so much more comfortable as you have so much more space and the seats are so comfy. This scene on the bullet train made me smile because it made me feel like I was really in Japan - people eating a bento box on the Shinkansen and the guy next to us was watching Anime.
The train staff would come through every now and then and check that everyone was in the right seat and would turn and bow before leaving. Every time that he did it, it made me want to cry happy tears because I just kept thinking how lucky I was to be in Japan and to have my dream come to reality.
I knew that Mt Fuji would be visible about 85 minutes from Kyoto station, so I kept my eye on the time, and it almost took my breath away when I saw it. It was so huge, that I didn't really need to sit on the left side to see it. It was so beautiful, covered in snow.
The trains are so quiet, so I didn't talk to the boys about it while we were on the train but mentioned it later and Jalen said he missed it because he was in the toilet!
We finally made it to Tokyo Station and then had to catch another train to Asakusa which is where we were staying for four nights, while we were in Tokyo. I did a lot of research about the best place to stay in Tokyo and there were lots of options. People suggest staying on the Yamanote train line, but to be honest it doesn't matter where you stay - everything is so accessible because there are trains everywhere and it's easy to navigate the train lines because of Google Maps.
I chose Asakusa because I knew it would be a beautiful place to walk around at night, and we could go and see other parts of Tokyo during the day and come back and still have things to do at night around the Asakusa area. It was easy to find our accommodation when we got off the train and it already had a totally different feel to Osaka. Harri wasn't feeling great, so he stayed at the accommodation to rest while Jay, Kobe and I headed out to have a look around.
While planning the trip I found out that the Asakusa Tourist Information Centre was a great place to go for a free observation deck, so we went there first. We also bought 3-day subway passes there which saved us a lot of money on the trains while we were in Tokyo. They're only sold to tourists.
From the observation deck you could see Skytree Tower and Nakamise Shopping Street which leads to Senso-ji which is the Tokyo's oldest temple (and I think the most beautiful temple that we saw while we were in Japan).
As we were crossing the road it was amazing to see the huge Skytree in the background, the temple in front of us and rickshaws everywhere. It was such a huge mix of tradition and modern Japan, and I was so excited to know we would be staying there for four nights.
We loved looking at the shops up Nakimase street and grabbed some snacks while we looked around. A lot of people were dressed up in kimonos.
In Japan people don't walk around eating food, so we would always just stop and eat at the place that we bought the food from. There are also no rubbish bins, so you always have to leave your rubbish at the place that you bought the food from. I was excited to get some more candied strawberries like we had in Osaka, but they weren't as nice. I thought I should try a mochi as well, but it was the one thing I didn't like while we were there.
At the end of Nakimase street is Senso-ji and it took my breath away. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was. I kept messaging Harri to tell him how cool it was down there (our accommodation was about a ten-minute walk from there) and he said he would come down and meet us there soon.
I had so many moments on our trip that I felt like pinching myself because it didn't feel real and this was definitely one of them.
The sushi train was right near Don Quijote or 'Donki' as it's known.
It's a shop full of anything you could ever want to buy, and where lots of people buy their souvenirs from. This was the first one that we had seen that was open 24 hours and Kobe and I spent a good hour or more just looking around it, late one night. I don't love shopping but bought a few things to bring home that I knew I would use - Japanese skin and haircare, Japanese bookmarks, fridge magnets and lollies and chocolates.
Harri met us at the sushi train, and it was one where you order your food on the tablet and then it's delivered via the train to your table. We had so much food and it was so cheap compared to what we would've paid at home.
Harri's leg was hurting, but we talked him into walking to Skytree with us, so that we could go to the top and see the view of Tokyo at night. It was about a 20-minute walk from where we had dinner.
The walk along the river was so beautiful at night.
I was amazed at how pretty everything was as we walked there. Everything was so clean and lit up like it was Christmas.
At the entrance of Skytree was an ice-skating rink. 
Harri hates heights so he decided he'd had enough and went down, while we went up to the Tembo Galleria which is 450 m up. When we found him down the bottom, he had discovered a lot of shops under the tower and had bought some cute things to take home such as a model of a JAL plane (he's obsessed with planes since he works at the airport).
We all went to the Tembo deck which is 350 metres up. The view of Tokyo was incredible, and photos don't do it justice.
Kobe had fun getting some cute things from the gacha machines and chose a Beatles one, because Aaron loved the Beatles.
We walked back to our accommodation and were very excited to spend our first night in Tokyo and to have a big day of exploring Tokyo ahead of us the next day.
Even the entrance to the train station in Asakusa was so pretty.
We loved our accommodation in Asakusa which I had chosen because it was within walking distance to everything, had two train stations close by, we all had our own beds, and it had a 7 Eleven across the road.
This was the view from the back of our accommodation in Asakusa.
Accommodation is always very small in Japan and Harri and I slept in the same room wherever we stayed. We actually had the best time all staying together, but apparently, I snore, but so does everyone else, so we were all looking forward to getting home and having our own bedrooms!
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