Ginza, Tokyo Tower and Tokyo Bay

It was time to pack up and leave our accommodation in Asakusa, and we headed over to the 7 Eleven across the road to grab some breakfast.  I loved the smoothie cups that you could grab from the freezer. Once you pay for it, you then scan the bar code at the smoothie machine, and it opens up and you can blend it in the store.                                      

                                           

                                          

We caught the train to Tokyo Tower and enjoyed walking around the area before going up to have a look at the city from above.  

                                           

                                          

                                  

                                             

                                             

                                             

It was fun to see people driving the Mario Karts around the tower. 

The view from the top of the tower wasn't as impressive as Skytree tower, but it was still fun to go up. 

                                   

                                             

There are shops at the bottom of the tower, so we grabbed some ramen before jumping on another train to Ginza. 

                                           

There is some amazing architecture in the area.  Ginza is known as the upmarket shopping district with lots of designer shops.  

                                

Harri in particular was very excited to see the sports cars in the Nissan showroom.

                               

After looking at the flagship Uniqlo store we jumped on another train to go to Tokyo Bay which is the Disney area.  I've been to Disneyland in LA a few times as a teenager and often have dreams about Disneyland and the dream is always the same - that I'm running out of time to go on all the rides.  I've always wanted to take the boys to Disneyland, so I was excited to finish off our trip to Japan by going to Disneyland and DisneySea.  

We got off at Maihama station and then bought three-day tickets for the Tokyo Disney Resort line which just constantly does loops around Disneyland and DisneySea and is how you can get to the Disney hotels. The Disney trains are so cute with Mickey shaped windows and play Disney music the whole time. It was very exciting to see the castle in Disneyland for the first time. 

                                           

There are so many impressive hotels around the Tokyo Bay area and the Disneyland Hotel was so beautiful. 

After lots of research I decided on staying at the Hilton Tokyo Bay. It had rooms that were big enough for us to have a bed each and it had a convenience store inside the hotel, so I knew that it would make our mornings easier if we could easily grab food for breakfast (as there was no way I was paying $40 each for the buffet breakfast after spending so much on the cost of the room already).  We could also just walk across the road to catch the train to Disneyland or DisneySea.  

Our hotel was right next to the Toy Story Hotel which is so cute and has lots of Toy Story theming inside and outside of the hotel.  Unfortunately, you can only go into the grounds or in the hotel if you are staying there, and they have staff at the gates to check that you are a guest before they'll even let you walk in there. 

We were relieved that our luggage had arrived and was waiting for us and were very happy with our room. It was actually the biggest room that we'd had our whole trip. We had a beautiful view of Tokyo Bay from our window, and I made a comment to the boys, that I'd read on the reviews that some rooms had a view of Mt Fuji, but we obviously didn't.  I was pleasantly surprised the next morning, when we opened up the window screens as Mt Fuji was right across the bay! There was too much haze when we arrived, to see it. 

There were a few cute little things in the room to make it feel like Disney, even though it's not an official Disney hotel. 

We had a quick look around the hotel and realised there were actually two convenience stores inside and also a Disney store. 

We have a lot of funny stories from our trip that we often have a laugh about and one of them was on this day, we were rushing to get on the train. Jalen was always so much faster than the rest of us, and I always held back a bit with Harri who was struggling to walk at times because of his sore leg.  Jalen jumped onto the train that just pulled up at the station and Kobe went to jump on as well and the door shut right on his toes.  He wasn't able to get on the train and Jalen was the only one who made it on, and the train took off with the three of us still standing at the station. I was yelling at Jay through the train window to get off at the next station and that we would meet him there, Kobe was in agony because of his toes (which I was worried were broken because he could also hardly walk after it!) and Harri was cracking up laughing at the hilarity of it all. 

When we got to the hotel Kobe was so happy to finally be able to rest his sore toes.  I didn't want to waste any time and knew that we only had a couple of days left, so I asked the boys if they wanted to get a night ticket to go to DisneySea.  

Harri said he wanted to rest his leg and not walk around all night (but he actually just jumped on the Disney line train and did a few laps and checked things in the area out) and Kobe's toes were so sore that he said he couldn't walk either. He said he didn't want to have FOMO because he knew we would have fun, but I told him we would just go and mostly have a walk around and check it out, so that we knew what we wanted to prioritise when we all had the whole day there together. Kobe was happy with that and was also okay about staying in the hotel room because the Hobart Hurricanes were playing in the Big Bash cricket final and he was keen to watch that.

So, we left the boys to get food from the convenience store for dinner and Jay and I went to DisneySea for a few hours. 

DisneySea isn't actually owned by Disney, and it doesn't feel at all like a Disney park. Everything is sea based, and it is huge and separated into different areas of the world. It actually takes about 20 minutes to walk quickly from one end of the park to the other. 

It was absolutely beautiful when we walked in as it was dark and everything was lit up.  We no longer felt like we were in Japan and just felt like we were walking around different parts of the world. The Mediterranean Harbour area was beautiful. 

                               
                                           
                                 

When we checked the app the gondola rides were only a 20-minute wait, so we decided to go on. 

                                          

We have no idea what the cast member was saying, but we loved it. It really felt like you were in Italy. 

We walked around different areas of the park to just check out what rides we wanted to prioritise when we all went together.  

We also went to the turtle talk show which is the turtle from Finding Nemo. We knew it would be in Japanese, but didn't realise it would go on for so long.  We had no clue what was going on, but it got a lot of laughs. 

The carousel in the Arabian Coast section looked so beautiful lit up at night and I was excited to go back and ride it with the boys.  You're never too old for a carousel! Unfortunately, when we all went together it was closed, so we didn't get to go on.  

The Toy Story Mania section i the American Waterfront area was so popular and always had a huge line up.  

We only stayed for about two and a half hours and were ready to go back to our hotel to rest. We caught the train back and spotted the Outback Steakhouse (which we don't have in Australia) and the huge Disney Store at the train station. 

Our hotel had nighties for everyone, and Jay was the only one who was brave enough to try it on. He cracks me up. 

                                        

Most mornings we didn't race out the door because things were closed until 10 am but I told the boys that we were on a time frame in the morning as we were going to Disneyland and we had to get there early, so we could get in the gates early to get fast passes on the app.  I didn't want to waste our day at Disneyland waiting in too many lines all day. 

                                       

Above Harri's bed was a mirror which lit up and played music when you pressed the button. I told him I was going to press it as his alarm in the morning.  I couldn't wait for the morning, so we could finally go to Disneyland together. 

13 Years Later in Tokyo - Team Lab Planets and Akihabara

The anniversary of Aaron's death was while we were in Japan and I never imagined that 13 years after the worst day of my life, I would be in Tokyo having one of the best experiences of my life.  The whole I trip I wished that Aaron was with us, and I often wondered if he would've been like Hari and Kobe at first - wishing that we had travelled to the USA instead, or whether he would've been loving it just as much as we were (which I'm sure he would've). 

While planning the trip I knew that the anniversary would be while we were in Tokyo.  It's usually a day that we go to the beach as that's what we did on our last day with him.  Unfortunately, a beach in the middle of winter isn't a lot of fun, so I tried to think of something that would be a lot of fun and would make it a happy day. My first thoughts were to go to Tokyo Disneyland on the day, but I had read to avoid it on the weekends, so I had to come up with a plan B. 

In the end I thought about going to Team Lab Planets which can be hard to get tickets to, and you have to get them a few months in advance. I didn't want to be locked into it though, so I didn't worry about getting tickets in advance as I just wanted to see how we felt on the day.  The night before the anniversary I decided it's what I wanted to do and luckily there were a few tickets left in a timeslot later in the day. 

We had a very slow morning as we were getting very tired from all the walking we had been doing every day. Every day we were walking between 20- 25,000 steps which wasn't helping Harri's leg to heal up. Every night I would put cooling patches on his injured calf that you could find at the chemist, that would stick on, and we would leave them on overnight. 

I knew about luggage forwarding in Japan that you could pay for but hadn't been able to do it up until this day because the accommodation we were staying at were all privately owned and there was no front desk to receive the luggage.  Our last few days in Japan were going to spent at Disneyland and DisneySea and I lashed out and booked three nights at a hotel in the Disney area so that we didn't have to travel back and forth to Asakusa. 

I told the boys that I wanted to forward our luggage to our next accommodation, so that we didn't have to worry about our luggage the next morning and could do some more sightseeing around Tokyo without our suitcases, as we couldn't' check into our hotel until 3 pm.   Harri was stressing about it and told me it was a scam, but I'd read so much about it and knew it would be okay.  We took our luggage over to the 7 Eleven across the road, and after a little bit of Google Translate and a worker who could speak a little English, we were able to confirm that they could do the luggage transfer and that the luggage would be at our hotel by 11 am the next morning.  We kept what we needed for the night in one carry-on bag and sent our four big suitcases off.   I was a little bit nervous that our luggage would be lost forever, but Jalen had an airtag on his and we could see when it was moving, and it was definitely going to the right place. 

Akihabara was only a 10-minute train ride from Asakusa, so after organising our luggage forwarding Jay, Kobe and I decided to jump on the train to have a look there.  It's known as 'electric town' and is known for its electronic stores, and shops specialising in anime, collectables and trading cards. It's not something that we are into (except for the boys who are into collecting Pokémon cards) but we thought since it was so close and we had the morning to fill in, that it would be worth checking out. 

                                           

Jay told me that he had thought about getting a Spiderman comic which was in Japanese as a souvenir but didn't buy one when he saw it the day before.  He said it thought it would be a waste of money, but I told him it would be a cool souvenir and talked him into going and finding one at a comic book shop. 

There were lots of gacha machines on the streets and in shops. 

We came across a shop which had heaps of claw machines which the boys couldn't resist.  They are such a waste of money but also so fun.  

They had so many realistic looking food in them like oysters, edamame beans, sushi, pringle chips and we just kept playing them because we really wanted a few cute things to take home as souvenirs.  We also had a lot of coins and only a few days left of our trip, so we thought we may as well use the coins up.  Unfortunately, we had no luck. I have heard that there are places where you can just buy what you want without having to use a claw machine, so we will have to do that on our next trip. 

I don't think Akihabara is worth a trip unless you are into anime and collectables, but because it was so close to where we were staying it was nice to just go there quickly and check it out. We caught the train back to our accommodation to meet Harri and then went on another train and then had to catch a bus to get to Team Lab Planets.  

Team Lab Planets is an art museum where the artwork changes depending on the presence of people.  There are three sections - water, garden and athletics forest and you can choose which order you go in. We chose to go to the water section first.  I had read lots about it, so I knew we needed to wear pants that were easy enough to roll up to our knees.  

As you enter you have to take off your socks and shoes and put your things into a locker. The water section begins with you walking up a ramp with water flowing down it.  It's all chlorinated and I've read that the start is to clean everyone's feet before going into the main section.  We loved the crystal light section. 

There is a room where you can walk around in ankle deep warm water which has lights projecting onto it which are fish and flowers. As you walk through the water the fish and flowers move as you get close to them.  I was worried that it would be gross walking around in the water with everyone else, but I think knowing we had already walked through water to clean our feet made it a lot better. It was so beautiful, and we loved seeing how the water changed. 

There was a huge room full of huge balls which you were allowed to push around. There were a lot of people in there, so these photos are deceiving, but I was able to take a quick photo before other people came along. 

There is music playing the whole time you walk around and it's almost the same in every room. It was very calming.  I absolutely loved the Floating in the Falling Universe of Flowers room.  You can lay down on the floor and on the ceiling are floating flowers and colours. Harri said it made his head spin a bit after his concussion and found it too overstimulating and couldn't stay in there for long, but I could've spent ages in there. 

After each section you come back out to the locker room, and we were able to put our shoes on after the water section and move into another area. Next, we went into the Athletics Forest area, and we were lucky as there were a lot of new exhibitions that had just opened up before our trip. 

We all had to try the aerial climbing, the stepping stones (which looks like you are actually stepping in real water but it's just lights reflecting) and Harri and Kobe had to join the kids on the slide. 

We then went into the graffiti nature room which was so much fun.  You are given a creature to colour in and they scan it and it then appears on the walls and floor and moves around. You can even control it using an app on your phone.   Once we saw Jalen's frog jumping around, we all wanted to have a go. 

Right next to the graffiti nature room was sketch world which was a similar idea.  This time you could colour in either a plane, dolphin, hawk or butterfly and then once they scan it, it appears up on the wall like it's swimming or flying. You can also control it with an app on your phone or by touching it on the wall. 

We loved spending ages just colouring in which was very relaxing and then loved seeing our creations up on the wall. 

I chose to do a dolphin and put Aaron's name on it since we were at the beach the day that he passed away. 

There were so many things to see and do and it was such a beautiful way to spend Aaron's anniversary day together. 

The last section that we went to was the Garden section. There was a beautiful floating garden with real flowers which hang from the ceiling, and they move as people walk around the space. 

By the time we came out it was dark, and we were tired and hungry and decided to go back to Asakusa to get dinner there. 

On the train on the way back was this beautiful older lady.  I noticed her and offered her the seat, but she kept insisting that I sit down instead.  We then realised that there was enough room for both of us, so we sat next to each other for part of our trip. As she got off, she bowed to me and said in perfect English 'have a great trip' and it almost made me cry. 

We decided that we had to have Maccas for dinner for Aaron (his favourite) but the rule was that everyone had to try something off the menu that was only in Japan (as well as anything else they wanted).  Jalen took the very safe fried chicken fillet option. 

                                           

Harri got the grape float drink and milk tea pie (also very safe!). 

I got the shrimp burger and milk tea pie. I didn't love the shrimp burger, but it also wasn't terrible. I wouldn't order it again though. 

Kobe also got the milk tea pie which he didn't love, but I didn't mind it. 

The boys headed back to our accommodation, but I wanted to walk around Asakusa at night one more time, as we were leaving in the morning. 

                                 

I was actually so sad to leave the area as we loved it there and it was so special being able to walk around the temple at night.  

                                           

As I walked around the streets I walked past this shop where you can hire kimonos, and it reminded me how safe Japan is as they just leave them out on display all night. 

It was always hard to find Pepsi and we always have Pepsi on Aaron's birthday or anniversary of his death. I hadn't seen Pepsi all day, but just as I was about to get back to our accommodation, I spotted a vending machine with Pepsi in it.  

Thirteen years ago, I never would've imagined that I would've been having a Pepsi in Tokyo for Aaron and feeling so happy on the anniversary of his death. We had a beautiful day together and I know he was with us.