We went to a sushi train place where a fast train delivered our sushi to us. After a certain number of dishes there was also a chance to get a prize from the automated ball machine. Oh and the food was quite good. We had fun sitting in our booth and it was really nice to walk out to the balcony and take in the view of Harajuku from the rooftop.
When we got to the station we decided to head up the stairs just across as they looked really interesting. We were not disapointed as we got up to the top to see the view and take in Shinagawa Shrine. We were the only tourists there and really enjoyed watching the way people went about making offerings. The gardens were really nicely maintained and a pleasure to look at. One of the highlights was walking to the top of the "mountain" for the view and having a cherry tree blooming right next to us.
We decided to explore Tokyo and we started by visiting a local temple which also had a graveyard. We were respectful as we walked around the grounds and looked at how different the graveyards are in Japan compared to western ones. Afterwards we went to a park on the way to the station and we couldn't help stop since there was a kangaroo and her joey there.
On our walk we found a good park where the kids really enjoyed using the exercise equipment. They had fun climbing and doing pull ups. We also looked for and found our first geo cache of the trip on a bridge across the canal. SV found it and was quite proud as it was quite tricky. After such a sucess we made our way back for the kids to exercise some more. We then stopped by the shops to get some food for dinner before heading back to our accomodation.
More specifically the Shinagawa neighbourhood of Tokyo. We arrived just in time to catch the tail end of the cherry blossom season in Tokyo, which made our walk really lovely. We all enjoyed being able to walk a little bit and look at the various parks and small streets. We found some of the canals in the area and explored a bit.
From experience we opted to very wisely stay near the airport after our long travel day. That meant we had to make our way from Narita Airport into Tokyo proper after packing up for the first of many times. This actually ended up working out well as the fast and efficient train system ensured we had on easy transfer to make. We got to our accomodation early but they let us leave our bags before fully checking in. Of course the combination of getting up early and the gentle rocking of the train meant some of us had a little rest. We all had a rest which made our first afternoon that much more pleasant.
We are embarking on our biggest adventure criss crossing the world. We started in comfort in the SMF lounge before taking a short flight to LAX. Our first real flight was to Tokyo with our favourite Singapore Airlines. We were all so very excited to be heading back to Japan and everything that entailed. To think that Japan was just the begining with so many more stops and wonderful people to see along the way. Stay tuned to see our adventure.
