We recently had a visit from our dear friend Louise. She was our first official visitor. We had prepared a “what to do in Tokyo” list which was about to be tested!
Day 1: jetlag recovery consisted of a shopping trip to Queens Tower, Landmark Tower, Sky Building and SOGO. After a brief nap we popped some Moet and cheese and headed to the Red Brick Warehouse for dinner.
Tip 1: Red Brick Warehouse restaurants do not have good A/C… not conducive to summer dinners!
Day 2: Mammoth 11hr Mt Fuji bus trip. We got on the bus only to hear that the usual 1.5hr ride was going to take +3hrs due to serious traffic… great.
Tip 2: don’t do tours on the weekends
We were also unlucky enough to have a little American kid on our bus that was high on coloured cereal and chocolate his mum was feeding him…bless. We had a pit-stop half way for lunch, and finally reached the 5th Station of Mt Fuji… only to be surrounded by a cloud! The relief was it was 10 degrees cooler up there!
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| The evil 4 year old... |
There were hundreds of hikers prepping to climb to the top… too bad that 5mins after we got back in the bus it poured with rain :P Apparently 300,000 people climb Mt Fuji every summer.
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| Duey, Huey and Louie |
After more bad traffic we reached Lake Ashi in time for the final “Pleasure cruise” – definitely the highlight of our day! We then descended to the town of Hakone to catch the Shinkansen home… being the weary traveller that I am, I was wearing my travel bands… unfortunately the guy at the back of the bus wasn’t… and his lunch came up.
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| Lake Ashi |
Tip 3: you never know who will be on your tour bus with you – take an ipod or earplugs!
20mins on the Shinkansen and we were back to Shin-Yokohama… much more pleasant than a 3hr bus trip!
Day 3: Ninja was in charge of Louie midweek during the day. They ventured to Akihabara, Shinjuku and Ginza. That night we were treated to udon noodle beef stir-fry from Chef Louise with some Veuve and South African red.
Tip 4: Don’t drink on Monday nights, it sets a bad precedent no matter where you are in the world!
Day 4: Ninja and Lou took the bikes out for a hot ride around Yokohama to Motomachi and back past the Red Brick Warehouse. They headed in to Tokyo and hit the kitchen district – Kappabashi and a few other spot before getting the dreaded call from me that I was working late – fortunately they were flexible and met me at Yokohama station for some … Japanese!
Day 5: Ninja and Lou tried out the Kill Bill restaurant with the other WEL WHAGs (wives, husband and girlfriends) – apparently it was a huge hit… whilst I was in workshops all day… humpf! The good part of the day was getting a pair of ninja shoes from my Ninja… alas his feet are too high-arched to fit them!
We hit Yokohama Stadium that night for the Baystars Vs Giant game – the Baystar’s gave away an early lead but made a big comeback towards the end… sadly they suffered a 7-8 loss, but we had fun.
Tip 5: The 4,000 Yen tickets are soooo much better than the 3,500 Yen bleacher seats… hoorah for not sitting next to a trumpet! :)
Day 6: BIG DAY! A Disney day! We were very excited to visit Disney Sea midweek and breeze through the lines and rides… epic fail!
Tip 6: Disneyland or Sea can only be visited midweek AND during school terms!
We waited 1.5hrs to get in, in the stinking heat and then got our first Fast Pass… for 5:50pm! Disaster! We licked our wounds and went on the Storm Rider, which was a big simulator that squirts water on you – nice and refreshing! We then wandered the park and took pics whilst looking for a place to eat that didn't have lines 50 people long.
After lunch Louie had a “eureka” moment where she read that “single riders” can pass even the Fast Passer's and fill in gaps on 4 of the main rides. We hit the Indiana Jones ride – queue for the plebs… 2hrs… queue for Huey, Duey and Louie – 10mins! Booyah! We planned our poses for the ride picture, but alas Louie came up short… she hasn’t had the practice that Ninja and I have :)
We then hit the water show in the centre of the park in the hopes that the Genie’s squirt gun would reach us… it didn’t. The other rides had closed off their “single riders” lines – prejudice I say! So we stumbled home for a glorious shower and some Veuve (are you sensing a pattern here?).
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| see no evil |
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| Speak no evil |
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| Hear no evil |
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| Indiana Jones - Disney Sea |
We then hit Grandciar downstairs for their 7 course set with a great bottle of French wine.
Day 7: Sadly Louie declined our offer to stay with us and be our full-time translator (she’s awesome at Japanese) and she headed to Singapore. Tristan and I were rather looking forward to a bit of liver cleansing but that would have to wait one more day – work drinks at Kirin Brewery! All you can eat and drink for 4,200 Yen…
Tough life I tell you!
Xoxo
Karate Kate
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