Tokyo, Japan - Part 2

We had free breakfast at our hotel so that is where we started every morning - Cafe Sophie, on the 14th floor, with an incredible view and a delicious breakfast:

Last year we went to Paris, and quite honestly, I was disappointed in the food. Especially the gf food, but they do it right in Japan. I'm telling you, it's the rice flour! We discovered the croissants, both regular & chocolate on our first day and literally ordered them every single morning:

Also, their souffle pancakes - so fluffy and amazing:

Friday morning, after breakfast we headed to Tsukiji Market, which is one of the largest fish markets in the world:

I had read to go on a weekday so it wouldn't be as crowded. Also, don't go too early (because that's when the restaurants are there shopping for the day) but go before lunchtime to make sure all of the vendors are still open. If you go too late & vendors sale out, they start shutting down. We weren't quite hungry yet, so we walked around to check it all out and then eventually found our way back to the food. They have strawberry stands everywhere in Tokyo with fresh strawberries, strawberry ice cream, shaved ice, mochi and even popcorn. This is where Sophie wanted to stop:

Bryan asked around to find a suggestion for the best sushi:

But our favorite find was the tanghulu! It is basically frozen fruit, dipped in candied sugar on a stick. Most of the time we saw grapes & strawberries, but occasionally we saw pineapple or maybe a marshmallow on there too:

We may have eaten one of these several times throughout the trip! 

We left the market to head by bus to another part of the city:

We had a reservation, but we got there early and they would not let us in, so we went across the street to a soccer complex & watched an adult league play. Not a bad view for soccer, huh?

Finally, it was our turn to explore a digital art museum:

I read about this place a lot & quickly learned it was one of the top things to do in Tokyo, especially for families & it did not disappoint! There are 3 main areas you get to explore inside & we started with the garden, which has fresh flowers hanging everywhere & the exhibit moves as you move - meaning the flowers move up & down as you walk though it:

Next, we walked through the athletic forest, which was very interactive. This is probably where we spent the most amount of time:

In this part, they got to draw a butterfly or an airplane and then they would scan it and it would come to life on the walls around us:

This area was kind of like the floor is lava and you had to follow your pattern and get from one side of the room to the other:

and of course, a trampoline track the girls loved jumping on:

In this area though, we spent most of our time in nature with the animals. They would walk around on the walls surrounding us and, on the floor, below us, but you could use their app to capture an animal & move it somewhere else. Pretty cool technology!

We walked through a crystal forest on our way out:

We ended our time in the water area. They had lockers where you had to take off your shoes & socks and leave all of your belongings. We literally walked through water and by waterfalls. It was harder to take pictures here, but this looks like we are standing in the middle of a body of water, which we were - the water went up halfway to our knee and it looked like fish were swimming around us:

Somehow when we came out of the water, we were in this room filled with big balls and balloons. The girls loved ending here:

We spent several hours here, most of the afternoon in fact and would totally recommend or come back again. Very cool experience! Unfortunately, it was super crowded and took us a while to get back to our side of town after that but thankfully we had reservations at:

This was one of the first restaurants I read about before we came, and I was very excited to eat here. Again, no sushi, but we had potstickers, dumplings, fried chicken & so much more & it was delicious:

The girls didn't like the dessert here so we jumped back on the subway & headed back to Ginza:

and then let them stop at a 7 Eleven for dessert. I had read they were very popular over there & we did see them everywhere! They had all sorts of capsule, vending machines & goodies for the girls to try so we might have made several stops during the trip. This night they both went for ice cream:

Then it was finally back home to crash. What another fun filled day!