Ok friends, hang on because you thought Hawaii was a lot of pictures, but the next part of our trip is even more! Originally, we had planned to go to Hawaii, go home for a week & then go on our big family trip in July. However, when Sophie made school cheer, we found out she had mandatory cheer camp, so we had to cancel that trip. We were pretty bummed. We also knew we had to go somewhere sooner to get back in time for camp, so we decided to extend our trip from Hawaii & fly over to Japan instead:
We had to take a quick flight from Maui to Oahu, and then we got on a bigger flight on Japan Airlines to Tokyo. Can I just make a quick disclaimer that we were really impressed with JAL? They had bidets in the bathrooms! What?! Bryan was able to order us gluten free meals, but we were pretty bummed when dessert was served. They gave all of the passengers Dole Whip, except for us. They gave us a banana! The Dole Whip clearly said Gluten Free on the packaging, and they still wouldn't give it to us:
We left early Tuesday morning from Hawaii and got to Tokyo Wednesday afternoon/evening, even though it was only a 9-hour flight. We decided to stay in Ginza, which we loved. The area is not as touristy but very clean & very safe. We absolutely loved our hotel - the customer service there was phenomenal:
They even upgraded us to a corner suite with the best view:
Just a pretty city view overlooking Adidas & Louis Vuitton. Ha!
We were hungry so as soon as we settled in, we walked to dinner & this was probably my favorite dinner of the entire trip:
We us the Find Me GF app when we travel & we found a restaurant highly rated within walking distance from the hotel. It was downstairs in the basement, and the entire restaurant was gluten free. But the big surprise was that they use soy milk instead of dairy milk, so this was the very first time I was able to have my favorite pasta carbonaro df & gf! This was also the first time that I realized they use a lot of rice flour in Japan instead of wheat flour, so we were welcomed with rice flour bread and it was awesome also. I knew it was going to be a good week eating our way through Tokyo!
Thursday morning was our first full day there & I booked a tour guide to help show us around, introduce us to the city & their subway system. We already had our Suica cards ready to go and she took us to Tokyo Station, which is a major stop on their subway system. Lots of history here & apparently a lot of local people get married or have their engagement pictures here:
We had planned on walking the entire trip and hopping on the subway when we needed to and as you can see, it rained our first day. Not enough to ruin the day, but enough where we needed to carry our umbrellas most of the time. Thankfully our hotel had them for us. From here, we walked to the Imperial Palace:
We did not schedule a tour to go inside because I knew that would be too much for the girls, but we walked around the gardens outside the palace and saw the famous double bridge:
They have these trees everywhere around the palace that I thought were bonsai trees, but I learned that bonsai trees are only in pots. Apparently, these are pine trees that they shape. We have a lot of pine trees in Texas, but they do not look like these!
From here we walked to the Meiji Jingu Shrine, which is located in a forest, near the Shibuya area. We learned a lot about the difference between Shinto Shrines & Buddhist Temples. Apparently when you see this structure, you know it is a shrine:
Even though it was rainy, this place was crowded but we enjoyed the walk through the forest and my favorite part was the sake barrels! Apparently, they decorate these for festivals and parades:
You forget you are in the middle of a bustling city since this area was so quiet & reserved:
When we made it to the shrine itself, our guide taught us how to purify ourselves before entering:
and we stopped at several places to pray and share our fortunes:
After a moment of reverence, she took us back to the craziness of the city and straight to Harajuku, which I knew the girls would be excited about:
Takeshita Street is a famous street where most of the younger generation likes to come. It is filled with street food, shops, animal cafes & all kinds of excitement! We had fun walking through it and seeing it all, but I knew we would come back to spend more time here:
I had sent our guide a list of restaurants that I was interested in (because I always research gf before we get there) and she took us to a food booth close by from my list:
It was cute and the owner was very friendly and spoke excellent English. We stopped for a quick picnic lunch:
Next stop - Shibuya! This is the craziest, busiest, touristy part of Tokyo that we definitely wanted to see, but we did not want to stay in this area. Lots of good shopping here but it is mostly known for Shibuya Crossing, which is supposed to be one of the busiest intersections in the world:
I'll be honest, it didn't feel too crazy to me, but we were there on a Thursday afternoon. We went back on Saturday night & it was CRAZY! Ha! Before we went, I had ready about the Mega Don Quixote stores and knew the girls would have fun there:
It was a 4-story store, fairly affordable, and it had everything from skincare to toys to food. Bryan discovered the Kit Kat corner and was impressed with all of the different kinds of kit kats he had never seen before:
The girls loved the skincare/makeup area, but they were really excited to try this viral ice cream they have seen on videos before:
Our tour had finally ended but before Kate left us, she took us to Shibuya Sky, which is an observation deck in the area:
See this building overlooking Shibuya Square? Shibuya Sky is on the rooftop:
There are actually 3 observation decks in Tokyo, but I had read this one was a little more popular with the younger crowds but it sales out very quickly, so I booked it 30 days in advance and had a hard time getting tickets. Who knew back then that it was going to be cloudy & drizzly:
See all of that green? That is the Imperial Palace and where we started our day walking the gardens. Sophie had fun on the turf on the helipad:
We still enjoyed seeing the city from every angle & could still see quite a bit even with the clouds, except for Mount Fuji:
We eventually told Kate goodbye and ended our tour. This was our first time doing a private tour & there are some things I really enjoyed about it (learning the subway system, experiencing the different areas of Tokyo, learning more about the Japanese history & culture, etc.) but it did get kind of boring for Bryan and the girls. But overall, she was very friendly and it was a great first day & introduction to the city:
We jumped back on the subway from Shibuya & headed back to Ginza for dinner. Bryan found another restaurant on the app that was within walking distance to our hotel which was also ended up being a favorite meal from the week:
We had to walk downstairs again to the basement after waiting 30 minutes to get in. I didn't take pictures, but we had to take off our shoes before entering and then we got our own corner booth which was separate from the rest of the restaurant. And when we walked in, the table was set down low & we had to climb down to sit. The girls thought this was pretty cool:
This was our first traditional Japanese meal of the week, and we learned that most of the restaurants are either for skewers or for sushi, but usually not both. Bryan was disappointed in this because he loves sushi, but the girls & I do not, but we absolutely loved all of the skewers:
And that was our first day! I'm tired just writing about it. Most of our days were at least 10 hours long - we would leave the hotel early, stay gone for the entire day and then finally come back at night. We walked a lot, experienced so much and ate a ton. I have so much to share this week if you want to come back and see more!
