Andre and Wendy: Walking tour and Teamlab

Not the best sleep last night, but at least some sleep. A full day planned for today.

First thing, showers, one tap controls the sink and the tub/shower. First question is can this really be called a tub, and which way do you turn the nobs. Figured it all out without getting too much of the floor wet. Pretty sure neither of us will be using the "bathtub" while we are here.

This morning we are doing a free walking tour with Guru Walk. We are meeting outside the Ueno Zoo, which is about a 20 minute walk from our hotel. Planned on picking up something for breakfast at the cafe we are meeting at, cafe doesn't open until 10 so need to switch that up. The guide shows up and told us to go to the little convenience store for something, there are only supposed to be 4 on the walking tour and the other 2 haven't shown up yet. So, some sort of pastries that were decent wrapped up, but we are definitely not in France for croissants. Only one guy from Italy turns up with us, so a nice small walking tour.

Todays tour we are given a lesson on the Samurai and Shogunate in Ueno where the feudal era ended, visited the statue of the Last Samurai, and then moved on to Akihabara district where videogames and Anime started. We walked through a great market with lots of food choices and little shops, will definitely try to come back here. We also learnt about Maid Cafes (Wendy still doesn't really like them though the guide really tried to convince here they were just "cute") Tour ended and we headed back to our hotel for a rest before our next adventure of the day. Passed by a camera store which of course we had to go in, then stopped for lunch at a spot that our guide recommended but it would have taken far to long so settled for a noodle lunch right outside the train station, cheap and decent, I had soba noodles which I am not sure if I had before.

Back to the apartment and actually had a 45 minute nap. Good thing I set an alarm on my phone as we both fell asleep, alarm went off and I had no idea where I was, I couldn't even remember the PIN to open my phone, yep I need more sleep. Will eventually get used to the 11 hour time change,

Off we go on our next adventure to team lab borderless. We take the train here and it is a little bit busy but nothing like we have seen in videos of people being squished onto the train. It was a little confusing to find the place which was weird as it is very very popular, I booked our tickets a month ago, which definitely wasn't necessary as it wasn't that busy. There are a few Team Lab all over Japan, and I think 3 in Tokyo, but we chose this Digital Art Museum. Very very impressive and lots of fun. You meander all over this huge building with multiple rooms with different digital art being displayed on the wall and changing. One room I couldn't even stay in I felt like it was moving. Rooms had crystal that was changing colours (like Christmas lights), huge balls like Christmas balls that changed colors, triangles that jutted out onto the walking path, one that looked like water was running down the walls, lily pads with frogs leading us the way, really lots of fun. We had a choice to color some different sea life, I chose a turtle and Andre a jelly fish. When you finished coloring them they are scanned and projected moving along the walls with the other masterpieces that were colored. They swam along and opened and closed their mouths, if you touched the wall they changed direction, very fun. Arianna and Andre color whenever they come to visit, she would have absolutely loved this. We also visited the tea room and had a cup of tea, when you put your tea on the table digital flowers bloomed in your cup and then the petals fell off all around the table. This happened every time you put your cup down until your tea cup was empty. We spent 3 hours here then decided it was time to move on.

We are very close to the Tokyo Tower here so walked there and got some great views of the tower right beside it. We had hoped to go up the 33rd floor of a building but I guess they stopped people from doing this a couple of years ago unless you were having dinner in the restaurant. We also planned to stop to visit a temple next to the Tokyo Tower but it was too late and it was not lit up at night like the one yesterday.

Back home with a quick stop at a little grocery store around the corner from us for some sushi and cheese potato chips. We were just too tired to go out.

Decided to book another free walking tour for tomorrow as we are going to be in another totally different part of Tokyo and we think an expert will have lots to show us.

Hoping for a good nights sleep...

24,020 steps/15.2kms

Wendy getting her first stamp

Our guide giving us the history of the Samurai

The Last Samurai

Cherry Blossoms, these are the early ones and not too many trees around, lots to come later in the month

Ameyayokocho market, a busy market with lots of places to eat and shop

Just happened across this in a window on our tour

This is a thing to do here, rent a little cart and wear a costume

Liked this staircase

Yes I made a stop here, nothing purchased

Maid Cafe menu

THese machines are very popular here, we were early in the morning, by afternoon it is full. It is like gambling for children (and adults), you take your chance what is going to come out of the machine