Tokyo in a nutshell

Tokyo is huge and impossible to encapsulate in a nutshell. We spent a few fabulous days in this city full of fascinating new things to discover and foods to eat, trying to get a little taste of all the wonderful things it has to offer.

But before we get into the details of what we saw and experienced, the first thing we noticed is how wonderful the Japanese people are. Everyone we spoke to before we came here who had been to Japan absolutely raved about it and I think it has a lot to with the people. They are so gracious, polite and helpful. The city feels the same way. Even when we’re in busy places like subway stations, it doesn’t feel chaotic; everything is just running smoothly and in an orderly fashion. Even places like the Shibuya Scramble Crossing, the Times Square of Tokyo:

We arrived from Cairo via Doha, Qatar, and the jet lag here was intense. It took our bodies several days to adjust, and luckily on day one, we found some friendly, familiar faces: my cousin Jacob and his lovely wife Sayuri arrived in Tokyo the same day as us. They came to Japan to introduce their baby daughter to Sayuri’s family who live north of the city and it just happened that our trips overlapped for one full day. Lucky for us, because I got to meet the newest member of my family, Poppy!

Oh, and we also had tour guides for a few hours. We went out for lunch at a sushi-go-round restaurant, where your food arrives on a conveyer belt. The kids loved the experience and the food.

The restaurant had a selfie stand at the front so we could take a group photo. They think of everything here!

We visited a cool part of the city full of interesting shops and restaurants. There is always so much to look at.

Jacob then took us to a quiet park in the centre of the city and the Meiji-jingu shrine, which was really nice because Sayuri was able to explain to us the ritual of going to a shrine, including hand washing and clapping when you pray.

We had some Japanese ice cream too, then parted ways because babies need naps and our kids are past that stage, although we probably could have used one!

While in Tokyo we also did tons of walking, more than 20,000 Jon-size steps every day, which was great because we needed to build up an appetite for all the delicious food. We took the kids to an amazing playground with an elaborate series of structures to climb and explore, including some that were on water.

It was Sayuri’s recommendation and it was a hit.

Here are a few more photos of us seeing the sights.

Shibuya:

Skytree at night, just a short walk to our Airbnb:

Sensoji temple:

Golden poop sculpture!

Of course, we couldn’t leave without going to Disney. It was wonderful, as Disney is, and I won’t bore you with all the details, except to say that DisneySea, which is unique to Tokyo, was not only fun and thrilling, but aesthetically pleasing. Ten-year-old Sabrina especially loved the Little Mermaid world they created to look just like the scenes from the movie that you can actually walk through and explore. The pictures don’t do it justice.