Today was very full, even after I dropped a couple of things from the planned itinerary. We only have two nights in Tokyo so it was tough to plan. We had pastries at The City Bakery in the train station, then took the train to the Daikanyama neighborhood.
Daikanyama is cute, with Instagram styled fashionable shops and well-groomed little dogs. It ended up on our itinerary because of the beautiful set of buildings that make up Tsutaya Books. It was aesthetically pleasing, both in terms of the building and the books it contained.
A short walk away was the Kyu Asakura House. Built in 1919, it impressively withstood both the 1923 Kantō earthquake and the WWII firebombings. It has been updated over time but many rooms are well-preserved.
Unfortunately it is hot and humid right now, so it quickly gets uncomfortable in the city. Our walk from Kyu Asakura to a grocery store felt much longer than reality. We enjoyed some refreshing popsicle-like spheres and a drink before taking the train to Ginza.
Many of the malls here have depachika (デパ地下), which are food market areas on the basement floors. We went to the one in Mitsukoshi. There were at least a couple dozen vendors of well-presented sweet and savory items. I got to speak my first full (very basic!) Japanese sentence and the person responded with the information requested so that felt like a win. With the second vendor I mixed up two counting words but got real time feedback which is helpful. I started studying Japanese last fall but it’s one of those things where the more you learn, the more you recognize how much there is to learn.
By the time we worked out how to get to the rooftop patio to eat and have coffee there was only time to check out one other building: Ginza 6. It had a great view and thoughtful greenery.
From Ginza we took a couple trains to get to Disneyland, where we had late-start only passes. I was tired and hot so it did take some Disney magic to reset. We were able to see what we wanted in the five or so hours we had. The Beauty and the Beast trackless ride was new to us and it was a sheer delight. Like last time I found it fun to just watch everyone else on dates or in their friend groups with coordinating Disney accessories. There are very few families here compared to California Disneyland.
(26 108 steps)
Leave a Reply