Hello Tokyo

Crazy to think we are here in Tokyo.  The 10 hour flight from Vancouver was just an appetizer to the full Japan experience.  It was all about the toilets on the plane and electronic entertainment systems with the kids.  The time flew by very quickly however due to so much excitement with movies and multi player games, the children declined my advice to nap and immediately crashed hard in the taxi to the hotel.  They missed an incredible light show that would rival Time Square NYC.  Jim and I were careening our necks out of the cab windows to catch every fascinating site.  John woke up for a minute and then yelled I can 't do it, I am too tired and then went back to sleep.

We were all up bright and early after a wonderful sleep.  We have two separate rooms at the Citadines apartment hotel.  Well equipped modern hotel and super clean - a cool oasis to relax after a hot day of sightseeing and they provide kimono and slippers for all.

Once again the toilets are a hit and automatically play sounds of waterfalls.  There are way too many buttons on these Japanese toilets.  To date I have seen toilets with the following features - sound for both privacy and encouragement, bidet, spritz with cute little icons of where the water will actually hit your under pinnings. Buttons and dials for water pressure, temperature and this afternoon I encountered a toilet at the fancy Rippongi Hills shopping mall that had a deodorizer feature.

Our first morning in Tokyo was spent on a walking tour of Meiji-jinku Shinto shrine and Senso-Ji Buddist shrine.  It was crazy hot and humid - well in the '30's at 10am. Our guide Mitaki was lively and tried to keep it fun for the kids which was much appreciated.  The best part of the tour was that Mitaki gave us a tutorial on the Tokyo metro and the benefits of pay as you go vs pre paid cards such as Suica.  We are now armed and dangerous with Pasimo metro card and disrupting the calm that is the Tokyo subway culture.

Speaking of Tokyo culture...it is so incredibly quiet here.  We are staying in the Shinjuku area a lively restaurant area but we never hear people actually talking, laughing or making any loud noise for the matter.  We went out early dor breakfast around 7:30am and found ourselves walking against a sea of workers all going to their place of employment, everyone pretty well dressed the same in white starched shirts and dark pants or skirts completely in silence.  It was rather eerie.  The same goes for riding the metro, total silence, everyone keeping to themselves.  You can just imagine how easily Elizabeth and John are able to disrupt this silence with their constant fooling 😜.