Last evening in Tokyo- Skytree tower and Shinjuku

The previous post in this series is here..

After spending the morning and early afternoon at Mt. Fuji, we made it back in 2+ hours back to Tokyo and were dropped off at the Sky Tree tower. It was indoors and we were happy to go up the tower, come down and also walk around the little “mela” that was going on at the base of the tower. Got to eat some ice cream, folks had coffee and tea and before we knew it, it was almost dinner time. So we went from Skytree tower to Shinjuku station.

My buddy was very particular that we go see this iconic station.. also he had visited it a long time back. It had two huge shopping blocks on either side.

Jr. had already planned a dinner at a vegan chain called “Plantmore”. It took us sometime to find it because there were two buildings with the same name on either side of the station and we were in the wrong building. After a good 30 minutes of wandering around we finally found the place and were treated to a delicious dinner. We walked out and saw a bunch of kids performing on the street. Then it was time to go back to the hotel. BTS had finished the concert at the Tokyo dome by the time we came back and that was a good thing!

Here are the photos from the last evening in Japan..

The skytree tower is amazing. They even had a mascot for the building! The shops were cute, the crowd vibrant and the high speed elevator ride was memorable!

Here is a video highlight..

We had a lot of packing to do, even with the extra suitcase that was purchased in Japan and get ready for the return the next afternoon..

Herb Garden with views of Mt. Fuji

The previous post in this series is here..

After eating Fuji apples we drove to the last stop before lunch. A herb garden. Our driver told us he already had told the restaurant that we will be coming before Noon.

There was a short drive to the Herb garden as it is almost towards exiting the Mt. Fuji area. It was beautiful. There was an observation deck above the garden with a little hike. The garden was free and the deck was not. Given the time constraint, the group just decided to hang out in the garden while I paid and ran up to the deck. Did not do justice to the money paid for the deck. There were lot of activities there including a swing .. you could take pictures of swinging towards Mt. Fuji.. it was all setup for photographers.. clicked what I could and ran back in time to join the group. The photos from Herb Garden visit

A video highlight reel..

After we finished, there was a short drive to the restaurant. There was no one there and the menu was 90% non veg, this after telling our driver that we were vegetarians. The restaurant folks were his friends. Also this wasn’t the restaurant we had checked out and put in the email earlier. Told him to drive us to the Taj restaurant. He reluctantly did and went back to eat with his friends. The Taj restaurant had a fantastic meal for us. We had a great lunch. Then we called our driver and he picked us up to take us back towards Tokyo.

He gave us the option to be dropped anywhere else if we wanted to sightsee before going back to hotel. We were going to see the old tower. He suggested we go to the new one. He dropped us off and we wished him well.

The tower experience in the next post..

Oshino Village, Nigori-ike pond and the Shinnasho-gawa river

The previous post in this series is here..

After coming back from the shrine, we got back to the van and drove to teh Oshino Village.

It is a village that is preserved in its original state. This place reminded us of Ballarat in Australia for many reasons.

The ponds, the huts, the little details all transported us to a different place and time. Then we walked behind the village along bamboo fences to the river banks lined with Cherry trees. The blossoms were just amazing!

The river was flowing gently and the flower petals were everywhere on the gently flowing water. It was an amazing experience.. We also got to eat large Fuji apples.. the original! They were delicious! The rest of the group had a peach tea also which they loved.

Here are the photos from this leg of the trip..

and a video highlights reel..

Our driver said there was one more stop before lunch and we had to rush a bit if we wanted to get back to Tokyo before getting stuck in traffic. So off we went to the next stop.