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Last evening in Tokyo- Skytree tower and Shinjuku

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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..

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Tokyo Day 5- Ueno park

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The previous post in this series is here..

After Senso-Ji temple, we took a cab that dropped us off at Ueno Park. We walked in expecting some Cherry Blossoms. There were none on the path. Then we (I) heard someone talking about a walk path to the left. No one was going there. So we turned right and down to the lake area and saw another temple from the outside and took photos.

By the time we climbed back up, it was cold and chilly. The sun had also set. So we walked back to the entrance. I was going through a temporary brain fade and thinking we should come back to see that road in day light. So the group tried to calm me down from my man-opause and said “okay okay.. we will try to make time and visit this place again during the day tomorrow”.

We also assumed that given it was late evening, we could go back by train. Our memories of doing this in Osaka were nice. Tokyo was different. We saw the first train and got spooked. We had to take the second one having come down to the station. So we crammed ourselves into the next one with the kids being in the middle.

Once out on the other side, we walked back to the Monday Apart hotel.

We made Chai, cooked up Poha, semiya upma and other instant food packets and sat together and ate it !

It was a meal that will stay with me for a long time. It is not like we have not had food together as families before at each others place. This was special. The rest of the families, especially the ladies who would otherwise not eat that much were finishing things off.. for us.. so we could buy stuff of equal weight at Uniqlo ..

that sacrifice is sincerely appreciated!

The first photo below was taken in a cramped elevator in the Akasukabashi train station when we were coming out..

A video highlight including the train after we got off it. It was two stops but we literally had to squeeze ourselves in. Office train traffic in Tokyo was something else!

We did go back to Ueno park again.. Will write about it later.. for now the blog will take a break as we are back to work days. Will pick this up later this week..

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Japan Trip- Day 4 Kyoto to Todaiji Temple in Nara

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The previous post in this series is here..

While on the bus from Osaka to Kyoto, we had already decided to go back to Nara to see the Todaiji temple and the giant Buddha. It meant having to get up the very next day and take an early train.

There was no breakfast included in our hotel in Kyoto. Also, my BFF and me decided that there will be more Uniqlo shopping. That meant, every food item we had got from the US in case we could not find veggie food had to be consumed to make way for clothes.

We got up early, folks got stuff at a 7-11 outside the train station and we got on the train to Nara.

We walked literally past the deer park that we had visited the previous day and went on for another 20 minutes through quiet streets and parking lots to the Todaiji temple. This temple has a very very large Buddha statue and the entire temple complex is huge and amazing. It was built in the mid 700’s out of wood and metal nails. It is massive. Then the deer are everywhere. They smelled the energy bars in my bag and kept going for it!

The temple had a small hole in a pillar through which folks were trying to squeeze themselves. A few kids made it but adults tried and failed. I did a corkscrew maneuver through that tiny hole and my friend pulled me out a bit! Everyone there clapped for me. Apparently folks who can go through that hole in the pillar are in for good times. That certainly has been true. (you can see it in the video). It was a nice experience.

Do NOT miss this temple when in Nara. It will take at least a few hours to see the temple and the museum which is fantastic (sadly, no photos allowed inside museum) but you get to see the artifacts from 700 AD of wooden Saraswathi and Lakshmi that are even more impressive than the Bronze statues we see in Tanjavur museum that came 200 years later. Two photo galleries..

A few photos in landscape format..

It started drizzling when we came out of the temple. The photos we got were gorgeous with the rain clouds being all dramatic. We stopped for some ice cream on the way out. We were in two minds to eat something in Nara or go back to Kyoto and eat. Decided to stop at the 7-11 opposite the deer park for a short break (the restrooms are there) and we made our way back to Kyoto. By the time we had finished the temple the restaurants weren’t open.

Jr. wanted to eat in this famous Raman place in Nara, but it wasn’t meant to be.

A longer video highlight reel.. especially the train ride. Trains crossing each other every 3rd minute at that speed. 6 year old kids just traveling on their own for 30 minutes by train to go to school. A very different country and a very different culture.

We caught the next train back and were in Kyoto station. Our next location was bittersweet.. that in the next post.

Copyright © 2012, Sundar Narayanan. All rights reserved.