A day on the move…

On the taxi ride home from a very long day, we tallied up our modes of transportation: 5 subway rides. 30 escalators. 12 elevators. 2 taxi rides. 1 shuttle bus. 5 amusement park rides. 1 rollercoaster. 1 ferris wheel. 1 inflatable ball floating on water. All in one day.

Alex: What surprised you the most about the Asakusa Shrine?

Olly: It’s quiet and beautiful. Lots of Japanese letters on it. They look like pictures.

Why do people rinse their hands there?

To be clean. Isn’t everything clean in Japan?

It’s also a form of respect. After the Asakusa Shrine, we went to Hanayashiki—the oldest amusement park in Japan. What did you love about it?

The roller coaster! It was really fast and scary. And bumpy.

Then we walked around Kappabashi and saw lots of plastic food. What plastic food did you most want to buy?

The ice cream cone!

It started to rain and we found a tiny hidden away teppanyaki restaurant where we ate on tatami mats. Did you like sitting on the floor and having your food cooked at the table?

Yeah. Because then you don’t have to sit up high and you can just rest down low. 

After lunch, we ventured back down to the subway labyrinth and made our way to Odaiba. We went to an arcade, Legoland, and rode a mega ferris wheel. How tall to you think the Mega Ferris wheel is?

Probably half the size of a skyscraper.

At Legoland, you took a Lego building class taught in Japanese. Was it hard?

No. Because I followed the pictures of what the instructor was building.

And finally, you played in an enormous inflatable ball floating on water. What did it feel like? DId you feel like a gerbil?

It felt like I was bobbing in the water. It was big and slippery. Yeah, like a water gerbil.

You fell fast asleep on the taxi ride home. Fun day, huh?

Yeah!

Shinjuku station.

Olly is a great navigator on the subway. Give him a symbol or a name and he’ll find it.

This kid loves a good vending machine.

Asakusa Shrine.

Ninja slippers in Olly’s size.

Grilling rice crackers.

Rinsing our hands.

Hanayashiki amusement park.

Going up.

Going down. Love Olly’s expression here.

Plastic sushi in Kappabashi “Kitchen Town”.

Monument Valley

Waiting in the rain. It was worth it.

Eating teppanyaki on tatami mats.

Okonomiyaki

Drawing the rollercoaster and rides from Hanayashiki.

Back in the maze.

Taking the subway to Odaiba.

We got lost in this arcade trying to find Legoland. It might have been more confusing than the subway.

We finally found Legoland!

Lego Sumo Wrestlers

Shibuya crossing.

Japanese Lego building class.

Run! It’s Lego Godzilla!

Move over Elite Banana. It’s Gudetama, the lazy Egg Yolk.

Going up.

The tippy top.

Oliver literally begged to do this. So funny.