The McFarlands (and PJ, Lizzy’s sister) are here, and we’ve had a great time traveling around Tokyo with them, showing them some of the stuff we’ve enjoyed. I guess before I get to that, though, I should talk some more about our week before they got here. It wasn’t very eventful, but we did do some fun things.
As I mentioned last time, we moved to a smaller hotel, which was a bit cramped, but it was fun to stay in a completely different part of Tokyo. We weren’t actually very far away from our Airbnb geographically, but the Airbnb was in a residential area, and the hotel was in a business district, so we still got to see a very different side of things.
We were right along the Sumida River, which had a great riverwalk along it. People were walking, jogging, and just hanging out on the riverwalk all day and even a lot of the night. There were a few really great restaurants nearby, too – we ate at the same udon place like three times.
We found a great church not far from us – Tokyo Multicultural Church – that we visited both Sundays we were there. The people there were super friendly and welcoming – we hung out after church and had lunch there, just sitting around chatting for like two hours. It was really great. It was funny, though, how different the population was both Sundays – the first Sunday there, half the church was at some retreat, and the second Sunday, a different half was at some convention, so we hung out with two completely different crowds both weeks.
We also did a bit of exploring around Tokyo – some seeing new stuff for us, some plotting out what we’d do with the McFarlands. We saw a movie (Civil War) in theaters, which was fun and a different experience than movies in the US – the trailers in particular were different. It’s hard to explain in text, but they were, like, all high-energy. Even the dramatic trailers would have exciting pop music, electric guitars, etc.
But before we knew it, the McFarlands had arrived! They were, obviously, exhausted, but we dragged them out and around town starting their very first night. We took them to Yodobashi Akiba, the fun mall we’d been to in Akihabara, and the ramen place at the top that I loved so much.
The next day we went to the Imperial Castle gardens, which were gorgeous, and then later to Sensō-ji and Skytree mall. It was kind of bad weather so we didn’t actually go up Skytree, which was a bummer, but we had fun anyway just looking around the mall and eating delicious food.
Then yesterday we went to Disney Sea, and had a great (if exhausting) time. Disney was fun – I think my favorite part was just the intricate theming and the cool buildings. It was a long day, though; by the time we left, we were wiped – but we still had to do laundry and stuff to prep for our train ride the next day.
Which brings us to right now! I’m writing this on the train on the way to Hakone, where we’re staying at a ryokan in the foothills of Mt. Fuji. I’ll make sure to take some good pictures of Fuji to share soon!