To Japan and back - Part 1 | Topical Musings

At the start of May, our wait was finally over. Last year, we had booked our flights for a second trip back to Japan, giving ourselves time to research what we wanted to see while patiently waiting as many friends and colleagues went before us. But now it was our turn to head over for a 2 week (and a bit) holiday in the land of the rising sun.

We landed in Tokyo during the evening and travelled to our hotel with excitement. Over the next 10 days, we explored new areas such as Sunshine City and Otome Road in Ikebukuro, the Sword Museum hidden in the Shinjuku suburbs as well as the W arehouse District and Candy Alley. We spent nearly a whole day in Nakano Broadway searching for figurines, saw a show at the Robot Restaurant, visited the Imperial Palace and an took a much awaited trip to the Ghibli Museum. We were also lucky enough to spend a day at the Sumo tournament and saw a evening performance of Kabuki. This was all on top of visiting some of our favourite places like Harajuku, Shibuya, Asakusa and of course Akihabara. Before we knew it our time in Tokyo was over and we had bought two extra bags filled to the brim with souvenirs. But now we had catch the shinkansen across the country to Osaka. My birthday happened to fall on the same day so as a treat we ate Disney chocolates during the ride and later that night discovered pOundhouse and had some delicious cake.