fi, while in Japan. The hotel had wi-fi and it was so nice to wake up and email and text family. I was able to login and find out James's and Lynnlee's teachers that were posted at the school. It made me happy feeling connected to home and my kids.
We grabbed breakfast at Shinjuku Station. I was really surprised that they have bakeries here. In my mind Japan didn't have sweets and baked goods. Thankfully I was wrong because they have very good pastries and baked goods! We had them for breakfast Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Good thing we do a lot of walking each day.
We went to the Tokyo Tower first. When we got there it was raining and we decided not to go up the tower because we wouldn't be able to see anything. It was fun to take pictures around the tower. While there we saw city bikes for rent. We decided to rent them and get around the city on bikes instead of walking and trains. I'm so glad we did because it was so much fun and we could get places faster.
We went to a temple down the street from Tokyo Tower.
These are little doll statues that represent children who have died.
The thing that was fun about riding the bikes is that we could get from place to place fast. Also, we could see the sights in between. We had planned on taking the train from place to place but then we would have missed all of the random things in between. This garden was holding a competition. Each team designed their own piece.
We also saw this cool teeter totter on our way.
This was at the corner of the random garden we passed through. So beautiful!
Then we rode to the Imperial Palace. We spent most of our time walking through the East Gardens. They were beautiful!
It started to rain hard after we left Imperial Palace and we still had a lot of sight seeing planned for the day so we put on our ponchos and rode in the rain. It was warm still. The ponchos didn't cover as well while riding but it at least kept my purse dry. Everything else was soaking wet. It was such a fun adventure!
We stopped for lunch and figured out our plan for the rest of the day. I wasn't too excited about the rice bowl I ordered. It was very spicy.
Thankfully we found a bike return near Hamarikyu Onshi Garden. So after lunch we returned our bikes and then walked through the garden. I'm amazed at how many touristy things in Japan don't charge to see it or get in. Then I had to laugh because you had to pay and go through the garden to get to the ferry. It was worth it but just made me laugh.
A rainy view from the ferry.
Strange looking building behind us. Even the Japanese aren't sure the reasoning behind the shape on the black building.
This is the Tokyo Skytree. Can you see the beautiful rainbow? A double rainbow showed up too but my camera couldn't capture it.
We went to the Sensoji after. There were lots of little shops around that were fun to look at. I felt like I was in a movie.
Mister Donut is a favorite of Marshall's. We decided to hold off on dinner and try some donuts instead. I ordered "ice cold milk" and it was luke warm and didn't taste like milk in America. There are a lot of meals that are served cold in Japan that would normally be warm in America. The milk at the restaurant is normally served hot which is opposite for us. It was interesting through the trip to notice the differences with Japan and U.S.
Marshall ordered this melon soda. It was very tasty. The donuts were very chewy and unique.
We went back to Shinjuku for dinner. We found the most delicious curry. It wasn't spicy and totally hit the spot.
