Marshall always said he wanted to go back to Japan when they built a temple in his mission. In 2007 a temple was announced in Sapporo. We started saving and hoping it would work out to go. Last fall we knew the temple was getting close to being finished. Then at the beginning of the year the dates were announced and so we bought our tickets in April. I was really nervous about leaving my kids but I knew it would all be ok. I was also nervous about going on such a long flight. The older I get and the more kids I have to leave, the more flight anxiety I get. It is a little much and I realize my anxiety with flying is not normal so I try to not think about it. First we flew to LA. We had a long layover there and I was so nervous for the long flight. Then we left LA at 1:00 am. I don't normally take sleep aids but I took one when we boarded the plane and I'm so glad I did. It's hard to sleep sitting up. My ear also started to hurt a lot. It was a weird throbbing and pounding pain. At times it felt sharp like a knife poking through my ear drum. I was so grateful for my sleeping pill because I was able to sleep through it for a majority of the flight. Then there were just a few short hours of listening to a book and playing Tetris with Marshall until we got to Tokyo. I felt rested when we landed in Tokyo.
We arrived at 4:30, a half hour early then expected. We took the train to our hotel. We got there at 7:00. Since we couldn't check in, we changed our clothes in the lobby bathrooms. We were able to store our luggage at the hotel.
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| Breakfast on the plane: Half American food on the top part of the tray and Japanese food on the bottom |
First we walked to the government building. It had an Olympic sign hung on it for Tokyo 2020 games.
The building wasn't open yet for tours so we got some breakfast and then walked around Tokyo Central Park. I'm a huge fan of Amazing Race so I recognized this park from season 26. The contestants had to do a robotic dance in the open square area. It was so cool to be there. It was a really pretty park. There is a temple on one side, a playground on another side. They were filming a movie in the park. That was fun to see.
We went up the south tower and the view was amazing! The city goes on forever!
Since we had such an early start we were ready for lunch early. It was nice though because we beat the rush. We found a cute little ramen shop that sat about 10 people around the cooking area. The ramen was so good and filling.
We walked around a shopping area. It is very similar to a shopping mall but just more condensed.
This was the name of one of the stores in the shopping mall.
A view from the bridge connecting shopping centers.
We were so tired and thankfully we were able to check in early so we could put our feet up. That was a nice reenergizer. We rode the train to Takiyashi and found the best dollar store called Diaso. The dollar stores are way better here so we loaded up. The shopping area with that store felt like out of a movie. There were tons of little shops, tons of people down a little narrow alley.
I didn't expect to see so many yummy baked goods, pastries, and donuts in Japan. They are little people and I assumed they didn't eat a lot of junk food therefore they wouldn't have it there. I was wrong thank goodness! We tried yummy baked goods every day.
I took this for Lynnlee.
Across from there was a garden and temple called Meijing Shrine.
Then we rode the train to Shibuya and found the Shibuya scramble. It's were the traffic stops and all the pedestrians cross at the same time from every direction. It is really cool to see in person.
We had dinner at a sukiyaki place. The waitress cooked it for us on our table. She was very sweet and friendly. It was delicious. The meat was so thin and melted in my mouth.
We headed back to the hotel after dinner. We were so wiped out after such a long day. We slept 11 hours that night! Yay for sleep! I feel grateful that we avoided jet lag on the way there because of how all the timing worked.
