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Sayonara Tokyo

  • Writer: Serena Knight
    Serena Knight
  • Aug 25, 2024
  • 6 min read


Knowing there is so much to see and do in Tokyo, we have to prioritise and make peace with the fact that our first day was a right off, and our second day we struggled a bit with a clear head and shopping.  So we made our own tour for the day, believing that the weather forecast was going to be correct.


Off to Meiji Jingu first, and with 14 million people and an intensely packed city, this is a calming sanctuary just a couple of subway stops from where we are.  The whole area seems to have had the forethought of mass crowds, so built the pathway and landscape to not only handle high volumes of people, but keep the illusion of space.  The pathway is very wide, and is flanked by these enormous trees that block out any hint of a city behind them.


We arrive at the main area where the temple and surrounding buildings are.  The buildings enclose a square for what I guess is a congregation point before going into the temple.  Whilst you can take photos of the surrounding buildings, it's a big no no for the temple itself.  We follow the instructions, offer a koha, clap twice, bow twice, clap once to pay our respects.


The rain starts to come down lightly so we hightail it to the subway to get Zach out of the rain.  A waterproof cast for Zach would have been awesome, just don’t think of the anxiety rain brings when your cast is made of plaster.




We are off to the other side of town to Asakura to look at Senso-ji and as we step out of the subway it is absolutely bucketing down now.  We must have looked at the structure for all of 5 seconds before we raced back to the shelter of the markets.  Enough to take a photo and leave, so I don’t think any of us really got to appreciate it.  The unexpected positive is that we found undercover markets to do some shopping.  I think you pay a premium for anything in Roppongi, if you buy in Asakura it's probably about 75% of that cost, Shibuya the same item is probably 50% of an item bought in Roppongi and moving out of the tourist areas about 20% of the price.  When we come here again (and we are definitely coming back) we will do much more research.  


In keeping with the new found love of pho and ramen, the kids order their soup and then we make our way to the skytree.  Having been up to the top of the Eiffel tower, we decided not to go the full 450M up the skytree and just go to the 350M observation deck instead.  While it's cool to go to the top of something to say you’ve done it, if you still want to see details on buildings and landscapes, going to the top isn’t necessarily all it's cracked up to be (at least for us anyway).  To truly get an appreciation of the size of Tokyo, this is a must do activity.  Even though it's a jungle of buildings, we easily spotted the headquarters of Asahi, the yellow art installation stands out on the landscape.



Our next stop was meant to be the Imperial palace, however for some reason this closes at 2.45pm so we missed our opportunity.  And after being up the Skytree, we decided going to the Tokyo tower was probably not a good use of cash, it would be the same view of Tokyo, just from a different angle.  At this point, the kids have hit the wall, and time to go back and relax in our hotel room.


Our last day in Tokyo and our holiday, we hit Shibuya again for last minute shopping.  We cleared out space in our luggage, there are some clothes we have worn to death and never want to look at again, or if you're the kids, they have outgrown their clothes.  


Struggling to find somewhere to sit down for lunch, and refusing the kids' wish for Ramen from a street vending machine, we find a restaurant that specialises in Gyoza which felt fitting for our last lunch here.


Gareth has found the vending machines particularly useful, everyday in Tokyo he has gone down to the closest vending machine (which happens to be on the second floor of our hotel) and bought his beers.


Knowing we have to leave from Narita Airport we want to have plenty of time to get to the airport so pick up our luggage and make our way on the subway.  We have all day passes for the Toei line and the Metro line but these don’t cover the Keisei or skyline express.  After debating whether to get off at Oshiage station to get the right tickets, we decide the hassle of lugging us and the luggage out of the subway up to the ticket machines only to get back on the subway wasn’t worth it, and we would workout how to do the “ticket adjustment” process at the airport.  


There have been many times on this trip where people have assumed that Gareth is from San Francisco because of his Giants hat.  This time however it came in handy as a local on the train struck up a conversation with us, having lived in San Fran for a while.  Turns out we needed to get off the metro at a particular station and get on another one, as the current train only went to the outer area of the airport.  We took his advice and made it to Narita at the right terminal.  Unfortunately the ticket machine kept throwing up an error for our ticket adjustment, so we asked the attendant for help.  And I need to point out that of all the places we have been to, the metro / train attendants in Tokyo are by far the most helpful.  In this situation, he couldn’t get them to work either, so just gave us 4 free tickets to get through the turnstiles into the terminal.


Thinking it straightforward from here on in, we were not expecting the checkin counter to ask a range of questions about Zach’s arm which started to raise panic that they may want medical clearance for him to fly.  Funny how getting home seems to be coming with little glitches.  Overstayers in Europe and medical concerns in Tokyo.


This is the end of our trip and we are dead tired.  We switch from yelling and arguing with each other, to manically laughing and running through the airport having fun.  A lesson learned from this extended trip, the stopover on the way home should probably just be a quick stopover to get home, not a destination for a couple of days.  We are all in agreement that we didn't get the most out of our Tokyo experience as we were just too tired.  However it was a city we loved and needed to come back to in the future.  


An unexpected highlight on the way home is the plane is half empty and we have the skycouch seating, so Kaia moves with Gareth and sleeps most of the way on two seats while Zach and I pull out the skycouch and try to get some shut eye. Gareth and I didn't manage to sleep, but thankfully the kids did. As the last hurrah, Kaia is asked to be an honorary lolly runner handing out the lollies on decent, which of course she is excited to do and takes the role very seriously.


This was an amazing trip we all did together without killing each other.  Will we go back to Europe?  Maybe to see friends in France, and if we are over there then we will stop off in Prague again.  But for the rest of Europe, nah I think we are good.  


Gareth wants the next trip to be to the islands and I want to go to Asia.  We are compromising and thinking of doing the islands in Thailand and Vietnam.  The kids are keen as it means they get to eat Pho all day.  I do believe it's probably not up to us, the bank account says its beers in the backyard by the pool.


And that's a wrap for our European Summer Trip.  Roll on New Zealand Summer.

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1 Comment


Jeanette Burt
Jeanette Burt
Aug 25, 2024

What a journey, one that you all will never forget. In years to come Zach and Kaia will look back on treasured memories of a wonderful family holiday that took them to the other side of the world. Serena, you have done amazing blogs, so full of detail, felt like I was going along for the ride (in my arm chair) thank you for sharing your amazing holiday with us. 💕❤️ And Welcome home xxxx

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Why Europe this year?

You only live once (I think.....) and after 3 years of Covid, and spending time in our own backyard travelling, its time to expand those life experiences for us, and for our tamariki.  

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