Find Day 1 here; we were in Tokyo in early February 2024.
After a full day 1 on our own, day 2 in Tokyo was all about friends. Specifically, Shelby’s friend, Aimee, and her parents, who had moved back to Japan from California the week before we arrived. How’s that for fortuitous timing? They met us in our neighborhood (Monzen-Nakacho), where Takuto (Aimee’s dad) had previously lived. He showed us a cute cafe around the corner from our hotel that we hung out at for awhile talking. Natasha ended up loving the cafe so much that she would return several more times all by herself in the coming days. Shelby was sooooooo happy to see a friend after having been with only family for 3 months.
After lots of chatting at the cafe, we all headed to Asakusa on the metro, where the ladies decided to rent kimonos. It was quite the process to be dressed in them! There’s an under skirt and under shirt, plus another looser top over that and then a binding around the waist. After that the kimono goes on and is expertly folded and tucked. The obi goes on after that and is tied in the back. By the time all is said and done you feel a bit like a stuffed sausage in the middle. But it looks amazing.
One thing I never realized is that there are vents in the armpits, similar to a ski jacket—I guess so you don’t overheat. You wear a special pair of socks and then complete the look with slip-on sandals and an embroidered bag. We got our hair done as part of the package—nothing fancy, but it was fun. We bought a very basic package, with a limited choice of kimono patterns and adornments. But it’s possible to spend much more to get nicer kimono fabrics and patterns, as well as warm stolls and wraps for your hands, plus fancier hairstyles and adornments for your hair.
Once we were dressed (the whole process took probably 45 minutes), we headed out to visit Sensō-ji temple, passing first through Hōzōmon Gate. Despite the weekday and chilly temperatures, it was crowded. We enjoyed walking around and, though I was able to walk just fine in the flip flops provided, I missed my running shoes!
After visiting the temple and the gardens and shrines next to it, as well as trying a pastry with red bean paste and walking around the Asakusa area, we felt we had sufficiently gotten the kimono experience, so we returned them and donned our regular clothes to go to lunch. Chris and Takuto headed to a bbq place and the girls went for ramen; the hot soup tasted fantastic and warmed us up from the inside out.
Aimee’s family needed to head out after lunch, but they navigated us to our next destination: Odaiba. We had originally wanted to do a river cruise to get down there, but the weather really wasn’t the best for it and we would’ve needed to wait for about an hour for the next boat. We opted for the metro instead. I should note that at this point I was the one pushing for us to see one more area of Tokyo when the rest of the family was tired and wanted to go “home.” But we successfully took the metro and even found a grocery store to get Chris some walnuts. We bought more strawberries, too.
We traipsed through one of the big malls in Odaiba (not as cool as the malls in Malaysia but still fairly large) and got some warm drinks at Starbucks. Chris then bought a new fleece/coat. When you’re traveling full-time, you have to be both strategic and opportunistic with purchases. His was perfectly timed given what the weather threw at us the following day.
We stepped outside to take in the beautiful views of Rainbow Bridge and the cityscape before ducking back in to eat at a Hawaiian themed place with fluffy pancakes. They were sooooooo good. It was a 180-degree difference from our dinner the previous night, LOL. After that we were truly tired and opted for an Uber back to the hotel rather than taking the metro.
Yum, those pancakes look good!