Japan -Day 1

We decided to go to Japan for Spring Break.  The kids had 2 weeks off school, but Tom couldn't take too much time off work and my parents were coming to visit toward the end of the break so we decided to go to Japan for a week.  We would spend 4 days in Tokyo, then stop for a day in Hakone near Mt. Fuji, before spending the last 2 days in Kyoto.  

We flew Japan Airlines.  It is such a different experience flying Asian airlines versus US airlines.  The gate agents and flight attendants are exceptionally polite.  At the beginning of the flight, they brought the kids both a (nice) toy airplane.  The flight was less than 4 hours, but included a full meal.  I had ordered kids meals when I booked the tickets.  When they started meal service, they brought the kids meals out first so they didn't have to wait.  

Tommy with his kid's meal

While we were waiting for our train to take us to our hotel, Tom decided to try some drinks from the vending machine.  First he tried a lemon lime soda, then he got a can with corn on it.  He was surprised when the can came out warm (the cold soda was from the same machine).  It was basically a creamed corn drink.  Tom liked it, the rest of us were not big fans, although Tom really likes creamed corn and used to eat it straight out of the can.

They had these vending machines all over Japan

Creamed corn drink

We took the Narita Express, a fast, comfortable train from the airport to Tokyo.  Then we changed trains at Shinjuku, the busiest train station in the world.  Luckily, we had packed pretty lightly, 2 carry-ones and 2 backpacks.  We knew we would have our luggage on busy trains several times and wanted to make sure it was manageable.

On the Narita Express

Hotel rooms in Japan are small and I had problems finding a hotel that would allow 4 people.  It was also cherry blossom season in Japan, so many hotels were booked.  We decided to use airbnb and book an apartment instead.  We ended up with a very small 2 bedroom apartment, but it had a little kitchen and a separate bedroom for the kids.  Except for the sirens from the nearby fire station every night, it was a good place to stay.

Our bedroom

The kids' bedroom/living room

 

Tom had to duck to go through the doorways.

 We went down the street from our hotel to find some dinner.  We found a Japanese-Italian restaurant.  We got a menu and it was all in Japanese.  Tommy really wanted pizza.  I was going to just pick one to order.  Luckily, they brought us another menu in English.  Most of the pizza flavors were not things I thought Tommy would like, including garlic and anchovy.  Luckily, we found something he liked.  I had a seafood salad that had a wide variety of seafood, including octopus tentacles.  It was a good meal.

Japanese menu

My seafood salad