Day 14 – The Extra Day: A Family Bonus Adventure in Tokyo

Breakfast at Toyoko Inn is a busy affair. As a large hotel it’s frequented by tourist and natives alike. Business men and women, dressed in smart suits and skirts queued alongside t-shirt and shorts wearing tourists. While croissants, pain au chocolates are available the breakfast leans more to the Japanese cuisine. We enjoyed a breakfast alongside business colleagues discussing their day ahead. For us we had decided that shopping back at Odaiba would be the best course of action and it’s my job to convince you we were correct. That we had a flight at 8pm was a blessing, giving us an "extra" day to spend in Japan. Having a transfer flight, in the middle of the night at Shanghai, less so. Essentially we had to pace ourselves, rather than try to rush to see another tourist attraction and wear ourselves out. With Odaiba just one Metro stop away from our Toyoko Inn it seemed a sensible idea to explore this area further.

Diving into Diver City

We were able to stow our luggage and all but essentials in the lockers provided at Toyoko Inn and jumped back on the Metro. The one stop trip is quick and then it’s a short walk from the station to whichever one of the three malls you choose to shop at. We were early to Diver City, the one mall we had seen but not been in the day before. It hard to miss given the 8 floors of shops and entertainment it packs in. With no clear agenda we started, souvenir hunting, at ground floor (that’s 1F in Japan). How long can a 12 year old spend in a discount shop looking at beauty products and sweets - well too much time if you let them. But Bella’s extended window shopping had allowed my wife's and I brains to kick in. We may be relaxing we still needed to know what we must do. Claire wanted to shop in Uniqlo and Bella wanted visit H&M. I wanted to visit the Gundam store and swing by any watch or sport shops if possible. James? Well, he was just happy going with the vibes.

United we shop, divided we shopped more!

My wife and Bella headed off to check out various souvenir and fashion shops. I can't tell you much about them though we did briefly whiz around the two must-see stores. H&M seemed like any other H&M to be honest. Uniqlo however was another level compared to the stores we have in the UK. The amount of products on offer was overwhelming for James and I. So, after nodding a appreciation to clothes they wanted to try on we made our exit, stage left. 

The Gundam Base

James and I headed to the top floor where, opposite a loud arcade, the Gundam Base Toyoko is housed. It's modest opening leds into an absolute Aladdin's cave of mecha marvel. As mentioned in a previous day's blog I'm not a huge weeb. I've seen some Gundam anime and even read a couple of manga. But back in the 80s and 90s it was out of reach exotica. Here there was everything for a Gunpla fan could ever want. What is a gunpla? Gunpla is the plastic models of Gundam. James and I walked through every aisle and spent over 30 minutes just in the one "store". It really is an sub-culture experience I would recommend visiting for the sake of it and learning more about the history of Gundam.

Watchout for watches

Readers of this blog will know that we had already visited sites of horologitcal interest in Ginza. So, it will come of no surprise that we had to visit Bic Camera and a store called Watch. in Diver City. There are two Bic Camera's in Diver City on different floors. While both had watches, at good prices, there wasn't anything particular that stood out. Watch. shop however was quite special. It had watches from all sorts of brands and considerable discounts too. Unable to find the Seiko Astron I had been looking out for I reverted to type and scoured the huge G-Shock collection they had on offer. There were many at a discount, plus another special coupon offer they were running that week. However, I couldn't find any JDM specific watches so much to the disappointment of the English speaking staff, I didn't try anything on.

Where's the Mizuno's at?

Unlike my son I'm not a golfer. But for the longest time I've had a great love of Mizuno sporting goods. It wasn't until I recently caught up with my closest school friends that I realised this came from us playing rugby together. Even now my friends still wears Mizuno boots to coach rugby. I had tried to buy some Mizuno trainers (sneakers if you're American) in Kyoto but my European size 11 feet left me with limited options. Spying a large ABC Mart James and I dove in. As it happens he was wearing new Adidas trainers and I was wearing new On trainers too. But embracing consumer culture we started walking the large displays of trainers. I'll get to the point - Mizuno trainers aren't easily found! 

It was something I had felt the need to keep pointing out to my family during our holiday. Asics are everywhere and everyone wears them. Likewise Nike trainers can be seen often. But Mizuno trainers don't seem to be in vogue in Japan. ABC Mart seems more sport style than sportswear but even in Super Sports Xebio in Sumida (which is more sport equipment vs style led) that we had visited the Mizuno's available were sorely limited. Should I be disappointed that I couldn't buy Japanese trainers in Japan? Maybe but having bought some in the UK my feet don't tend to notice then didn't come from their mother country. 

Time is finally up

Finally finishing our shopping extravaganza where we only ended buying 3 x packs of Japanese Kit-Kats we celebrated our success with a well-earned lunch. Staying in Diver City, there's a food court and James insisted again we only eat Japanese. So, we chose a ramen shop that had set meals for both kids and adults. The photo below is James's kids meal, with two jellies for pudding. 

After enjoying our ramen meal we were physically ready, if not mentally, to make our way to Haneda Airport. We left Diver City, taking the Metro back to Toyoko Inn hotel to collect our luggage. While the holiday was nearly over we still had one more Japanese experience to partake in - the monorail. 

Monorail, monorail, monorail

It has been in the back of my head that we would use the monorail to get to Odaiba from Tennozu Isle and our hotel there. But my brain had got muddled. It was for the journey to the airport we could use the monorail. We had seen the elevated monorail swooping about in Odaiba occasionally. So, we were all very excited to get to Tennozu Isle Station to board the monorail. Before we did however we noted signs that informed us that Suica cards don't work on the monorail. I could be wrong but we definitely had to buy tickets to board, using some last remaining Yen cash in doing so. The monorail is about as fun as you think it would be - it is basically like being on the Metro/Underground but it's a bit more bumpy and banks severely when going round corners. The journey only take 10 minutes and we were all smiles despite this being the end of our time in Japan. 

Japanese service - one last gift

We arrived deliberately early to Haneda airport and check-in. Chinese Eastern Airlines hadn't allocated seating for our return flight from Shanghai to London. It had be a slight nagging concern throughout our holiday that our return journey could be spoiled, not being able to sit together. However, as soon as we got to check-in we didn't even have to ask for help. The lady on the desk had noted this issue (bear in mind that we did have allocated seats for our flight from Haneda to Shanghai) and frantically starting typing away at her terminal so we could sit together. 

Initially she didn't even explain what she was doing but as the time pressed on and it was clear this wasn't a regular check-in she told us what she was doing. We thanked her and explained that we had try to sort out previous to flying and again at Gatwick but it became apparent she wasn't surprised that we had struggled. But with her expertise and a little time, she confirmed she had fixed it and all our anxieties for the trip were put to bed. She passed it off like nothing but for us it meant a lot.

23 hours later

It was dark when we had taken off from Haneda Airport and it honestly pained me to watch Japan's night lights grow ever distant. I truly didn't want to leave. 

Two flight later when I went into a shop my chirpy "morning" was welcomed by a reply of silence from a staff member and being charged £2.65 for a "grab-bag" packet of Monster Munch crisps. I was back in the UK alright.

But while airport shop service was poor Purple-Parking made up for it. Our car was waiting for us just minutes walk outside of the South Terminal and as we were heading against the flow of traffic even the M25 was kind to us on the journey back to Kent.

I stopped my stopwatch walking through the door home and it recorded 23 hours. It is an epic journey, any way you look at it but was it worth the effort and the money?

The final word

From the UK, flights to Japan can cost you as much as an all-inclusive holiday to Turkey for a week. Once you are there, however, travelling in Japan is only as expensive as you make it. You'll be shocked at how cheap eating and dining can be. As you may have noted too, while Universal Studios Osaka is insanely expensive, most of the sites we visited were extremely affordable or even free! We had been blessed by an inheritance that allowed us to pay for the flights, and together with savings, we had the trip of a lifetime.

I realise now I could have visited Japan years ago. I could have ticked it off the list, moved faster, covered more ground. But I would have missed the best part. Waiting meant I got to experience Japan with my family. And sharing the wonder of it all, the sites, the sounds, the food, the fun, with them made the dream so much bigger, so much better.

So if you’re reading this, I hope you take two things away. First, yes, Japan is worth the effort and the expense. 100%. But more importantly, don’t ever think that having a family is a barrier to these kinds of adventures. It’s not. It’s the upgrade.

Dreams are good. But living them together? That’s the best.

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