Uniqlo from head to toe - Tokyo Day 6

The previous post in this series is here..

We had a really happy dinner at the Monday Apart Hotel after coming back late from Ueno park. Then we had to pack as we had to change to the Tokyo Dome hotel on day 6.

There was a brilliant idea to do laundry, given there was a washer and dryer in the room and the nice attendant had given us detergent to use. I threw all our dirty clothes in the washer (mostly mine) and turned it on. Wash it did. Dry it did not after 4 hours. We called the attendant and they turned it on for another 2 hours.

Went to sleep. Woke up to find wet clothes. Even wetter than before. The menu was all in Japanese in the washer and there was a poorly written manual. So we called the person from the lobby. They turned it on, while we went and had breakfast.

Breakfast was great at this vegan place which had a Tarot theme. The service and food, just great! We came back in hopes of packing up and the attendant profusely apologized and said the machine was defective. They even tried to use another machine in a different room but clothes still slightly wet and damp. So I got a garbage bag full of wet clothes, put it also in the Uber and off we went to Tokyo dome.

I will still recommend this hotel to anyone. Just because I have repeatedly had bad luck with laundry in other countries, doesn’t mean you will. It is a nice hotel with good staff and great amenities.

We showed our reservation and dropped off all the luggage in the cloak room of the Tokyo dome hotel, including the bag of wet clothes. No one said anything. It was close to 9 AM and we had to be outside till at least 1 PM which was when we could check in.

We walked to the Tokyo train station , shopped there.

We then went to Ginza area. We got to go to the Uniqlo flagship store. All 12 floors of it. I have not shopped like this in a long time. Tried on lots of jackets, pants and so did everyone. We got a few things we liked and were happy to come out of the store after a good 2 hours. Then it was time to lug the bags and go have lunch.

As usual Jr. found us a Michelin star Indian restaurant right there. The food was good at Bangera’s kitchen. Then we lugged all the shopping bags and made it back to Tokyo dome hotel. The bags were heavy and I protested more walking. It was already close to 3 PM anyways. We went and got our room keys and got our luggage up to the rooms. The photos from the morning and afternoon..

Everything was slow because of the BTS concert. The seating was starting at 4:30 and there was a large crowd standing for buying concert merchandize. Even getting to the hotel was interesting. We were happy to make it to the room.

A video highlight.

We took a quick Chai break in the room and realized that some amends had to be made. In spite of eating all the packaged food, the clothing purchased was way too much. We will need another suitcase! We tabled that discussion for later and decided to leave the hotel to go sightseeing again. We were in two minds on going back to Ueno park to make up for the previous night. The group thought the photographer should not be denied and off we went..

That and the rest of the evening in another post..

Tokyo Day 5- Ueno park

The previous post in this series is here..

After Senso-Ji temple, we took a cab that dropped us off at Ueno Park. We walked in expecting some Cherry Blossoms. There were none on the path. Then we (I) heard someone talking about a walk path to the left. No one was going there. So we turned right and down to the lake area and saw another temple from the outside and took photos.

By the time we climbed back up, it was cold and chilly. The sun had also set. So we walked back to the entrance. I was going through a temporary brain fade and thinking we should come back to see that road in day light. So the group tried to calm me down from my man-opause and said “okay okay.. we will try to make time and visit this place again during the day tomorrow”.

We also assumed that given it was late evening, we could go back by train. Our memories of doing this in Osaka were nice. Tokyo was different. We saw the first train and got spooked. We had to take the second one having come down to the station. So we crammed ourselves into the next one with the kids being in the middle.

Once out on the other side, we walked back to the Monday Apart hotel.

We made Chai, cooked up Poha, semiya upma and other instant food packets and sat together and ate it !

It was a meal that will stay with me for a long time. It is not like we have not had food together as families before at each others place. This was special. The rest of the families, especially the ladies who would otherwise not eat that much were finishing things off.. for us.. so we could buy stuff of equal weight at Uniqlo ..

that sacrifice is sincerely appreciated!

The first photo below was taken in a cramped elevator in the Akasukabashi train station when we were coming out..

A video highlight including the train after we got off it. It was two stops but we literally had to squeeze ourselves in. Office train traffic in Tokyo was something else!

We did go back to Ueno park again.. Will write about it later.. for now the blog will take a break as we are back to work days. Will pick this up later this week..

Senso-ji Temple - Japan trip day 5

The previous post in this series is here.

From the Imperial palace we were dropped off at the Senso-ji temple entrance. In the middle of a busy street you get a temple entrance with a giant bell. Once you go past the bell, it is like stepping into Narnia from a cupboard. The rows of shops and the decor transport you to a different time!

The Senso-ji temple complex is beautiful. All of us prayed there the way the locals taught us. We got some ice-cream on the way back and did some shopping in the stores for candy. I tried my best to take photos without folks in them. You can see in the photos how much of a challenge it is.

There was a wedding photo shoot going on as well !! (you can see that in the photos)

A video highlight

After we walked out of the Senso-ji temple, we decided to cover the next attraction we had planned to see in Tokyo..will cover that in the next post.