One last morning in Tokyo

The previous post in this series is here.

We came back from Shinjuku and packed for a good hour.

The next morning we were planning to relax, go around the malls near the Tokyo Dome Hotel, then take an Uber to another Indian restaurant for one big meal before making it to Narita.

We got quite a scare when checking out. My friends son was walking right next to me, all happy that we were going back home that day. I made the mistake of letting him walk ahead for two seconds only to see the elevator door close before I could get in. The Tokyo dome hotel does elevators do not show which floors they are stopping at! So we had no idea where the kid got off. After some frantic searching, we were finally back together as a group. I kept kicking myself for a few hours for that mistake. Apple maps should also automatically have a feature to track which floor a person is in with the Find Me app. Showing everyone standing on top of each other in same location doesn’t help!

After checking out and leaving our luggage at the hotel, we had a nice breakfast at a bakery right below the hotel. Then we walked to a local mall and shopped some more! Then we made it to this Jain restaurant which was cramped but had great food. We were the only ones that early at the restaurant and we ended up talking to the employees for some time and heard their life stories.

It was then time to get an Uber back to the Tokyo dome and make our way to the train station. Had to take 3 trains (we got on a wrong train first!) and eventually made it with plenty of time to spare at the airport.

That helped because we all had extra Yen left in the SUICA App we had loaded just that morning to help with the wrong train situation! We could have listened to Jr. and done it on day 1.

There is a store in the Narita airport that accepts Suica cards. So we shopped that the store to account for every last Yen on that app which ended up being a fun exercise. here are a few photos from day 8

The entire trip was a great experience! Only wished the little one could have joined us. We will get her on our next family trip!

8 days in Japan, a good three months to blog about it!

The busiest place in Osaka - Dotombori

The previous post in this series is here..

After being kicked out of Katsuoji temple right when they closed, we were lucky enough to get two taxis to take us straight to the busiest place in Osaka. It took us more than an hour in evening traffic to get there.

Katsuoji folks were ruthless. They did not allow us to use restrooms there as they closed the temple on time. One car had to do a restroom stop at a store on the way in busy traffic. Japanese drivers also are very strict about time = money. Eventually we all got there to the same location, a bridge with a mural on it.

Almost all of Osaka seemed to have converged there! It was really busy with so many folks. The river front had boat rides which we decided to skip. We walked through the streets and saw the restaurants.

We were looking for anything vegetarian. The kids were already like “another Indian place?” and I said “why not?”. There was one place which was like a Bhavikas that was highly rated. We had to go through some small stairs to get to it and it was a small space with 16 to 18 seats tops and every seat filled up while we were there.

The food was amazing! Even the kids agreed. After a nice meal, we walked back to the busy streets. It was time to head back to the Toyoko Inn in Osaka Namba for one last night of stay.. We did stop by at the busy streets and take photos with the night lights before closing out a busy travel day…

Here are some photos from a memorable evening.

I thought the photo in front of the Glico mural was great. Then Jr. told me “the insta spot in on a different bridge Appa!”. San was like so what? My reaction was “When we told our kids that they have to go around pulliyaar ummachchi clockwise, they didn’t argue. Today we shouldn’t argue when told that the photo has to be on a different bridge. There are rules in the Insta world and we have to respect them now!”

The same ladies who said there is absolutely no room for any more food at the Indian restaurant, stopped by this place which sold some kind of fruity kuzhi paniyaaram. They finished it between them and acted like it was no big deal. That has been put in deep memory. I ate half an extra butter naan to not waste it. It is water under the Dotombori bridge now..

A video highlights reel of our time at Dotombori river front..

This place was busy and noisy but an incredible experience!

Siem Reap river park, dinner and a tuk-tuk ride

The previous post in this series is here..

Believe it or not, this is the 10th stop for day 3 of our trip. Our first day of sightseeing in Cambodia that started before 7AM and ended at 6:30 PM.

Our driver stopped near the river park that was just beautiful. Given the traffic we ran across to catch the view and came back to the car. We found that we could actually walk to this place from our hotel. Made a mental note to do that the following day. After this our driver showed us around the night market area and the central square with all the restaurants. He told us it would be a 15 minute walk to our hotel after our dinner or we could take a tuk tuk back for 1 to 1.5$.

It was a choice between Modiji’s Indian restaurant or Lotus Indian restaurant. We picked Lotus. The food and service was awesome. We did feel that the yogurt was interesting. Later we learned that yoghurt in Cambodia was made from milk powder. Dairy is not a concept there and cows are only eaten. Was thinking “little wonder then that all the temples are in ruins”.

Here is a video highlights reel..

After dinner we decided to take the tuk tuk to the hotel. We were going to be picked up by our driver at 4:30 AM the next morning to see the sunrise..

It was an exhausting day with 10 stops and non stop sightseeing, a fall that ended in a bruised leg that still had not been attended to.. just went back to the hotel, took two tylenol and crashed. The next day was going to be busy as well!