People overload in Tokyo

It was a slow start to our first morning in Tokyo after the extremely late arrival during the night. Our home for the week is a single-room apartment with two single beds pushed together, a dining table and a chabudai - the low wooden tables you use by sitting on the floor. The chabudai won’t get much use while we are here as it was immediately pushed together the corner to make way for the three mattresses we need to place on the floor for the kids.

This is a weird trip for me. We don’t have everything planned out because we didn’t want to book a bunch of things and then realise the children couldn’t handle it. Instead we have a list of things we’d like to do and we’ll just tick them off as we go. While everyone got their extra sleep I started mapping out potential activities for the week.

Once everyone had regained consciousness we ventured outside in search of breakfast before braving the Tokyo train system. We walked the few minutes to Cafe Biot to eat because they offered a selection of toasties. Thank God for the Google Translate app and its image function which is a lifesaver when starting a menu written entirely in Japanese Hiragana.

Emily and Teneille ordered hand and cheese toasties, Aiden requested bacon and Kairi requested ham and egg. There was some shuffling of plates when then the food arrived and ham and egg was really ham and creamed egg. Aiden continued his gastronomical awakening by eating his bacon sandwich even though it came with lettuce, tomato and mayo.

After breakfast we detoured back to the hotel quickly after Emily informed us it was illegal for tourists to travel Japan without keeping their passports on them. I’d left them in the room safe but clearly this was a mistake. Passports in hand, we headed towards Kanda Station to attempt a route to the Shibuya district.

Even the buses are small and cute in Japan.

You know Shibuya. It’s the place with the gigantic intersection and 10 gazillion people. We managed to navigate the train ticket machine after a couple of false starts and Teneille noticing the button to buy multiple tickets at a time. Cash only though which was a bit annoying. We found our platform thanks to the helpful colour system of each line and boarded a slightly crowded train for the 20-minute ride.

The station spat us out right at Shibuya scramble crossing where we watched hundreds and hundreds of people walk across the road at the appointed time with phones held aloft to capture the moment. There were people who walked backwards so their friends could capture the moment - not advised on a crossing where people can walk in all directions. Sadly the woman I saw doing this didn’t meet an untimely end. Another guy ran out quickly just before the green signal to try and get a photo as the only one in the intersection. Another couple were being photographed while holding their newborn child. It was madness. I don’t really get the appeal. It is just an intersection. But maybe it is far more impressive at night with all the city lights.

Having mastered the crossing we headed for a games arcade to kill half an hour before our next appointment. The arcade was a two-storey affair, with games on the first and claw machines on the second. The kids ran around and played a few machines. We also had our first experience of people admiring the kids’ blonde hair. Kairi was getting quite a few stares with her white-blonde braids and Aiden got a random pat on the head by a Japanese man as he tried to win at Mario Kart. Spoiler alert: His sister beat him.

Time sufficiently killed, we walked over to Chiku Chiku Cafe to tick off one of Aiden’s musts: an animal cafe. Chiku Chiku cafe offers bad coffee and no food but the highlight is 10 hedgehogs you get to hold while you are there. We had booked a one-hour session and the children (and Teneille) had a great time moving from enclosure to enclosure to pick up the hedgehogs. I’ll let the photos do the talking on this one…

Having said goodbye to the exuberant Chiku Chiku Cafe staff we walked over to a big shopping complex that houses a Pokemon Centre, Nintendo store and Sylvanian Families store. It was cool seeing all the statues and merchandise we just don’t get in Australia because these standalone brand shops are just not viable in our country. The crowds in the Pokemon Centre were insane though. You could not move. I don’t know how they police things like shoplifting because it was wall to wall humans. We were quickly getting peopled out.

We ducked into a hole-in-the-wall manga shop as we searched for food. Aiden bought a Demon Slayer graphic novel he has been unable to find in Australia. Teneille then ran back to the manga shop after Emily realised she left her handbag there. The Japanese reputation for honesty held true and the bag was retrieved from the cashier after someone had handed it in.

Dinner was a sushi place that Teneille had wanted to try because you order from a screen and minutes later your order arrives in front of you via conveyor belt. The kids enjoyed picking their food from the touch screen and then grabbing it from the conveyor belt when it arrived. Aiden ate a marinated pork thing, tried a tuna roll and did pretty well using chopsticks for the first time.

We wrapped our day by traversing the scramble crossing one more time and catching a train back to Kanda Station. The crowds getting into Shibuya Station were insane. It was like the Melbourne were down 40-0 at half time in the NRL grand final and all the Storm fans were leaving ANZ Stadium at once. I honestly don’t know how we didn’t lose a child at some point through the day. Having made it through the station crush and bought tickets I was then flapped at by a Japanese grandmother who clearly didn’t think I was moving fast enough through the ticket machines.

It was a relief to leave Kanda Station at the other end and walk the five or so minutes back to the apartment as the only people on the street. Tomorrow is one of our only pre-booked days - a tour out to Mt Fuji and the Hakone region. Until then…