Hello Kitty world

We spent our last full day in Tokyo ticking off Emily’s Japan wish list item: Sanrio Puroland AKA Hello Kitty world. Not how I’d choose to spend my last day in Tokyo but hey, it isn’t just my holiday.

We stopped out our bakery for breakfast. No God cars this morning much to everyone’s relief. After feeding the children we headed to the station for the 45-minute train ride to Tama, where Sanrio Puroland is located. Annoyingly, this required a full change of train systems as Tama is outside the Tokyo rail network. That meant buying tickets from Kanda to Shinjuku on the JR system then going through the barriers and finding barriers fore the Keiko line for which we had to buy separate tickets.

Kairi being Kairi.

We eventually made it to Tama and the short walk to our destination. Sanrio Puroland is really like a giant multilevel warehouse they loaded up with Hello Kitty stuff. Areas inside have been set up as the houses of various characters, there are food courts and shops, a couple of rides (and I use the term rides very loosely here, and in the centre of the complex is a giant tree around which characters parade at certain times.

Emily enjoying a spot of tea.

And a bath.

We visited a couple of the houses, had something to eat, wandered the shops and had a quick photoshoot with Hello Kitty and My Melody. I don’t get it. But the kids liked it so that’s the whole point, I guess.

We then retraced our steps along the train line to our apartment to make a start on packing ahead of our departure tomorrow.

Hello Kitty giving us the finger?

Emily with My Melody.

Dinner was a restaurant-type place we’d walked past a few times near our apartment that Teneille was keen to try. You simply walked in, ordered what you wanted from a screen near the doors and then sat at a table until your order was called. A very kind staff member helped us out as the machine was Japanese only. Everything we ordered was too big and we felt bad not being able to eat it all. The food was ok but probably not what Teneille had expected when she first saw the place. Very reasonably priced, though.

We stopped at 7 Eleven for ice cream and went to bed. Bullet train to Kyoto tomorrow.