travelling allrite

Our last morning in Japan for this trip and I'm feeling anxious about the flight back. I hate these final days, again wishing that yesterday's Tokyo Teleport station was true to its name. If the flight home is less bumpy than yesterday's visit to Odaiba then I will be happy indeed. We were early to the Toyota Mega Web building and had to wait an hour for them to open at 11am. Alex was very proud to achieve his "licence" learning to drive an electric Pius car around the indoor track of the Drive Studio. Afterwards, in the Mega Theatre, we strapped ourselves in for a bumpy ride as the screen showed first person perspectives of Toyota cars racing around test and dirt tracks. There were also various simulators and other computer based competitions. Alex won his round of the Global Discovery Tour. We have visited various science museums across the world but Odaiba's Miraikan's Museum of Emerging Science and Technology would have to be one of m...

Trams once plied the streets of Tokyo, as they did many other cities across the world. Sadly, all that remains today is a single line through mostly obscure northern Tokyo suburbs. Judging by the patronage today it is still a popular option. After reading  this article by Gianni Simone I knew I had to ride on the Toden Arakawa line . We checked out of our hotel room, walked down to Aaliya's for a second taste of their divine French bread, then followed B to H&M, which had some surprisingly cheap kids clothes. We finally exchanged our vouchers for the actual JR Pass, booked tonight's train to Toyohashi, then hopped on the Yamanote Line to Otsuka. Arrows pointed to the Toden Arakawa line Otsuka-Ekimae stop and we joined the very long queue. Each tram was a single narrow carriage. Some quite old, others relatively new. They certainly had character. We had to skip the first two trams going in the Minowabashi direction as they filled up before our turn. Then we wer...

As I gaze out at the bright red dots forming an outline of a city skyline at night I am feeling a little melancholy. I love this little room, the amazing views and all those familiar little places around as well as all the unfamiliar nooks and crannies waiting to be discovered. It's a form of reverse anticipatory homesickness, missing the home away from home. It's not that the holiday is going to end - there is still another week left - but tomorrow we will say goodbye to Tokyo and hello to the rest of our adventure. We stayed in the hotel room a full twelve hours after arriving in last night from Disneyland. This blog is partly to blame as I was too tired to update it straight away. After a quick, but so much better than Maccas brunch of delicious hamburgers at Country Kitchen, B went off to shop at H&M while Alex slept opposite me at tiny downstairs Aaliya, which advertises itself as having the best French toast in Tokyo. It could have the best French to...