Thanks to Yusaku's frequent traveling we were able to upgrade to business class on our flight to Japan. If you have to be on a plane for 13 hours straight with a baby, being in business class certainly makes for a more pleasant trip. As you can see in the picture below, Olivia got a chance to spread out a little, which she appreciated. Overall, she did a good job on the plane. Even considering that fact, it was still a long and tiring flight for us as we didn't get much of a chance to sleep since we spent most of the flight trying to entertain and keep Olivia happy.
Yusaku looks so happy in the picture below because we had finally landed in Tokyo. We survived!
Once we got to Tokyo, we still had to take an hour and a half bus ride to get to our hotel. Needless to say, it was a LONG day of traveling. Here's Olivia and I on the bus.
It was close to 7:00 pm by the time we finally got to the hotel and we were exhausted. We considered venturing out somewhere near our hotel for dinner, but in the end, decided on room service. After dinner, we all quickly fell asleep. Unfortunately, I was wide awake around 1 am, but that's to be expected, right?
By about 6:30 in the morning, all three of us were up and ready to go. As we soon learned, even in a big city like Tokyo, most places (including restaurants) don't open until at least 10 or 11 am. We were starving so we headed out to see what we could find. A few blocks from our hotel, we found a Starbucks that was open. I was hoping to be able to use wireless internet there on my i-pod to send my mom an email and let her know we had arrived safely. Apparently, they don't do free wi-fi in Japan. So, after getting our "short" drinks (this is smaller than a tall and not available in the U.S.), we kept on walking. As it turned out, there was a FedEx/Kinko's across the street from our hotel so I was able to pay the use the internet there.
A little while later, we met up with Yusaku's parents and took a taxi to the Imperial Palace. It was a beautiful day - not a cloud in the sky - and relatively warm (compared to the Ohio temperatures we had just come from). We walked around the grounds, which were beautiful. See the picture below of an old guard house and moat outside the grounds.
After walking around for a while, Olivia started to get fussy so I took a seat in the grassy area outside of the palace and fed her. Here we are!
The palace is the actual residence of the Emperor and his family. While we were sitting there and I was feeding Olivia, we saw many cars with a police escort pulling up to and going over the bridge. We came to find out that it was the President of the Ukraine! See below.
The next day, we started our day off with some delicious pastries at a nearby bakery. Pastries would come to be our almost daily breakfast while in Japan. They were so good and we just don't have bakeries/pastry shops quite like it around where we live so we had to take advantage of it while we were there. Good thing we also did a lot of walking! :)
Here's Yusaku with Olivia and his parents at the bakery.
Here are some very cute pastries!
Next, we headed to Tokyo Tower. It looks like a red and white version of the Eiffel Tower.
We went up in it and had a wonderful view of all of Tokyo. We could even see Mt. Fuji!
They had look-down windows so you could see down to the ground. Here's Yusaku and Olivia checking it out!
After we left Tokyo Tower, we checked out of the hotel and headed to Yokohama - just about a half hour train ride away! I will write about Yokohama in the next post, but for now, I'll leave you with this picture of Olivia and her obaachan (grandma) on the train to Yokohama.
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