We had such a wonderful stay in Tokyo. Truly loved the people and enjoyed our opportunity to experience the city and surrounding area. The city is very clean and surprisingly easy to get around once you are familiar with the train system - and, of course, remember to slow down :). We also are fortunate that so many people either speak English or are willing to try to help. It is fascinating how you can feel so comfortable in a place so different than home.
For our last day we set out on our own to explore a bit. First we headed up for a sky high view of the city - it was pretty cool.
Back to the Imperial Palace Gardens. You can't see the Palace, but you can walk around the outside of it enjoying the beautiful gardens. Below are some pictures from our visit.
To cap off our visit we went to something that is uniquely Tokyo - the Robot Cabaret. No matter how I try I know I won't be able to adequately describe the experience. The location is on a street that reminded us of Times Square in NYC. Very busy with tons of neon signs and people.
You enter the club and they take you upstairs to a waiting area with some pre-show entertainment. There was a singer (she was awesome) backed up by a "robot" band. We enjoyed the warmup with some bottles of sake.
After the warmup they lead everyone down four flights of stairs to the basement for the actual performance. The walk down begins the sensory overload experience with the stairs, walls, and ceilings all covered with so many different colors, lights, signs and pictures. You then enter the show area - three rows of seats on two sides of a long room.
Our hostess for the evening reminded us of our niece Kaitlyn - so we started referring to her as our Japanese Robot Kaitlyn :). Not an exact doppelganger - but enough similarities to make us smile every time she came around.
We had some fun folks sitting around us - just added to the experience. Behind us was a dad from Australia (he photobombed us!) who had seen the show before - but this time he came back with his kids and wife. It was cute because he was so excited to share it with them. Next to us was a family from Belgium - I had a lot of fun laughing with the girl who was sitting right next to me.
So the show - really there are no words. It is 90 minutes with 3 short breaks - and the time really does fly by. There are robots, dragons, Godzilla, KungFu Panda (who grows bigger and bigger!), Mutant Turtles, ... There are singers, dancers, drummers, ninja warriors, and samurai swordsmen. Throw in more neon lights, lasers, and loud music then we have ever experienced - especially in such a small place. We were laughing non-stop as we tried to take it all in. It was an unforgettable experience. Here's a bunch of pictures - hopefully they do a little better than the words. All we can say is if you ever have a chance to visit Tokyo - you really need to make the time to experience it in person.
With that we wrapped up our visit to Tokyo. Japan was one of Craig's dad's favorite places and after visiting it's easy to see why that was the case. Such a great experience.
And, as always, Enjoy the Ride!
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