I bet you thought that now that we're home again you wouldn't get to hear about the last 2 days of our trip. You'd be wrong. I've just been too busy recovering to sit down and capture it.
Our final day in Kyoto was overcast though not quite as wet as the previous day. We packed everything back into our bags again before heading out to the Imperial Palace which was only a short walk from where we were staying. You can't actually get into the Imperial Palace itself (even though the imperial family hasn't lived there since about 1867) but you can walk around the gardens. The entire place is massive and we opted for a short walk around the walled palace rather than the entire garden (I think the circumference of the precinct was about 4kms from memory).
The gates were impressive and so we took the obligatory photos. Caroline thought it would be good to get a photo of Michael up against the wall, so he stepped over the 'moat' and put a hand against the wall. It was at that point that the alarms started to go off. It was a ringing bell reminiscent of a movie's fire station bell that was soon over-layed with a proclamation in Japanese. Michael had stepped back away from the wall even quicker than he'd gone to meet it and we wondered what the likely repercussions were going to be. No one around us seemed to be overly alarmed, but then there really weren't that many people there anyway. The Japanese message was soon replaced with an English announcement letting us all know that it was not permitted to approach the wall. Pity that they hadn't thought to put an English sign up to that effect!
We walked on and turned the corner to find one of the gates open and people standing around directing traffic. As we attempted to peer within the walls for a glimpse of something not usually seen, a fire appliance emerged. Three more followed it in the time we were nearby leading us to conclude that one of three things must be true:
The imperial Palace doubles as a fire station,
That the imperial cat had been stuck in a tree or
That Michael's setting off of the alarm had been taken more seriously than we'd thought.
Given that no-one approached or tried to arrest us, we concluded that 2 was the most viable answer. If nothing else it provided a little bit of excitement for us as we bid farewell to Kyoto. I have to say that I felt like we'd barely scratched the surface.
We travelled by train again from Kyoto to Toyko, enjoying the Shinkansen as we sped through the Japanese country-side. We passed Mount Fuji, which looked fabulous on the horizon and arrived late in the afternoon.
After settling into the hotel we made a bee-line for one of the kids must-see locations, Akihabara. For the uninitiated, this is essentially the electronics shopping district of Tokyo. Thus began a trolling through store after store looking at phones, tablets and other assorted goods. Fortunately there was just enough to keep us from tearing each other's throats out. There were some tense moments around dinner when we'd had to repeated tell Michael that we hadn't gone all the way to Japan to eat Chinese food, but we eventually both ate and survived.
Wandering through Yodabashi, we found the ultimate souvenir - the 56,800 Yen toilet sea complete with a range of controls and functions! With so many to choose from though we didn't get around to bringing one home.
That was possibly only topped by this little gem for facial fitness:
The next morning we headed out to Mitaka to check out the Ghiblis Anime museum. It was something that Caroline had gone to a bit of effort to line up before we'd left on the basis that the kids might enjoy it. It took a few trains to get us there and a bit of an uncertain walk (I think most people relied on the shuttle-bus but we couldn't even see a sign telling us where to catch it), but we did make it.
Unfortunately, whilst there were some interesting displays, the notion of explanations in anything other than Japanese hasn't yet caught on at the Ghiblis and so the level of interest quickly waned. I think the kids would have much preferred it if they'd been able to drag us through the shops all over again. it was eminently apparent when that was exactly what they did that afternoon.
They didn't have it all their own way though as we dragged them through Kiddyland (yeah I know that sounds backwards) before they could take us to hell the Pokemon Centre.
Before we ventured that far we did stumble across Condomania (which I read as Condo-mania but really was actually meant as Condom-mania). I didn't venture in, but Caroline had a quick look. There were four floors, but with kids tagging along, she wasn't in there for long at all! That rated up there with the seven floor 'costume and fun' shop that we found later that day that again we didn't bother venturing into.
In a case of I'd rather be anywhere else, I suffered with enduring silence as the kids worked their way through a store dedicated entirely to Pokemon, trying to work out what they could take a away as a souvenir whilst leaving just a little something in the shop for someone else.
From there it was back to Akihabara for something different - more shopping and a visit to one of Sam's must-see stores - Super Potato. Yeah, who would have thought? It turns out that Super Potato is a store dedicated to retro-gaming (they even had an Atari 2600 in there - though sadly they didn't have it set up to play).
The endless trek through the stores (and eventual decisions to buy at the last minute) meant that our meal times had been thrown out completely an we headed back to the hotel in search of something that was open that would meet the varied (and restrictive) needs of the family's dietary demands.
Michael was happy because we did find somewhere open just down from our hotel - a local Chinese place! At least the food was good. The only issue that came up was the great duck conundrum. Given that the menu consisted mostly of pictures and prices (as opposed to english descriptions of the food) I ordered this item:
When it was delivered, we received four prawn crackers with crispy duck-skin on it and four little pancakes with cucumber and radish and the sauce. That was ok, I expected that the duck was going to come out after that as a separate dish given it was the most expensive item we ordered. I was wrong. The duck didn't arrive. As we sat there discussing the merits of the great rip-off I grabbed the menu for a second look. That was when I noticed the second line of the price at 8,000 Yen (about $80).
This was the conundrum. What had I ordered and what would I be happy with? Did I put up with the four little pancakes at 1800 Yen and view it as one of those funny little travel experiences, or did I hope for the whole duck to arrive, love it and view it as one of those really expensive little travel experiences. The duck and the money or the skin and the disappointment?
The duck never arrived and we walked out laughing about the whole ducking mess (even as I look at the picture now I see five serves and feel just a little bit miffed!)
We stumbled into bed aware that the next day was our last and would be the end of our Japan Adventure.
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