Day 5 started out fairly early as we were headed to the man made island of Odaiba for some really cool activities. Odaiba was 45-60 minutes from where we were staying as we had to take the metro to the monorail. The monorail trip was pretty cool though as we sat in the front which had glass windows and offered a great view.
Our first stop was to the teamLab Borderless 3D light exhibition. You can read more about that here.
After a few hours there, we didn’t want to leave. But we were pretty hungry and wanted to have a lot of time our next stop the Ooedo-Onsen Monogatari. You can read more about that here.
We really didn’t want to leave the onsen either, but we needed to get back to pack up as we had an early morning the next day.
Day 6 started with the usual flurry of packing, making sure we had everything, and rushing to get out of our place. Schlepping our bags in and out of the metro and through the train station wasn’t a lot of fun, but such is the life of travel.
Our plan was to hit the Tokyo Ramen Street in the lower section of the Tokyo Station, but that didn’t exactly happen. Once at the train station, we found it really hard to figure out how to get there. It turns out we had to pay to leave the station then head downstairs to this underground mini mall. We found the Tokyo Ramen Street, but there were lines for each place and we didn’t have time to wait.
Tokyo Ramen Street
We did find some other restaurants to eat at, but no one could agree on what to eat. So Beckett and I took one bag to one restaurant while Chuck and Mara ate at another.
Mini mall
Udon soup and tempura for Beckett and I
Chuck’s lunch
After lunch, we had a bit of trouble getting back into the train station, but eventually got to our bullet train and had a 30 minute wait to board.
Shinkansen (Bullet Train)
Riding a bullet train (Shinkansen) was one of our “must do” activities while in Japan, so I had high expectations that it was going to really cool experience. Yes, the train was sleek, comfortable, and clean. And Yes, it did go fast, but ultimately it just seemed like a normal train ride. I’m still glad we did it, and it was neat to see the countryside of Japan.
Unfortunately it was a really gray and rainy day. BUT we did get to see Mt. Fuji! It was just a faint view in the distance, but it was still Mt. Fuji. We had it in sight for a while and I’m sure it would be epic on a clear day. I didn’t expect to see it at all, so I was pretty excited even if it wasn’t perfect.
Mt. Fuji!
After a 2 hour trip, we arrived in Kyoto. We were all really hungry so we found an Irish pub before we headed to our rental and our Kyoto adventure began.