Hotels

Nara

Airbnb

Kyoto

Village Kyoto

A modern, high standard, comfortable hotel. Convenient location, close to the metro. The onsen is beautiful. The view from the hotel room is… short, until the next building 3 meters. No daylight but it didn’t bother us.

Atami

Onsen Hostel Hinoemi

Perfect hostel for a family. A bit old, but clean, nice. Friendly staff. A big plus for the kitchen/living room area, with breakfast, food, TV and nintendo for the kids. Walking distance from the train station and the beach.

Hakone

Tōnosawa Ichinoyu Honkan

Feels like being in a James Bond film, in this old style hotel, very japanese in all possible way.

Tokyo

MIMARU Nihombashi Suitengumae

Pricey, like any hotel in Tokyo, but very convenient for a family with a kitchen and dining area (small, but sufficient). Modern and nice. Close to the metro, plenty of shops and small restaurants nearby.

Woke up early this morning and went to the airport for our trip back home. The trip by train mirrored our first bus trip two weeks ago: we went through the suburbs of Tokyo, the rice fields, station after station. Even after two weeks, Hugo was still looking out of the window.

It’s been a busy two weeks, we’ve taken tens of busses, trains, metros to go all around the cities we have visited. We’ve walked tens of kilometers in both busy and quiet neighborhoods. We’ve met tens of people, sometimes just for a few seconds, sometimes for a full day. It seems that we left Norway months ago. Our head is full of souvenirs and shared experiences that we as a family will talk about for years.

The trip went well, we were home early evening, and all went to bed rather early Norwegian time – but late Japanese time.

We split again this morning, this time Sev and Sarah went shopping, and I took the boys to Tokyo bay area.

We took the automatic train across the rainbow bridge. It was a beautiful, sunny day, we saw Mount Fuji in the distance, behind the skyscrapers.

At the station, we saw a robot in the distance, so we went to check what it was, and ended up spending a couple of hours in the shopping mall next door. We bought some robots as well – good marketing I guess 🙂

We then went to the Tokyo emerging science museum, short stay there, before heading to the stadium. Sarah and Séverine joined us after a morning of shopping.

The transfer to the stadium was as crowded as at rush hour, rugby rush hour!

It was again fantastic to be at the stadium, the atmosphere was great and the kids enjoyed it, especially the ‘waves’.

Diner at the hotel again, and packing for our trip back home…

We split into two groups this morning: Sev and the boys went to the zoo, to see pandas, while Sarah and I went to Tokyo national museum – sculptures, paintings but also armors and swords. We all had a good morning!

We met again in the Akihabara area, where the kids enjoyed all the manga/anime shops. They walked for hours in the shops’ narrow alleys. They tried their luck on the ‘gachapon’ capsule vending machines.

Late afternoon, we took the underground to the Shibuya crossing. It’s a must do in Tokyo. The kids loved it, but it seems like it’s mostly tourists who get there, entertaining themselves. Anyway, it was nice to wander around the area at night time.

We were tired so had diner at the hotel.

While we were in Akihabara, the Hools went to the observatory at the Tokyo metropolitan government building, and took this superb picture of Tokyo and Mount Fuji.

We were so lucky today to have our own guide for the day: Kumiko, a friend of my aunt Pascale and of my family.

We met her in the morning, went to the Meiji shrine – we learnt about Japanese traditions and beliefs. We saw the start of a tea ceremony inside the shrine, attended by hundreds of Japanese in kimono.

We then went to the Takeshita street, a colorful and busy street with dozens of second-hand shops – among others.

Kumiko then took us to Mikata. We had an excellent lunch near the station, and went to the Ghibli Museum, where we could discover everything about the art and techniques of the animation films directed by Miyazaki. Pictures were not allowed, and it’s difficult to tell with just word as this is a rather immersive experience. We saw a very poetic animation film, visited reconstitutions of Miyazaki’s office/studio. It was a magical afternoon for all of us.

We had an ice cream to finish with, went back to the Mitaka station where we said goodbye to Kumiko. On her advice, we went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building, took the lift to the observatory deck on the 45th floor. The view on Tokyo, by night, was also magical. Photos won’t do it justice, but here is an attempt.

All in all, we had a great day in Tokyo. There is no better way to discover a city than with a local guiding us! It was also nice to finally meet Kumiko after having heard about her for years!

We were all tired so we decided to have diner at the hotel (we have a little kitchen).

We left the hotel in Hakone this morning, took the hotel shuttle then the train then the train then the metro!

Traveling by train in a group of 14, with luggage, is an adventure in itself! I’d be curious to know what the Japanese think when they see us – we take a lot of space everywhere we go, whether it’s the train, the bus or the restaurants. And our kids can’t really sit quietly for more than 5 minutes.

Tokyo is our last stop before traveling back to Norway. We will have a busy program: rugby games (fan zones + stadium), visits, shopping – the deal was that we would not do shopping before Tokyo. It’s gonna be both fun and tiring.

Once we had checked in at the hotel, we went to the garden of the Imperial palace. It was almost sunset, the colours and the lights were beautiful.

We then headed to the Rugby world cup fan zone, but stopped on the way in a classy shopping mall where a mini fan zone with a giant screen was set up.

At half-time, we moved to the real fan zone, and watched the end of the game. Before meeting the Harpers and the Hools, we went for a walk in Ginza, its nice buildings and neon signs.

We had sushi for diner in our very own room at a nice restaurant near the hotel.