Day 3 - Akihabara, Shimbashi, Shibuya & Shinjuku

Today we head out to Akihabara which is also known as Electric Town. Anything electronic you can find here.

Landon has a quick snack of sushi before we hit the stores.  It’s considered rude to eat while walking.

This is Yodobashi Multimedia Akiba.  Anything you can think of can be bought here.

Waterproof shoes?

Up on the 8th floor of this building they have a driving range and a batting cage.  It’s amazing!  

He hit a few good ones.  It was fun!

All these vending machines.  No matter where you go there’s always vending machines.  Landon picked up some great purple shoe laces.  Should look great.

We were at a 711 and they had this machine where you make your own smoothie.  You choose a cup with frozen cut up fruit, put it in the machine and close it.  When it’s done you have this incredible smoothie made from fresh fruit!



Relaxing while enjoying our smoothies.



This was cute and gave a bit of incentive when climbing stairs.  There were several flights and the calories you were burning increased with every stair.



Amazing store.  This was the store with the driving range and batting cage on the top.



These little carts are cute.  They’re all over and at night they light up.



Pedestrian only Cat Street…lots of shopping.



No trip is complete without a trip to Don Quijote.  It’s overwhelming the things they have.



Any flavour of Kit Kat.  Landon got Matcha flavour and I got chocolate mint.



This was a great Ramen Restaurant.



Hard at work.  They were so fast.



This was huge.  The pork melted in your mouth.  I couldn’t finish mine.





The Shibuya Scramble… a crosswalk that goes in multiple directions.



The view from The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office Building



and that’s a wrap for today…back on the train to our hotel.

Japan with Landon

July 27, 2025 Landon and I head off to Tokyo, Japan for a one on one Nana time.

At YVR prior to takeoff.  It’s a 10 hour flight to Narita airport.

It’s a long flight.  Landon and I play poker, watch movies and say “are we there yet?” more times than I care to count.  Boring but uneventful which is good.  We land safely then the juggling starts.  I have to purchase a Suica card for Landon for use on transit and load it with money, then I find the place where I can send our luggage to the hotel so we don’t have to haul it on the train.  Then we have to find JR East to purchase tickets on the Narita Express to take us in to Tokyo.  We accomplished all that and were on the train into Tokyo two hours later.  Very comfortable ride in but when we got to Tokyo station what a mad house. It was rush hour and it was packed. So glad we weren’t pulling luggage!

We decide to walk to our hotel which is only 20 minutes and after 10 hours sitting on the plane we could do with the exercise. Google Maps gets us there.  It’s a lovely evening.  We check in to Tosei Hotel Cocone Kanda and go to find a 7-11 for dinner. 

Get some gyoza, chicken skewers, edamame and sushi.  Quite a meal and we’re wiped.  It’s lights out at 9:00 pm.

Landon modelling our housecoat and slippers provided by the hotel. Lots of toiletries provided. Very nice.

It’s our first full day so we head off to Asakusa to see the Senso Ji Temple and shop the Nakamise Street which has 89 shops on it. It’s so hot.  It’s around 34 degrees so not too comfortable. We try to find shade when we can. There are some misters which help but we do take cover in a Starbucks for a cold latte and enjoy their air conditioning.  

The entrance gate.

We walk around then decide to get on the train and go to Ueno as there is a park and zoo there that we thought we could check out.

This is the giant panda having a snooze in the heat.  I was disappointed in the size of the enclosures for these animals.

Such a prehistoric looking bird.

Cute looking Iguana. We also saw giraffe, rhino, hippo and then went to the aquarium and saw snakes, frogs, etc.

A huge tortoise from the Galapagos.  Then we went back on the train to Asakusa to catch our cruise down the Sumida River.  Since we had a little bit of time to kill Landon found a Sushi Conveyor belt restaurant so we stopped for a snack..

It was delicious and the people there were so nice. 

This is our ride.  Called the Emeralda.  Rather futuristic looking and what a smooth ride.  We were able to stand on top for part of the cruise.  Beautiful day for it.  

Our cruise was approximately an hour and this was the route.  We passed under several bridges on our way to Odaiba Seaside Park.

View from the top of the boat. 

So hot but a cool ride!

You’d think we were in New York but here we are with the Statue of Liberty at Odaiba Seaside Park. 

We finish off the evening with sushi at a nearby restaurant.  Back at the hotel it’s off to bed as we’re pooped.