Japan - Mitaka & Sumida
We spent an amazing 36 days in Japan! We did a lot of traveling, and we went back and forth between a lot of locations, cities, and districts. To make things easier to read and write, we have grouped everything in our travels into city locations and not exactly by time. The Japan list of contents so far can be found here!First up is Tokyo! Tokyo is divided up into districts and wards. To keep things all organized we kept all the districts and wards of Tokyo separate, even though some of these locations we visited days and sometimes weeks apart from each other. The districts and cities we visited in Tokyo are:
* Ginza (Imperial Palace)
* Ueno Park
* Akihabara
* Nakano (Nakano Broadway & Sunshine City)
* Mitaka (Ghibli Museum) & Sumida (Tokyo Skytree)
* Shinjuku
* Shibuya
* Harajuku
* Odds and ends and final thoughts on Tokyo
Another quick day trip worth checking out if you have the time is the Tokyo Skytree in Sumida and the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka! They are pretty far from each other so each one would be its own separate day trip. Due to the location, you would think these two locations do not go together at all, BUT, if you are a fan of Ghibli you may want to visit Skytree because there is a Ghibli store located there called Donguri Kyowakoku! While the items at the museum are unique, a larger variety of items can be found at Donguri Kyowakoku that cannot be found at the Museum and vice versa.
Since the main subject of this post is the Ghibli Museum, let's start with that! The first thing you should know if you are planning to see the Ghibli Museum is you MUST purchase and recieve your tickets before arriving in Japan. The Museum is a very popular destination and tickets sell out quickly. They do not sell tickets on site and it is very very difficult to purchase tickets as a foreigner while in Japan. We purchased our tickets 3 months in advance at JBT USA. It is also worth noting for these tickets as well as many other locations you cannot purchase them BEFORE 3 months of the time you plan to use them.
The day we went to the museum it was perfect weather for it. Raining! :p There are buses available from Mitaka station to Ghibli Museum, but we decided to walk the 1.3 km trip.
The Ghibli Museum!
That is all we have to show for the museum as they do not permit indoor photography. It is really cool to see, however, and adults as well as children will enjoy it.
Onward to Tokyo Skytree!
Tokyo Skytree is the tallest structure in Japan at a full height of 2,080 feet tall! It is also the tallest tower in the world! We were able to see the Skytree from our room at the Park Hyatt Hotel.
Tokyo Skytree view from Park Hyatt Hotel.
The day we visited was a gorgeous bright and sunny day. The walk from the station was relaxing and the view of Tokyo Skytree was mesmerizing as it grew taller and taller the closer we got to it. On our walk we noticed a Burger King and out of curiosity, we went in for a small bite to check if there was any difference between the American and Japanese Burger King. There is not. It tasted like the normal fast food we have in America.
The walk to Tokyo Skytree was also the cleanest of all the cities we walked in. Everything look brand new and freshly painted.
You will see a lot of people attempting to capture pictures of themselves "touching" the Skytree in the photo. I watched this mother and son attempt to capture the perfect picture for 30 minutes. We did not go to the top of the Skytree because you do have to pay, and we had already seen great view from our hotel rooms at The Peninsula Hotel in Ginza and Park Hyatt Hotel in Shinjuku. If you have the time, it's definitely worth checking out. Don't forget to stop at the Ghibli store, Donguri Kyowakoku, located in the back!
Since we mentioned Park Hyatt Hotel, Shinjuku is next!
Since the main subject of this post is the Ghibli Museum, let's start with that! The first thing you should know if you are planning to see the Ghibli Museum is you MUST purchase and recieve your tickets before arriving in Japan. The Museum is a very popular destination and tickets sell out quickly. They do not sell tickets on site and it is very very difficult to purchase tickets as a foreigner while in Japan. We purchased our tickets 3 months in advance at JBT USA. It is also worth noting for these tickets as well as many other locations you cannot purchase them BEFORE 3 months of the time you plan to use them.
The day we went to the museum it was perfect weather for it. Raining! :p There are buses available from Mitaka station to Ghibli Museum, but we decided to walk the 1.3 km trip.
Tokyo Skytree is the tallest structure in Japan at a full height of 2,080 feet tall! It is also the tallest tower in the world! We were able to see the Skytree from our room at the Park Hyatt Hotel.
