time to move on

the first few days of our trip had flown by, and all of a sudden it was time to pack our bags, check out of the square hotel and make the move to our next stop.

i had been the first to wake up that morning and remembered that i still had something in the freezer from our first foray into japanese 7-11.  

that’s a creme brûlée ice cream treat - except that the freezer really hadn’t kept it frozen.  when i cracked the top with my spoon, it made way to a little cup of goo that i still ate every bit of because it was as delicious as i was anticipating.

and then i took my last shower in the shower room that i was so fascinated by,  like, it was an entire room to yourself and you could either take a bath in the tub or a lovely, luxurious shower.  i guess it’s kind of silly to be this excited about a shower room, but it was fantastic and i loved it. 

our activity for the day was a visit to teamlabs borderless, a digital art museum that we’d read about as we researched things to do on this trip.  after we packed up all of our stuff in our suitcases, we dropped them off in the lobby to store while we went out for the day and then summoned an uber to pick us up and take us to the museum.

there were lots of photo ops here, tons of colorful digital art installations, all kinds of fun stuff to look at.

towards the end there was an exhibit where you could choose a drawing to decorate, and then you handed it to an attendant who scanned it in and then it became part of the digital aquarium that was displayed on the walls.

and then as we headed out of there, we stopped at this booth where they were cranking out fresh stroopwaffels.

we took the train back to ginza, and when we spied a restaurant that offered all-you-can-eat wagyu beef, the bean gave me the eyes and we went right in.  we didn’t have a reservation, but it was kind of an in-between time and after a short wait we were seated with a group of teenaged boys who sounded like they were probably also from southern california.

i couldn’t resist taking this and sending it to the hub - and before you yell at me, it’s just grape juice.

our appetizer was some sort of chicken salad that was really tasty.

and then we were served a little bowl of cold, creamy asparagus soup that we both loved.

our condiments for the steak - crispy garlic chips, black pepper, and “carefully selected soy sauce.”

we ate till we were stuffed full, and everything was perfectly prepared and so good.

for dessert, we were served a scoop of ice cream with fresh fruit.

can we talk about how nice the public restrooms are in japan?  clean, comfortable, and my favorite thing is the “privacy” setting - you can push a button and it’ll make a waterfall sound that covers up any - uh - noises you may make while in the toilet.  hahahahahahahahahahaha

much like disney stores, i always somehow manage to find a lululemon everywhere we go.

i was hoping to find some kind of fun exclusive items to take home, but everything was pretty much the same as what we have at home.  although i was intrigued by this:

i never did figure out what the difference was between “regular fit” and “asia fit,” but i can only assume that maybe the inseams might be a little shorter?  who knows.  i didn’t really care enough to investigate further.

we made one more stop at donki:

and then we went back to the hotel to grab our bags and call another uber to take us to our next hotel.  the view on our way was really pretty.

where’s our next stop, you ask?  well, i’m sure you won’t be too surprised.

because of our last-minute booking, i wasn’t able to get us a room in one of the official disney hotels for the first night of our stay.  but the hotel okura tokyo bay wasn’t too bad…it was right next door to the new toy story hotel and just across the street from the monorail station.

check-in was pretty easy here too, and i was so amused when we walked into our room.  not only was it an incredibly ginormous room, but i swear it was frozen in time - specifically, somewhere in the 70s/early 80s.

i cannot tell you how sad i was that this foot massager didn’t work when i plugged it in.  after the last few 15,000 step days my dogs were barkin’.

the amenities were so good, though.

i’m pretty sure we both slept really hard that night.  to have so much room to spread out in was really lovely, and the a/c was cranking so it was nice and cool in there.  and we knew we were going to need the rest because the next few days were gonna be…well, you can only imagine.

actually, you won’t have to because i’ll recap them next.  hee hee!