Tokyo Mini Break

I love the idea of taking mini-breaks in the post holiday season. It can be a dreary time, but we've turned it into our 'Better Know Your Tokyo'season.

For our Second Annual Tokyo exploration we set off fresh and excited.
Complete with fully equipped backseat drivers.
The kids were in interesting (and loud) form for the drive........ and a backseat video system never sounded so good......or maybe a sound proof glass partition (why hasn't that been invented yet?)
As a spur of the moment decision, prompted by not wanting to cart around our 'good' but bulky camera, we bought a shiny, sleek and POCKET SIZE point and shoot. I'm excited to give it a whirl on this trip. We'll see how it does.

Mark and I have finally turned into a functioning Pilot & Navigator team. It only took 11 years.....and with signs like these, we've both realized we have little choice. There is no glory in 'thinking' your right.


After checking into The New Sanno, our first stop was taking the kids to see the Tokyo Temple. It is probably one of the smallest in the world, but still amazing!

Across the way was a beautiful park to explore. It was chilly, but felt more like late fall than January so no complaints.
Part of what I love about Japanese parks is that the equipment is so fun, yet so obviously dangerous from a parents point-of-view. They seem to not worry about lawsuit potential. I was nervous with Max climbing on the old school monkey bars....... until we noticed this little guy (he looked about 4) swinging around in the top of a nearby tree...... not a parent in sight. He was literally shaking the tree all over the place.

Apparently this is still not the most dangerous thing you could do in the park....... what you really need to be careful about is throwing around the fish.


Do you want to see what a $12.00 hamburger looks like....
Zest Cantina has the best Mexican food and burgers we've had since......... .EVER! Expensive, but excellent.

After our awesome dinner we headed back to the hotel for some swim time..... the best part of the deal for the kids. Day 2 to be continued........