Weekend at the New Sanno . Day 2

On Saturday we surprised the kids with room service for breakfast. It was the first time the kids had experienced room service and they thought it was so neat. Just before we were about to leave for the day Emma hit her eye on the corner of the table. Luckily it was a small cut on the side of her eye. I could tell that it wouldn't be long before her eye turned all sorts of wonderful colors. Poor thing.

Eventually we managed to snap out of our lazy morning and head to the train station. We took the train from Hiroo to Ginza on the Hibiya line and then to Ueno on the Ginza line. We were so glad that Mike had got us all Passmo cards (transportation cards) ahead of time so that we could just swipe our cards across the ticket machines. Since we all got our own personalized digital cards each one of us except Abby (she is free) has a card with our name on it. This way if any of the cards get lost we will just be issued a new card and the old one will be canceled. The best part about that is the money from the old card is transfered to the new card and is not lost! They are good for all the trains and some of the buses. They are easy to recharge at any of the recharge machines in all the stations!! That is a huge bonus. After finally getting to Ueno we walked through Ueno Park. I couldn't believe that I had never been through Ueno Park before. It is absolutely huge and the secada's were so loud in some parts that it was almost defeaning. We passed by a juggler doing some pretty amazing tricks before finally making it to the Natural History Museum. The best part was that it only cost us 1200 yen (@13 dollars) for the adults and the kids were free. The museum was crowded but really amazing. We stood in line to experience the 360 Theatre. It was well worth the 25 min wait to stand on a platform and watch an 8 minute video on dinosaurs and water life broadcast in the dome all around us. It felt like we were in the movie and were moving. It was such a thrill. While we were waiting Peter lost another tooth! I think that was the second tooth he lost since being in Japan.

Next we headed to find something to eat. After manuevering through the crowds we found something edible to eat and then went to explore more of the museum. We saw a dinosaur exhibit, a fossil exhibit, a rock exhibit, the forest exhibit, and the amazing hall of animals. I love how organized everything was in the museum. The kids loved the dinosaur exhibits and the hall of animals the best. We didn't even make it through the entire museum but decided to come back to finish the rest another day. After getting back on the train we started to head back but stopped at Akihabara first. This is THE electronic mecca of Tokyo and my dad's favorite place in Tokyo. It was a zoo and the only way we could keep track of each other was for me to follow Emma who was sitting on Mike's shoulders. Peter grabbed onto Mike's shorts and I pushed Abby in the stroller while Andrew held onto the stroller handles with me. It was too crowded but we had to go there at least once. We ended up going in this one store called SofMap and found an entire floor full of cameras and lenses. I WAS IN HEAVEN!!! Even though I realized that most of the lenses I wanted could be ordered cheaper online it was still so much fun to browse. On the way down the elevator to leave Andrew lost his first molar. That was the third tooth he lost since being in Japan.

We didn't last very long in Akihabara before we all started to get a little grumpy from the heat. We got back on the train and headed into Roppongi to eat at an Indian Restaurant called Moti. This was the best restaurant growing up. We had the Butter Chicken and Naan and it was as delicious as I remembered. After feeling quite full and extremely satisfied we went back to the hotel for a nice swim in the refreshing pool.