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Our trip home was smooth sailing. We left Tokyo at 10am bound for Singapore! A short stop over in Singapore before landing in Melbourne where we enjoyed a proper coffee. It was a short flight back to Canberra arriving at 9am.

It was nice to be back and great to see Indi again!

Last Day in Tokyo - Senso-ji and Ninja Tokyo

Last of the shopping took us to the Asakura district in search of Sonny Angels! Almost directly after passing through the Kaminari Mon Gate, Katy spies the Sonny Angel logo hanging inside the first shop front! Success!

After purchasing the much desired Sonny Angels, we explore the rest of Nakamise Street, one of the oldest shopping streets in Japan. The food stalls and souvenir stalls were packed with tourists. Strawberries coated in a sugary syrup were sampled as were the mochi balls as we tried to use the last of our coins!

Having had enough of crowds we finished up and headed back to the hotel for some relaxing before heading out to dinner.

  

Final dinner to celebrate the conclusion of our trip was to Ninja Tokyo! We were able to just locate the restaurant entrance. Unlike most restaurants, this one doesn't have its name on the door!!

At the appointed time, we opened the letterbox and pressed the buzzer. The front door opened and we stepped inside. A voice recorded message played as we curiously scanned the room wondering what was going to happen next. Then from behind a mirror, a ninja jumped out!

She introduced herself as our ninja host for the night before guiding us through a dark rock like tunnel. The sounds of rushing water got closer and we soon came to a dead end with a waterfall and stream. On command, magically the far wall of the dead end lowered becoming a bridge which allowed us to cross without getting wet!

Crossing the bridge we were ushered into the restaurant where we were introduced to the rest of the ninja team, who would all chorus responses to various instructions! Our family was then shown to our own dinning room.

Dinner was a fancy affair with 5 courses! Our Ninja host would provide in her best English various explanations and magic tricks all with a ninja flavour! The courses were beautifully presented - some the girls were happy to eat while others were a bit too much with weird food components!

We all agreed that the main dish, a wagyu beef steak was absolutely delicious and to die for! The dessert was exquisitely presented! All in all the night was one to remember and a great way to finish our trip!

Last Sights of Tokyo - Borderless

Wander, Explore and Discover in One Continuous Borderless World

teamLab Borderless is a world of artworks without boundaries, a museum without a map created by art collective teamLab.

Artworks move out of rooms, relate to other works, influence each other and at times intermingle without boundaries. Through this group of works, one continuous world without boundaries is created.

Immerse your body in borderless art. Wander, explore with intention, discover, and create a world with others

What a fabulous place!

  

Exploring Tokyo

A jam packed day in Tokyo began early with Andy and Ella heading out for a run around the Minato district finding a local park to circumnavigate. After showers and breakfast, we discovered the Byron Bay Coffee Company a short walk away. Coffee was rated as ok.

Negotiating the subway we found our way to Brandy Melville, trendy clothing store. Several purchase were made by the girls. Next on the list was the Harajuku Kawaii Zoo Land, a cute animal cafe.

A very small space with a wide array of cute small and mostly cuddly animals! The capybara was off limits - it was adjusting to its new surrounding and seemed very content basking in the morning sun!

There were lots of ferrets - who were inquisitive and slinky and surprisingly friendly. 

We cuddled tiny hedgehogs... 

and patted the very sleepy (probably because it is nocturnal) fennec fox.

Our favourites by far were the meerkats! Such cheeky characters!

  

From the cute animal cafe, we separated for more shopping! Eventually joining up again in Ikea for food! It was late afternoon by this stage, so we continued on foot to Shibyu. At Shibyu Crossing we enjoyed the masses crossing this famous intersection. Then we managed to avoid the long photo line that had formed at Hachiko's statue, instead snapping a quick side on photo of the girls and the famous dog! Finally we made our way onto the subway through the maze of corridors and construction happy to be heading back to the hotel after a long day!

Back to Happo-One and Goodbye Hakuba

Katy was keen to make up for lost time and dragged Andy out to Happo-One for a few last runs! Ella was exhausted and happy to sleep in. 

Returning to the lodge, we'd made the decision to leave Hakuba a night early, aiming to catch the afternoon bus and train to Tokyo. We still had plenty of time to pack and head out for lunch in Echoland.

The trip into Tokyo was straightforward and we happened to bump into orienteering friends from Sydney at the station! After checking into the hotel, sushi was the request for dinner, so we headed out to search for a place to eat. The first spot we tried which was only a few hundred metres from our accomodation, turned out to be takeaway only! Back to google and we embarked on a longish walk, to an area that had multiple sushi restaurants. Choosing one, we were ushered through the busy restaurant, to a table upstairs where we ordered our dishes via an iPad! The service was quick but the sushi was not as good as the tiny local sushi train restaurant in Kyoto.

Tsugaike Kogen

Another day and another resort to explore! The powder had sprinkled a little overnight so we were excited to get out into it! The busiest day yet on the slopes starting with a long gondola ride up to the top. 

Conditions looked great up the top. Snow was fantastic to ski on. I remained doing loops while the others explored looking for the best run. On their return, we decided to do a longer run descending to the mid slope lifts. While I zig zagged along the main road, the girls were doing various tricks and Andy was scouting for potential shortcuts through the trees and into the powder. Eventually they disappeared finding the good stuff in amongst the trees and reappeared some time later!

Back up to the top and a break was needed, just as it began to snow! Unfortunately it continued to snow as we emerged back onto the slopes reducing the visibility considerably. Ella and I made our way down and decided to have an early lunch hoping the snow showers would pass. Andy and Katy braved it a little longer before joining us. Post lunch the snow got heavier and we called time cutting our day shorter than planned.