Mum and Paul visit Part Two.

Saturday 26th was my 21st birthday. In the morning we headed to Akihabara, intending to go to a cat café, but were disappointed when we found out it was fully booked until 3pm -_- We stopped at a café for a drink, and I opened my cards which Mum had bought with her. We had a bit of a wander and found a flea market that was going on at the time nearby. A girl was dressed as a vocaloid and dancing, apparently to sell tea, not sure though. We had some pizza for lunch (Mum and Paul are vegetarian and finding food here which doesn't have random bits of meat and fish slipped in is easier said than done).

After that we headed back for a nap, we had done a lot of walking up until then. Then for tea we went with Laura to Matsubaradanchi in search of a curry house I had read about online. We couldn't find it but we found another place instead nearby so that did just fine. Laura gave me my presents from the her and the others, including a packet of tortilla wraps (hideously expensive here) and a cat plushie ^_^ We ordered our curries, but unfortunately Mum and Paul's came with tiny bits of meat floating in the sauce. I asked the waitress and luckily they said it was fine to remake it without. Lucky really, although Mum couldn't understand why they had put meat in the vegetable curry...

After that we headed back to the hotel room for some celebratory whiskey and lemonade, snacks and some J-dorama, which was some kind of Sherlock-Holmes-with-cat thing. Headed home and called my Dad on Skype, then promptly fell asleep.

On the Sunday, we went to Otemachi, pretty much right in the centre of Tokyo, to visit the Imperial Gardens. It's all tall buildings and wide roads in that area, but the gardens were an amazing break from all of that. Plus it's free to get in! They had a variety of different styles of garden, lakes and mini bridges and old buildings set over a large area. It was very hot that day and there wasn't much shade so walking round was a little tough, but it's definitely a great place to visit in the area. We relaxed the rest of the day, and on Monday I saw them off at the station where I didn't have to catch the direct train to the airport to save some money, and I figured it was difficult to go wrong at that point ^_~ After that they headed onwards on their little jaunt around this part of the globe, heading to New Zealand and then Singapore before going back home to a slightly annoyed kitty.

Really it was a very short trip but we managed to pack a lot in, perhaps to the detriment of our feet. It was nice to have visitors over my birthday again and to see family though. It made me realise how quickly things were going though when Mum said it would only be about 9 weeks until I saw them again o_o

Mum and Paul visit Part One.

From the 24th of May to the 28th of May Mum and Paul came to visit. It was a short visit but we managed to pack a lot in so I'm splitting it up into two parts :3

On the 24th, a Thursday, I went to pick them up early in the morning. This was my first time getting the train to the airport, and it was surprisingly easy and cheap (about 1300 yen total) compared to the coach we took when we first got here. Admittedly we were horrendously jet lagged then so navigating the Tokyo train network for the first time probably wouldn't have gone well. Aside from a slight getting-on-the-wrong-train mishap I managed to get to the airport fine, and after a short wait at the gate they were here!

After we had got back to my apartment I had to leave them for a nap and cycle back to the university to do an test. The nap was appreciated though, so it wasn't like I was abandoning them... After I had cycled back home a few hours later we got on the train to the next stop where their hotel was.

After checking in we were all pretty tired so we just had a wander around the surrounding area, got some noms and then head to bed.

The next day we headed to Asakusa to see the usual sights. We stopped in a café after wandering around and then hopped back on the train to head to Ueno. We decided to go to the zoo there. It's relatively cheap to get into and they have a pair of pandas loaned from China. I'm not a massive fan of zoos but it was a good opportunity to see some animals I might not have the opportunity to see otherwise (i.e. the pandas :3) 

The pandas were an interesting experience, and we also saw some lions, gorillas and the cutest monkeys with the fluffiest tails. Possibly the cutest thing was actually a baby prairie dog. It was soo tiny. We actually only ended up seeing about half the zoo, as it was close to closing time, they charged for the monorail between the two parts (??) and we were already incredibly tired from walking about. 

We had lunch before that in Saizeriya, an italian-themed 'family restaurant'. They essentially have a buzzer you can press when you want the waitress' attention, or to make your order, and they bring you the bill when they bring your food (well, that is true of most restaurants here, not just family ones). Why that hasn't caught on elsewhere, I don't know. It's amazing.

more in part 2 :3