Last Full Day in Tokyo

Another day, another baguette (for William). Luckily for our family's pickiest eater, most countries in the world have some form of a french baguette, so Will can survive without starving.

On Wednesday, we had breakfast and skipped swimming in the hotel so we could go to the Shinjuku Train Station and figure out how to get to some suburban park Amy heard about. We

stopped at another Japanese department store and picked up our picnic lunch, then things got a bit confusing in the train station, but we finally figured out where to go. The train ride to a place called "Nishi-Tachikawa" took around 40 minutes, but then Showa Kinen Park was right

across the street.

We walked past the pretty flower beds to the Children's Playground area and it was the coolest place ever! They had this area called the Bouncing Dome which was like a trampoline on a hill. Matt and Amy ate lunch and the kids went to jump.

T & W were soon surrounded by a bunch of Japanese kids who spoke a little bit of English and asked them "What color do you like?" and "What are your parents' names?" and other phrases they learned in school. Matt went up to jump with the kids and was surrounded by people that wanted to jump with him b/c he could make big bounces. Some guy with no teeth could jump four or five feet into the air. Matt rolled down the hill and crushed William's hand, but William was not dead.

We explored the rest of the Children's area. It had stone dragons, a fog maker, colored hammocks and a standing slide. The boys had some yummy shaved ice and Yamini had some "cherry blossom" ice cream while we walked through the park back to the train

We got out of the train at Tokyo Station (and of course had to pay extra, since we had paid the wrong price for the return tickets) and walked around some Marounuchi buildings which were very pretty and modern. Matt, Amy, & Yamini had curry udon soup for dinner while William ate his baguette and Trevor had rice.

Found a fun poorly translated sign in the shopping mall bathroom warning people not to smoke "All over the Toilet."

So, out of the top 10 things to see in our Tokyo Guidebook, we ended up seeing one thing - The Imperial Palace Gardens. But at least that was the #1 thing and we think Showa Kinen Park should be on that list anyway. More later.