Disney Land

We went to Disney Land with Miki, Sayo, and Mina (my friends from Brock).  We spent the whole day there, went on a bunch of rides for Aiden, and even Greg and I went on space mountain while Mina took Aiden on some kid rides!  The food at Disney was all shaped in Mickey Mouse/ Disney shapes!  We got great seats for the parade in the afternoon, and even saw the lit up parade at night.  There was also fireworks!  We stayed at a hotel that evening so we didn't have to rush back and catch a train, after all it was probably a 3+ hour trip back to Miki's parents house!  Aiden was surprisingly good about waiting in the lines, and some of them were really long!  What a good boy!  His favourite rides were the Buzz Lightyear shooting space aliens ride, and walking through Goofy's house.  His favourite character is Donald Duck because he talks funny.  We had lunch at the Queen of Hearts dining cafeteria.  My camera ran out of space, so I didn't get any pictures of the night parade.  Sorry!

Shinjuku

We went to Shinjuku, a popular destination for shopping.  We specifically went to see Don Quijote, a Chinese dollar shop (or so we thought).  It was so overflowing with items, it was nearly impossible to get a stroller in anywhere in the store.  There was a lot of cheap crap (costumes, makeup, clothes, snacks, etc.) and even some totally expensive purses and watches on the top level.  I have no idea if they were fake, but I wouldn't buy a LV purse for a grant there...We went to a lot of department stores, walked around in the rain and went to karaoke.  We also found a great American restaurant (The Smile) with hamburgers and fries!

Asakusa

We went to Asakusa with Miki to see the most famous temple in Tokyo, Senso-ji.  At Senso-ji, there is a market street leading right up to the temple and there are many souvenirs to buy.  Off the side of the market street was my favourite store in all of Japan, a cloth wrappings store.  You can use the brightly coloured cloth to wrap gifts, lunch boxes, and even make a bag!  When we went to the temple it was closed, but you can still take a fortune if you pay.  I did not get the best fortune, so I tied it on the "bad fortune" rack and picked another more favourable one.  (Greg, Aiden and I came back and visited Senso-ji 3 times in total over the next couple weeks in Japan.)

We also went on a water bus tour on the Sumida river.  I am not sure where exactly we went, but we saw many interesting buildings along the river.  One of the most famous buildings is called the "flaming turd" or the "golden turd". It is the Asahi beer company building.  It is suppose to be a modern interpretation on a beer cup with golden foam coming off the top.  Here is a link for more info.   When we returned from the tour there was a ninja there doing a demonstration!  Aiden was lucky to see it!