Robot Restaurant - The Best Worst Show in Japan

After a long rainy day we were able to squeeze in the Meiji Jingu shrine. It was an amazing experience with an incredible display of sake barrels at the entrance. The shrine was so peaceful, it was like walking into the past with a light flute playing in the background. Sadly the rain hampered our ability to walk around much so we headed home for a nice nap and to get ready for the Robot Restaurant.

Now Robot Restaurant is in Shinjuku, an area of town with more dance shows and cabarets. I understand Robot Restaurant started as a cabaret but turned into a full fledged ridiculous show. The absurdity of the performance was unmatched, there was monsters and giant snakes, huge lady robots and dancing metal robots. Overall it was an absurd, loud Godzilla movie, and that made it awesome in my books! Our daughter also loved the show and didn't get scared at all. They had ear headsets for the little ones too. Overall it was well worth the 50$.

We saved our money and ate at a yakinuki restaurant instead of the bad bento boxes. Well saved money isn't the word, yakinuki with kobe beef isn't cheap! But wow it was delicious and we had a great time. Shinjuku is quite entertaining for all ages.

Tokyo Craft Beer Festival and New Friends

Our friends went out to Akihabara on Sunday and we spent the day doing some stuff around Shibuya. We visited the street called Takeshita-Dori on Sunday, a insane dress up location where kids wear little dresses like japanamation characters. The street was loaded with little tweens all dressed up. To be honest it was quite adorable as they were all excited to be out and about. As with everywhere here it was a major shopping street lined with every sort of dress, sports shirt, etc..

Afterwards we met up with our fantastic host here in Tokyo, Sumi. She had invited us to a small craft beer event at the UN college (had no idea the UN had a college). We met several of her friends and they had a little boy Nina played with. We drank and ate different awesome things they bought for us to try. They really were excellent people who loved to show us Japanese cuisine and culture. We then went back to her friends apartment and Nina could play again with her new friend Tyler. We all drank and had a great conversation about life in Tokyo and many of the nuiansces compared to Hawaii.

Airbnb and our experience with Sumi have really made this trip memorable, I have to say the fun of having a great hostess really made a difference. As compared to a hotel, we were able to live like a local and meet local people who shared so much with us. It really was a wonderful experience. Here is Sumi's contact email

Yakitori Alley

So today we started with a great breakfast at a restaurant called Kalia in Harijuku. It is another Hawaiian restaurant (yesterday we ate at one for breakfast as well). The portions were humongous, as well as the price.

We then made it over to the emporers palace and that was a really beautiful walk. The ground are very, very large. There is no way to visit the palace, So walking around the area is pretty much it.

We then made it over to the Sony building that had a Mariah Carrie exhibit in the theater. The lower floors consisted of interactive exhibits of Sony stuff, great for the kids to check out and walk around. We saw a demo for the new Bluetooth speakers Sony is selling and check-out the 4k tvs as well.

We then made it over to yakitori alley. Let me say it is not for the faint of heart, or for those who don't eat hearts. We popped into this crazy little bar area and sat down and ordered what we thought were skewers of chicken. It was a sampler of chicken alright... Livers, hearts, close to raw chicken, and some gizzards. Just typing this made me gag a little. Seriously, it was pretty freaking gross, but an experience nonetheless. Oh and we started with fried chicken skins.. Yum!!

Needless to say I was nauseas afterwards and we make it back home to lay down post haste. Yakitori alley is not for the weak.

Tokyo arrival

We arrived on united after a 7 hour flight to one of the most well run and easiest airports to understand. We were quickly shuffled through visa entry and customs, and our awesome host from airbnb met us at exit of the airport. We flew into Narita which is actually quite aways from Tokyo, about an hour and a half via car. We are staying in Shibuya, a fantastic wealthier area of the city. Apon arrival Sumi our fabulous host showed us around as well as gave us a layout of the apartment. It has the cutest tatami room, and that is where our daughter Nina will be sleeping g tonight.

We got settled in, used the best Toto toilet I have ever used, and then went out on a journey to find money and food. Right down the street was a highly rated Ramen restaurant, you can find it on our map. Sadly we had yet to get money and it was a stand up bar only. After the plane ride our daughter was on her last leg, so once we found a 7-11 we actually just bought a few items there to eat.

Let me say everything we had (excluding the gizzards.. Yuck!) was great from 7-11. Some skewers, grilled chicken, and chips were enough to call it diner and get the little one to bed.

At first I couldn't get my last project fi phone to connect, but after talking with a rep and turning it from airplane mode and back, it finally started working. And it works great now. Score another point for Google fi.

More tomm.

Going to Tokyo, where do I even start?

Its another country, another time zone and one quite lengthy trip away. Plus doing this with a 3.5 year old is going to make it even more difficult to keep it together. So, some preplanning can't hurt!

So far here are some extremely useful things I have found, and how I am setting up my trip.

Reddit Japan Travel - This is the defacto community to ask questions about your trip. Looking for general advice, travel plan recommendations, or just another eyeball on your itinerary? Register here and ask away, just read the FAQ before doing so.

Tokyo Metro App & Free Wifi Info - This app gets you around the Tokyo subway with ease. Hit the button to mark current location and then select the station to go to. It tells you everything you need to know to get there. Also displays what stations have free wifi.

Tokyo with Kids - Check out this excellent blog with info for traveling in Tokyo with kids. We picked a few items from here and added them to our map.

Tips for Traveling - Saw this guys post on reddit and he had just gotten back from Tokyo. Good tips in here.

Google Translate - Use this to translate those menus and maps! When you download the app make sure you download the Japanese translation pack as well, it is useful to have this offline.

For us, we have T-Mobile so we should be able to roam free over there. I did just get accepted in project FI from Google, so I will also see if I have issues in Tokyo with that network as well. Since they are just piggybacking networks, even T-Mobile, I doubt I will have an issue.

We decided against taking a car seat as I doubt we will be riding in a car. Tokyo also allows you to ride in cabs without a car seat. We will see if we will brave that adventure or not ;)

Ramen DB - Ramen rating DB, one of the most popular in Japan. Why eat low rated ramen?