When the Midlams left Tokyo they gave us their JR train passes that they hadn't used fully, so we decided to take a day trip up northish to Nikko. We didn't make it there till about 3pm due to oversleeping. It was so nice to get out of Tokyo, and get some fresh air. We wondered around some temples and were quite amazed by some of the trees they have there, they are enormous.
Nikko is a tiny city about 2 hours away from Tokyo and there was still quite a bit of snow around, so there were hardly any tourists around (and we were there quite late too!).
As the weather was still a bit chilly, we caught the bus around, and went and had lunch at a local restaurant (we ordered the Nikko Ramen which was the same as any Ramen in Tokyo!).
We didn't spend a lot of time in Nikko, but it definitely has a lot to offer in beauty and wabi-sabi. I think we will make the trip there again for sure.
We spent the next week trying to finalise numbers for Sophi's birthday party, but unfortunately a lot of people were already busy on that weekend, and Kumiko's grandfather had suddenly passed away. So the party was postponed for two weeks. So far there was about 20-30 people for the party confirmed
On the weekend of Sophi's birthday we did the one thing that Sophi had been dying to do since we last did it; we went to Disneyland.
The weather forecast was for rain on Monday so we changed our plans and went to DisneySea on the Sunday instead. We made the right decision, although, being the first nice day for a long time due to a long Winter, it was extremely busy.
This being the second visit to DisneySea this trip we took a more relaxed approach and just wondered around and took in all the magic without waiting in any long queues for rides. We managed to go on all the rides by the end of the day, but most of the kids had gone home so we didn't really have to wait for anything. The longest waiting time we saw was 210minutes for the most popular ride (which is actually pretty crap) anyway so we didn't bother with it.
We did a little bit of souvenir shopping to end out the day, and sleep very very well that night.
The next day we had planned to use the train passes to go to Sendai for the day. It is about 3 hours North of Tokyo. When we woke up it was pouring with rain so we decided to give it a miss and just go to Chinatown again for Yum-cha in Yokohama. We ate another huge lunch and then made our way into the centre of Yokohama to check it out.
The Yokohama city skyline is amazing at night, especially with the bay surrounding it.
Of course, a big city in Japan wouldn't be complete without a ferris wheel. The ferris wheel in Yokohama is the biggest in the world. Being on the ferris wheel was no problem for Sophi, but it was making Cam's stomach turn being above the roof of the buildings looking down from a small capsule.
The ferris wheel is actually in an amusement park called Cosmoworld, so all around you there are roller coasters and rides moving around. It is quite a nice setting to watch the city from.
We finished the night off with a few drinks at a local bar, and made the trip back to Tokyo, exhausted.
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