Our day started with all nine of us going out for breakfast for the first time this week. We chose one of the only places open before 10am, an English-style cafe. It had comfy worn leather seating, outstanding coffee, yummy puffy Japanese pancakes for the kids and croque monsieur for the adults.
We then tried another neighborhood place for some cozy coffee. The giant coffee ice cube in the iced latte was a really nice touch.
We were finding excuses to linger this morning since at midday we were saying goodbye to our Oregon cousins and shrinking our Adventurers back to 5.
After a fond farewell and wishes for safe travel, we headed out to the suburbs to the Suginami Animation Museum .
This museum is affiliated with the Tokyo Polytechnic University and sits in an area of town with a rich history – over 130 animation studios share this neighborhood. It is free for everyone including an English language audio guide which of course we immediately claimed and used.
The museum is not large but it has well laid out displays on the history of animation. It also has a voice acting experience booth where we displayed our underwhelming skills at saying the lines in time to the drawings.
We also got to create our own animated movie. It started by drawing pictures. Creeperkitty chose a bird and drew 5 versions of that bird through the steps of flight.
Once done drawing, he used the equipment provide to take photos of the drawings which were then stitched together into a short movie. It was supercool and a great way to understand how animation is made.
The museum also showed classic anime films in a little theatre. They were kind enough to let us know none of the films had English subtitles but that didn’t stop us from watching.
This anime was a type of shonen action manga which are Japanese comics featuring action packed adventures, battles and quests. In the case, it was called “Cells at Work”. Here’s the plot summary from Wikipedia; “The story takes place inside the human body, where trillions of anthropomorphic cells each do their job to keep the body healthy. The series largely focuses on two such cells; a rookie red blood cell, AE3803, who often gets lost during deliveries, and a relentless white blood cell, U-1146, who fights against any germs that invade the body.”
So it’s action packed battles…starring a red blood cell and a white blood cell?? And all in Japanese. Super weird but honestly we were riveted. Here a little taste – but remember – we didn’t have subtitles.
After that cool experience we hopped aboard the trusty Tokyo transit system and headed to the Shinjuku station area of Tokyo. Coming out of the station the kids saw a sign pointing to some familiar Golden Arches only 100M away. So for dinner we had our McDonald’s meal in Japan to keep our tradition alive. We think this is our 10th different country for McDonald’s visits. Mostly it is the same as the US. Tiffany had a hamburger with teriyaki sauce so at least we’re trying some of the country specific menu items.
Our last activity of the day was the 45th floor observatory at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. On our walk there, we noticed a crowd and some music playing in a plaza. Looking to our left we saw Godzilla walking out to greet (or eat?) the crowd. Looking to our right we saw the Guinness World Record giant light display on the building, also Godzilla.
We didn’t stay to catch the show from the beginning but what we did see was pretty spectacular.
So was the view from the Observatory. We know from spending many miles on the subway that Tokyo is a big city, but it was nice to have a high vantage point to get an appreciation for just how big it is.
It was a satisfying end to the day and a great way to spend our last night in Tokyo.
5 Adventures Together 