8am wake up and a slow start on account of the jet lag.
We learnt from yesterday and opted for the hotel breakfast. It turned out to be delicious. I had Miso soup, chicken congee, steamed tofu and some salad. The rest of the family stuck with the western faire.
The plan for today is to start at the Imperial Palace, move on to the Sensō-ji Temple, then a boat trip along the Sumida River and finally sumo wrestling with hotpot.
We set out to the palace which is 20 minutes away on the metro. We try to buy an all day ticket for the metro but it turns out more complicated than we expected so we stick with per journey tickets for now.
We start with the Eastern Palace Gardens which are supposed to be very beautiful and download the app for the free audio guide.
The gardens were once home to the palace during Shogen rule, and now turned into gardens with the palace next door.
We walk around the gardens, taking in the sights and listening to the audio guide. There’s a very typical Japanese house which was moved to the gardens as an excellent example of buildings from its home prefecture.
The walls of the garden are 18 meters high in places and made from large blocks of imposing stone. Left over from the times when this was the palace and designed to thwart enemy entry to the palace. They would take some scaling after the moat, and the hundreds of samurai behind them would make it almost impossible.
On the way out we buy ice cream from the gift shop and slowly walk towards the palace entrance.
It turned out that you have to buy tickets for the palace tour in advance and visit at specific times which the guide book failed to mention! So instead we opt to walk through the rest of the grounds and then go and find lunch.
We stop at a beer garden in Hibiya Park and the kids order pizza and Diana and I try a local version of the Thai, Gai Pad Kaprow, which is delicious.
The lunch turned out to be rather leisurely and were running short of time for our boat trip so and make a beeline for the metro station. The temple will have to wait for now!
On the way to the metro we stop by 7-Eleven for the kids to buy hand held fans, which are all the rage on account of the heat.
We arrived just in time for the boat and after fiddling with the QR code ticket which requires you to draw on the screen and press various magic buttons as a security measure, we take seats on the top deck. We’d actually paid for the premium box ticket which was downstairs and a bit dark, so we stayed on top.
The boat trip is pleasant and we see just how tightly packed Tokyo is, the whole river front is full of apartment buildings right next to each other, space clearly is at a premium.
The stop just before ours turned out to be a lovely park and not far from our hotel, so we jumped off early and walk through the park admiring the pine trees.
Walking back to the hotel was rather hot and sweaty, it felt like the humidity was cranked up a notch this afternoon!
We showered quickly and headed back to the metro to travel to the Sumo Wrestling experience. As luck would have it, it’s in the same area as the Sensō-ji, so we might visit today after all!
We arrive perfectly on time and are shown straight to our seats. The hotpot swiftly arrives and we order drinks from the QR code. The hotpot is apparently the typical food of the sumo and is made in one giant pot for the whole stable.
It’s all you can eat, and we order more fried chicken while the host introduces the evening. There will be a short performance by a Geisha, followed by the Sumo demonstrating their training and then finally wrestling.
After the Geisha had performed, the two wrestlers made dramatic entrances and started warming up the crowd, which consisted of pitching one side of audience against the other and pretending to fall on people in the front row.
The host explained how the Sumo live and their training and eating habits. Apparently they eat two meals a day of 10,000 calories each, since there is no weight categories in Sumo and hence bigger is better.
The Sumo then get down to business and fight 3 rounds. They each win one round each and then really battle it out in the 3rd round. Our wrestler won - he was the biggest of the two after all!
With the fight complete it was now the turn of the audience to have a go. Each side could volunteer four people each to have a go. On our side, Bella and three others volunteered, so they could all fight. The other side of the audience had eight volunteers and had to draw lots. With the team complete they all went off to change.
Each volunteer made a dramatic entrance, picked a sumo to fight and then had one round to prove their strength.
When Bella’s turn came, the sumo she chose, ran off hiding after she mentioned she played rugby. He was finally coaxed back and they got ready to fight. Bella really went for him and won, whether that was due to showmanship or beginners luck, we shall never know!
With the fighting complete for the evening, they rolled out the red carpet and each party took photos with the wrestlers before heading out.
We had a really great time, and it was clear the wrestlers were having fun too.
On the way back to the metro, we happened to pass by the Sensō-ji Temple and decided to take a look since it wasn’t too late.
We each paid 100 yen for a fortune, which we selected by shaking a chopstick from a shaker and then taking the fortune from the appropriate draw. We all had good fortunes apart from Bella, who tied hers to the “bad fortune” hanger and selected another!
The temple was lovely when lit at night, and we overhear a couple saying how much nicer it is at nighttime, so it seems the fortune was with us today!
We made our way home on the metro before having a drink at the hotel and then to bed. Another long, exciting day!