Thursday: Pokemon! & Friday: Ueno Zoo

Whenever Art and I traveled with the kids, we would wake early and head out to see as many things as we could possibly fit in for that day. 

This is not how our now grown kids travel. They wake late, have breakfast later and spend their day at a more leisurely pace. We decided up front that we would let them set our schedule and we would be following along. 

It took a bit of adjustment on our psyches, but I think we’ve been very good at allowing them to enjoy each day as they would like. And you know what? It’s rather nice this way too.

Thursday: Pokemon!

We took the train to Ikebukuro and since it was now lunch time, went to the TOBU department store and picked up some box lunches which we ate on the roof top dining area.

We just stood in a line with more people since we figured they knew what would be good.

June is the rainy season in Japan but we'd been lucky so far. Amazingly, it was rather unexpectedly chilly so we stopped at a UNIQLO shop where Art could buy a light jacket.

And OK... yes, we stopped at the ubiquitous DAISO and Seria stores. I don't know how we can manage to find so many things we absolutely will probably need when it's costing us only about 70 cents.

Our grandsons are into Pokémon and learned how to play Pokémon Go on a cellphone. I tried and can’t figure out what is going on. They know the names of an astonishing number of the 1,010 Pokémon creatures there are in Pokémon Land. 

The Pokémon Shop is located inside the Sunshine City Alpa Shopping Complex.  The boys could hardly contain their excitement. We’ve seen a few of the Pokémon stuffed toys in Hawaii, but it’s usually Pikachu. Here, we were amazed at the incredible assortment of toy Pokémon characters that were available. And yes, the boys did come out with Pokémon goodies. I could hardly imagine how they were going to fit everything in their luggage.

Friday: Ueno Zoo

A lot of friends and relatives from Hawaii have gone to Japan this year or are planning to in a few months. My nephew, Barry's wife, Miho who is originally from Japan coincidentally had taken our grand niece and nephew to visit her parents in Tokyo. We thought it would be fun for KC, JK and RK to spend time with their cousins.

Tiffany and KC's room were also on the 12th floor like us. Although it has a fancy name, our hotel room was very small with no closet space (merely hooks) to hold a few clothes and a tiny bathroom. Still... it is located in a very convenient place close to the train station.

As you can see, JK is loving my cellphone because he's able to spend the time on the train playing with the Pokemon Go app. Unfortunately, he kept saying, "You lost again, Grandma." 😆

We had agreed up front that we wouldn't go to see the pandas because there's always a long line to see them.

However, we discovered that the line (this time) to see the mature pandas was not long.

The long line was to see the 2 year old little pandas because it happened to be their 2nd birthday.

5 year old RK got an English map and immediately located animals and birds he just had to see. He was running here and there, wanting to take it all in.

The shoebill stork had a bill that definitely looked like a shoe.

There was something about this meerkat that really captured our attention. He kept looking up and then around and we ended up looking where he was looking until I could finally get a good shot of him.

The five cousins had fun getting used to each other and enjoying the animals they were seeing. As tiring as it had to have been for Miho to watch over her two little children, she kindly kept us company giving us lots of advice along the way.

Here, children could write notes on little cards to wish Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei a happy birthday. They were thrilled to see their notes on the bulletin board later.

On the way out of the zoo, we saw a long long line of people waiting to see the panda cubs.

We passed by a lotus field and Art took this photo of us with our little UNIQLO embroidered bags. It was so convenient for us to carry our little travel essentials. Unfortunately, with two young boys, both Keola and Sarah needed bigger backpacks to carry their necessities.

We decided to separate then. Tif and KC wanted to walk the short distance to Niki no Kashi to get (lots of) little snack gifts for friends in Chicago.

We did pass by a shrine on the way there.

Keola, Sarah and the boys went to a Shinto shrine called Nezu. The Nezu Shrine was established in 1705 and is one of the oldest places of worship in the city. Seeing Keola and Sarah's photos, I rather wish we'd gone with them to see it.

But then... there are so many places to see in Japan, we can save it for next time.