Day 04 –
Today the weather is great so we’ve decided to go to the Ginkgo street. Ginkgo leaves have turned yellow a few days ago. Of course, we’re not the only ones with the idea and when we get there, there’s a huge crowd of people (hum… aren’t the Japanese supposed to work all the time?). Anyway, there’re even police officers who are just there to shout “Keep on moving!” when people are crossing the streets to prevent anyone to stop for a picture.
We stroll down the busy, yet beautiful street and then go for a walk in a park. We even stop for a moment to watch a baseball game, a very popular sport in Japan. Doo tells Côme how to play but the rules are not that easy to understand. Then, we head to Shinjuku, one of the most lively districts of Tokyo (especially at night). We still have to find tickets for Disneyland so we head to a travel agency that is supposed to sell them. There’s also a Disney store here, just in case. On our way there, we walk in a street in which trains are passing every 5 minutes or so. And as it’s very often the case here, train tracks intersect the street so everyone gets blocked quite frequently and for quite a while. We think it’s great because we like to watch the trains go by but Doo wonders why people still drive through this particular street. He would never venture here if he was driving… Our stomachs then lead us to a burger restaurant with grilled sandwich bread. The smell is enticing so we can’t resist. After a decent burger, we go for a walk in a park with beautiful Japanese gardens. Two women are taking pictures with kimonos. Julia stops and asks them if she can take a picture. They kindly agree and even offer to take a picture of us.
Then, we’re off to the travel agency. A lady tells us that she can only take reservations if we go to Disneyland 10 days from now. Alright, we can’t get tickets in travel agencies… Our last chance is Disney store. There, there’s a QR code we have to scan to make a reservation. Alright, we’re getting there… But I’ve we connect to the website, it tells us that reservations are only available for Japanese people… Wait… What ?!?! Are you freaking kidding me?! That’s just pure discrimination! Doo goes to speak with a salesman. He deeply apologizes but, like the travel agent, he can only take reservations 10 days from now. And he tells Doo that the store is a different company than Disneyland so there’s nothing he can do. Doo is disgusted. That was our last attempt to get the tickets. We won’t go to Disneyland. Good thing we didn’t tell Côme anything. Good thing we wanted to surprise him… But boy!!! It’s just outrageous…
While Doo was trying to get the tickets, Côme saw a Mickey magic wand in the store and he absolutely wants it. At first we refuse to buy it but when we see that Côme is devastated by our refusal (and we rarely see him like that) we reconsider and decide to grant his wish. He then explains us that the magic wand can make 100 yen coins appear and that he wants to make lots of them appear to play video games. 🥹 Ohhhhh… Poor boy… As adults, we tend to forget that children see the world very differently than us. Côme will be super disappointed in the evening when we are forced to explain that the magic is fake. That no coins will appear… “Doo? Can you make them appear please?” – “No Côme.. I can’t…”.
We end our day in the very lively Shinjuku district. There are lights everywhere. We play some video games and we even see Godzilla behind a building. Côme obviously doesn’t know the movie, but seeing a giant dinosaur coming out from behind buildings is just “Wow”!!! “Doo, is that really real?” – “Uh… I don’t know Côme…”. So we start to look for Godzilla’s tail. Côme absolutely wants to see its entire body and asks us to go around the buildings. After one turn, we finally explain that it’s just a fake Godzilla. Man!! We’re just crushing the boy’s dreams today… It’s tough to be parents…
As we can’t find anything we would like to eat, we just go to Wendy’s, an American fast food chain Doo loves… Ouch! Second time we eat junk food today. Tomorrow it will be mandatory broccoli for Côme.
Day 05 –
Today, Doo has to find a belt. He’s tired to pull up his pants. We don’t know how many pounds he’s lost, but quite a few. No need to go too far to find one though. He will use the string from the apartment to hang the laundry. “That should do!”
We then head out for a walk in an old neighborhood. Here, the houses are low and the atmosphere is very quiet. We find a shopping street with traditional stores. One of them is selling traditional chopsticks. We get in. An old man welcomes us and comes to explain his art. He tells us that his chopsticks are cut from a 200-year-old bamboo that he shows us. It’s gigantic and super light. In all likeliness, we’ll buy our chopsticks in his shop. So we try out a few chopsticks, make a few flicks and switches (just like in Harry Potter) and our chopsticks chose us…
Our walk then takes us to a neighborhood full of cemeteries. There are a lot of them enclosed between houses. Each one with its temple. They are very pretty. We particularly like the prayers and wishes that adorn the tombstones. They are written on long thin vertical wooden boards.
But we also visit a huge tree-lined cemetery. This time, there are no fences or walls. It looks a bit like a park. There’s even a playground for kids amidst the tombs. Once again, it is very pretty. There, we see two employees on their knees cleaning the graves. They are making sure the pebbles surrounding the graves are well set and they are removing any moss that accumulated on the graves.
We end this peaceful and very pleasant day in a park, around a lake. On a bench, there are two old ladies and an old man feeding the ducks. Côme wants to stay and watch but he also wants to feed them. So we move closer to the old man who kindly gives all his pieces of bread to Côme and he had a full bag of them.