Our first of two full days in Tokyo with Adventures by Disney got off to a great start with views of the Imperial Palace. We can see the Imperial Palace from our room at The Peninsula and the Emperor Naruhito’s coronation is tomorrow, so the city and hotel has increased security. The Peninsula is hosting many of the foreign dignitaries who’ve come to celebrate. We also had time to explore the beautiful common areas of the resort.
We chose to have breakfast at Peter, one of The Peninsula’s two restaurants. They had a fabulous buffet spread, spectacular views, and dazzling decor.
The first planned itinerary of the day was a tour of Hamarikyu Gardens. On our bus, we met our Tokyo local guide, Yuki, who told us a lot of fun facts about Tokyo on our short drive to the gardens. The rivers and lakes get their water from Tokyo Bay, so the water level changes with the tides and you will find saltwater fish in the waters. During our tour, Kenji explained that the garden has a dark side and a light side like the concept of yin and yang. The gardens were previously the home of the Shogun Takagawa family in the 17th century.
Within the gardens is Nakajima No Ochaya, a traditional tea house where we were the first guests of the day. We chose the traditional method of sitting on the tatami mat floor, but guests could also choose a room with benches and tables, or sit on the deck on picnic tables overlooking the lake. We were served traditional matcha green tea powder, which is anticarcinogenic. It was served with sweets like mochi to help cut the bitterness of the tea. We really enjoyed this condensed version of a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, which can last several hours. We only spent about twenty-minutes at the tea house.
Out next stop was a sushi making experience. We made tamagoyaki (Japanese rolled egg) like we did in Kyoto for the bento box class, but we learned that in Tokyo they add a bonus ingredient, sugar. Next we mixed warm sticky rice with rice vinegar, turning and cutting the rice while someone else fanned it to cool it down to room temperature. Then it was time to learn how to roll sushi, skinny roll style and California roll. As someone who doesn’t like seafood, I was grateful for menu accommodations. I could’ve gone all vegetarian, but I decided to try imitation crab and I didn’t hate it. When we were done, we got to eat our sushi creations for lunch.
As we were about to depart for our next adventure, our instructors shared that they had one more treat for us. It was our pin of the day with the day’s title, “Soy Delicious.” It featured Hiro and Aunt Cass from Big Hero 6 eating sushi.
We’ve visited quite a few templed already, but Sensō-jiTemple was unlike any of them so far. It’s the oldest temple in Tokyo, but the original gate burned down and the new one is sponsored by Panasonic, who paid to have it restored. Much of the temple grounds is occupied by tourist retail shops and we found it to be a great spot to pick up gifts for friends, family, and pets.
Next came an unadvertised optional visit to Tokyo Tower, which replaced a Tokyo river cruise that got poor reviews from Adventurers on previous itineraries. Tokyo Tower was on our must-do list for our free time, so it was exciting to get to go as a group. Tickets are sold at different levels depending on how high you want to go and we went to the very top. It was well themed leading up to it, with pre-shows and interactive elevators (you have to take three to get to the very top). We also had English headsets that allowed you to choose audio and visual guides to the surroundings. It had a sense of humor, pointing out the island where Godzilla woke up, for example. Tokyo Tower also offered some fun shopping opportunities.
With an evening and dinner on our own, we chose to visit the flagship Mitsukoshi store. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Mitsukoshi sponsors the Japan Pavilion at Epcot and manages the shops and restaurants. The 12-story Mitsukoshi in Ginza was not at all what I expected. Inside the renowned department store were mini shops by top brands like Tiffany’s. Many of the items you would find at Epcot aren’t sold, including Kimonos, which is how the company got its start. It was too high end for my tastes and didn’t offer the Japanese shopping experience I expected. But we did eat dinner on the eleventh floor at a katsu restaurant that was delicious and offered great views of the Ginza shopping area.
Back at our hotel for the night, I was excited to experience Spa Mode from the tub. It was a relaxing, zen experience and part of it includes the way the water pours into the tub, more like a waterfall than a typical stream from a faucet. It was so peaceful and relaxing.
We will wrap up our Adventures by Disney trip to Japan tomorrow and our Adventure Guides gave us a warning that our itinerary may be impacted by the Coronation, but that they will keep us informed. It’s hard to believe that the trip is almost over, but it also gets us closer to our Tokyo Disneyland add-on.