Monday had been a very long day, between going to Tokyo Disney and then a dinner date with Noe. Tuesday was our "off" day. The girls had an opportunity to go out on their own while the kids and I stayed home. Of course this opportunity wouldn't hit until the afternoon!
Noah loved wearing his Daddy's shirt!
Robert was loving the new Mack truck we got them while out on our date!
Leigha and Noah were having a blast being silly.
Wednesday was our last planned sight-seeing trip to the Imperial Palace. We had been planning this trip since we got there. We actually beat Noe out of the apartment that day. That was the first and only time that happened this entire trip! It was an absolute beautiful day!
View from Noe's front door.
Noe and I learned something very valuable while we were out on our date. One of the buses that goes directly in front of his apartment building goes directly to the train station. This is one of those little life lessons we wish we had learned on Day 1. We were always drenched in sweat before we even boarded the train. We waited for a few minutes, jumped on the bus, and we were off!
Robert and Leigha
We were all pretty excited to go on this sight seeing adventure. However, by the time you get where you are going, everyone is already exhausted! We took little breaks along the way to get a drink of water and relax for a few minutes.
After stopping for a quick snack and restroom break, we headed through the park towards the Imperial Palace grounds. I really don't think any of us realized what a day of walking we were headed into. As frustrated as I got with Leigha, I was really proud of her ability to stay up with us for the most part. I couldn't sympathize with her at the time or she would have totally given up, but inside I really knew that this was almost too much to expect for a seven year old. I just really wanted her to get a chance to experience as much as possible, since she would be the only one of my children to really remember Japan.
We had finally reached the grounds of the Imperial Palace. You would think, by the look of us in this picture, that we were finished with our day and headed home!
We then began our wild goose chase. It was hard for us to tell where the "main" scenic view was. So we started walking around the edge of the grounds, running up to the next gate to see if "that" was where we wanted to be. It seemed that we were no where near where we had to go to reach the gardens. It was a beautiful walk for the most part!
When we got to one of the gates we thought we might have found the "palace", but we weren't very sure of ourselves. I have never been to Washington, D.C. but I know how glorious the White House looks like from a visitor's viewpoint. I have been to Buckingham Palace in London and watched the famous changing of the guards. I have seen numerous palaces and castles all across the world when I was traveling with Disney on Ice. So it was very hard for us to comprehend that this might just be the Imperial Palace.
Then again, we don't have a cool moat around the White House!
After a lot more walking, we finally found the ONE entrance visitors could go through. I think that was a smile of relief on Val's face! Unfortunately, Leigha wasn't as impressed. She was ready to go home!
Adri really enjoyed herself inside the gate. There was a very small art gallery that we walked around for a few minutes. Adri was just soaking everything in. She was taking pictures of statues, reading all of the information about each one. As I have said before, Adri would do very well touring the world. This is the stuff that excites her!
Unfortunately, the advertisement of the East Gardens was a bit overrated in their eyes. Once again we think about the beautiful gardens of the White House and we kind of expected something just as grand. I, on the other hand, still thought the gardens were beautiful because they are different than the ones we have.
The kids still look like they are enjoying our adventure. Then again, they are sitting down!
Leigha perked right up in the gardens.
Val and Adri
I think the most depressing part was when we realized there was nothing more to see. We had gotten the best view of the palace that we were going to. We had walked around the gardens, which was the only area tourists were allowed to go inside the outer gate. That meant it was time to turn around and go all the way back to where we started. I felt so bad for the boys, I mean what an exhausting day for them!
There was one other thing that caught my eye on our return to the train station. I finally found out what the Japanese do with their umbrellas. A lot of the Japanese walk around with umbrellas, protecting themselves from the heat of the sun (wish I had been that smart.) As we walked past one office building I started giggling. They actually have umbrella parking!
On our way home I decided it was time to take a few pictures from the train, since this was our last excursion out. We had passed this amazing ferris wheel each time we had gone out sight seeing.
This was the front of the Disney Resort.
Then there was this big building. The building that kept my dear husband from us for so much of our visit. I hold a lot of hostility towards that building, especially since I never got a chance to go inside and see inside it! Then again, it's the reason my children and I got to visit Japan.
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1 comment:
Awww... great pics! And I have to tell you how very jealous I am! I've been wanting to take my family & go back to Japan to visit~ I've not been there since I was 9! (which was a very long time ago)
Your kids are troopers! How awesome that Leigha was keeping up so well. That had to be a lot of walking.
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