Although the wake-up call was not scheduled until 8 am, Anthony was already outside Mr. O’Brien’s door at 6:55 am to get envelopes for his letters home. He was back at 7:05 to inform Mr. O’Brien that he had locked his key in his room…
The breakfast meeting was for 8:30 am, but the group of girls were ready to go well before that. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of two of the Year 8 boys!
Breakfast was continental fare, tasty orange juice and an assortment of croissants and breads. Everyone fuelled up for the day to come and then retired to their rooms for a quick room inspection that was won hands down by the girls.
Our first trip was to Tokyo Tower, reminiscent of the Eiffel Tower, only taller. Although the tower was only located a few blocks from the hotel, there was an amazing Buddhist temple located along the way. We posed for photographs and explored the temple grounds before continuing along to the tower.
At the tower, everyone purchased drinks from the vending machines and tickets for the trip up the tower’s lift. This turned out to be an ideal time for an O’Brien mini-maths lesson. We all learned that the easiest way to convert yen to dollars is to move the decimal two places to the left (or drop two zeros) and then add about a third of that amount to the amount itself. In that way, 1000 yen become about $13.
The view from the tower was absolutely amazing! We located landmarks and discovered how far the city stretched in all directions. We spent quite a while wandering around the observation tower.
After the tower, we split into small groups to find lunch. Mr. O’Brien’s group was led by Richard who found the coolest little restaurant with tatami mats and beautiful soba noodles. Ms. Gracia’s and Ms. Tebbutt’s groups each claimed to have found spots matching the Richard find.
The group then embarked on an epic trek in to Tokyo Station to validate the Japan Rail passes. In typical bureaucratic fashion, this was not a simple task, but the group eventually prevailed over the mysteries of Japan Rail.
The group again split with some heading back to the hotel for some rest while others braved the streets for a wander around the Ginza shopping district, including the wonders of the Sony Building. The Ginza group even survived the rush hour trip back on the Tokyo Metro- not nearly as crowded as it is made out to be!
For dinner, we met up with the Arais who took us for another delicious meal. After dinner, we all headed straight back to the hotel for some sleep. What a day!
Tomorrow, the sumos and more…
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