Rearrange the letters in Kyoto, and you get…Tokyo!

Sadly, we never made it onto Mount Fuji, but on the plus side, the kids got to play in fresh snow!

When we could no longer feel our fingers, we got on the train to Tokyo.  We had decided to stay in Shibuya, and were excited to experience Shibuya Crossing, which is sort of like Times Square in New York.

We said a quick hello to the Avengers, before heading home for the night.  

We got slightly lost on the way home and discovered the local red light distict.  It didn’t really seem appropriate to take pictures, so you can just use your imagination here.

This morning we set off to the Tokyo Tower.  The special observatory that’s at 250m is closed for renovations, but we still had a great view of the city from the 150m main observation deck.  We even stood bravely on the glass floor.

As a major plus, the food court at the tower had enough different types of food that everyone in the family actually found something they wanted to eat, which is possibly the first time that’s happened in over 2 weeks.

On a side note, Aarrrrgh…

And filed under, “Only in Japan”…

Yes, those are people dressed up in Mario Bros. costumes doing a Mario Cart driving tour around the city.

It was looking like rain when we left Tokyo Tower, so we decided to take a peak around Roppongi Hills, in the hope that it would be mostly indoors.  As you can see from the pictures, 1) it didn’t rain – it snowed, and 2) we were mostly outdoors.  

That’s one big spider!

We never figured out what the monkey was pointing at.

Roppongi Hills is the kind of place where the flowers don’t care if it’s the middle of winter…they’re still going to bloom.

When we finally figured out how to get inside, we agreed it felt vaguely like a Las Vegas resort, but more subtle.

A lovely day overall, but I have a feeling it will pale in comparison to what we have planned for tomorrow.  Prepare to have your mind blown…