Last Day in Tokyo

Today was our last full day in Tokyo. Again we woke to the sound of rain and a forecast of a maximum temperature of 10 degrees. Brrr!

Not wanting to spend the day sitting around doing nothing, we thought we'd see what we could find within walking distance of our place.

The Fukagawa Edo Museum nearby had displays of the Edo period of 150 years ago. We were lucky enough to have a guide who spoke English to take us through the display. A life-sized recreated village showed how life was back then. Children aged over 10 were sent out to work and the average height for a female was 145cm and a male 155cm.

Inside the village, we got to look at the vegetable and rice traders huts, the row houses for the common workers and see the conditions people lived in. It was fascinating. We really are so lucky with all the modern appliances, power, running water and toilets that we now have. (Especially the heated toilet seats in Japan - why don't we have these in Australia!)

After spending about 2 hours in the museum, we wandered to another shopping mall to look around. If was too cold to be outside! The mid afternoon temperature had dropped below 7 degrees.

Some final presents were bought and we had fun  looking at the different things available to buy in a Japanese department store.

Back at our apartment,  we started packing bags and getting everything organised for heading home.

For our final night, we wanted a special dinner out at a traditional Japanese restaurant. After some research, we found a local izakaya that used seasonable vegetables from local farmers, local meat and fish and who are as sustainable as possible. They spoke minimal English and with our lack of Japanese, we left it in their hands to feed us. What an amazing dinner we had!

We were brought plate after plate of simple, but delicious, food with the meats cooked on the chargrill. The whole sardines were amazing and the lotus root stuffed with chicken mince was just delicious. We couldn't have asked for a better meal to end our holiday!

We finished the evening with everyone laying on our bed and listening to music. There was some Nirvana, Foo Fighters and Sound Garden as 90s grunge to educate the children, before they requested 'their' music of Twenty One Pilots, The Cat Empire and to finish, Angus appropriately choose Vance Joy's "We're going home".

Tonight we will all sleep well.

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