The main reason we are in Tokyo was because of Star Wars celebration - though Mum made me go home before it started so that I didn’t miss school!
105 thousand Star Wars fans attended and the celebration was a great success.  They showed a trailer for the Mandalorian and Grogu film and introduced Sigourney Weaver to the stage.  They also announced Star Fighter and introduced Ryan Gosling to the stage.  And they showed a sneak peek the first episode of Andor season 2 which is getting fantastic reviews. Mum presented on 2 panels which she said went well.  She also said the fan cosplay was off the charts!
AND she also got to visit Tokyo SEA Disneyland which has a new Tangled ride.  Again, she said she was working hard…..

Today is the last day in Tokyo for Dad and I as we fly back home this evening.  We are sad to leave but we finished strong with a visit to the incredible immersive art in TeamLab Borderless.  None of us had seen anything like it, it was supercool.

Back in Tokyo for a few days.  More temples and more record and guitar shops plus a mini-pig cafe!

Because riding bikes in Kyoto was such a great way to see the city, we tried to do the same in Tokyo with limited success!  There is much more traffic and fewer bikes to find or to find where to return. 

We went to the imperial palace - although we struggled to find the entrance!
We went to the fish market where I met a kindred spirit and fellow Sum41 fan!
We went to a huge arcade - supposedly for me but it was Mum we had to drag away from the guitar hero.  We found the huge Fender store so I got to try out a lot of unique guitars and basses.  Mum and Dad went to a Karaoke bar - I did not. And we ate more sushi - with a view.  And we were all fascinated by the Japanese ads playing in every cab.  We also loved how polite, clean, safe and organized the city is.  Its a bit like stepping into the future.

When we took the train to Kyoto we looked for Mt Fuji but couldn’t see it as the cloud cover was so low.  On the way back the weather co-operated and we got to see a stunning view of Mt Fuji rising up above the fields and towns.

This time in Tokyo, we are staying at the Ritz because Mum is working.  It is very posh and we have a spectacular and ever changing view from our room

We had an amazing experience this evening at a restaurant Mum had read about in Kyoto called Another C.  Chef Dan just cooks for up to 6 people at a time at his counter Omikase style - which means he cooks what he feels like cooking and you eat what is infront of you.  Mum gave me the lecture before and I ate everything including the sushi, the fish stew, the beef (which melted in your mouth).  It was all delicious - except for the eel that neither mum or I liked so dad had triple.  And the only thing I didn’t try was the chocolate dessert ( so mum had double).  I started chatting with the other couple who were there and asked them what music they like - turned out they were Brits ( of course) and we really into the punk scene in the 70s!  We had a lot in common and had a lovely evening.

We took the bullet train from Tokyo station to Kyoto for the weekend.  Kyoto feels so much older than Tokyo and it was the site of one of the first emperors palaces.  We rented electric bikes and rode all over the city, along the river and into the old part where you could see actual Geisha’s walking the cobbled lanes.  
We also went to a fish market which was jam packed with people who all had the same idea on a rainy day and fantastical arrays of food that looked like something out of Star Wars.  We sat on the floor at a traditional Japanese table to eat our lunch.  Mum dragged us to more temples and we dragged her to more record stores.  On the way we saw a kitten and puppy cafe and Dad and I are thankful for quarantine laws or mum would have smuggled them back home in her carry-on bags.

Dad and I especially are huge fans of Ghibli films so visiting the Ghibli museum was such an incredible treat.  The entire museum was so beautifully done and so whimsical.  We weren’t allowed to take photos inside which actually made the experience even more enjoyable.  

We left LA just after midnight on Tuesday night ( wednesday morning) and, because of the time change, we didn’t get to Tokyo until Thursday morning!  We were only there for a short time so Mum had us on a packed schedule which included  A LOT of walking, a lot of temples and inexplicably a lot of cemeteries.  Dad and I did persuade her that we also needed to fit in a lot of record stores and guitar stores too so we were both able to add to our collections with obscure Japanese printings of some of our favorite albums.

Tokyo is a fascinating city.  We were lucky to be here during cherry blossom season so the parks were beautiful. On our first day we walked from Shinjuku through the park past our first of many temples down to Shibuya crossing where thousands of people cross everytime the lights change - and yet they do it in such a controlled chaos kind of way.
We also found the statue commemorating the dog who went to the station every day looking for his owner who had passed away.  And we found Tower Records Shibuya which was pretty close to heaven.  Mum and Dad also wandered around Golden Gai and found a tiny little bar and made friends with some fellow Brits. 
We also went to a restaurant that only had a very authentic Japanese restaurant with a menu only in Japanese pasted to the wall  and with no English speaking employees - thank goodness for Google Translate!

​Also the rules in toilets are very complicated here. The rules for what you can and can’t do in a cab are pretty straight forward though

Mum had to give a presentation in LA before we fly to Japan so we went with her and stayed at the Hollywood Roosevelt for a night and flew out of LAX.  Dad took me to see the Capitol Records building.

Anne Sophie Mutter is pretty talented but I think the concert Aunty Sian and Becca enjoyed the most was my gig at the Hopmonk.  I am not sure if it was because I was playing or if it was because the Hopmonk is in the same mall as Old Navy though.