Shibuya

On our second day in Tokyo we checked out the Shibuya neighborhood. First stop was the famous crossing

 Then we had some bubble tea and checked out a huge souvenir store

Some souped up cars right out of "Fast and Furious ´Tokyo drift" on the way to the Meiji Jingui shrine

The shrine was impressive but Mia got attackeed by moskitos

 

 

First full day in Tokyo

The first full day in Tokyo was unfortunately very rainy. We checked out some huge underground station where we could buy a tourist card for the subway system and when the rain finally stopped had a look at the grounds of the imperial palace

 On the train back to our hotel in the Sumida district

 In the evening we had some Chinese noodle soup with hand made noodles 

An evening walk through some quite side streets after our dinner

Trip to Tokyo

This year we combined out family trip to Shanghai with one to Tokyo. Since the whole trip was on one ticket with a Chinese airline  it was not much more expensive than just going to Shanghai.
We left Frankfurt in the afternoon

The next morning we transferred to our Tokyo flight in Beijing were we had enough time for a breakfast

On approach to Haneda Airport we could see Mount Fuji on the left - luckily Mia had a window seat

From Handeda airport it was a short bus ride to our hotel in Sumida City distict of Tokyo

View from our hotel where we checked in in the afternoon

We explored the neighborhood around the hotel a bit and Mia wanted to check out a Mac Donald's

We left just in time to see the Tokyo Sky Tree tower at sunset - with 634 m it it is the tallest tower in Japan

Then we checked out a 7-11 across the street from our hotel were we would drop by every day during our stay.  They had a great machine fro fresh smoothies from a cup of frozen fruit and another machine fro gret hot or iced coffee

Then it was time to go back to the hotel and enjoy the view from our room

Poppy Seed Cake

We found some poppy seed baking mix in a kitchen drawer that was close to its expiration date.  So we jumped into action and made a cake - it turned out really well

Saying Good Bye to Chloe

Chloe's flight to back to Washington DC via Paris left very early from the new terminal 3. So we arrived at 5 am  to say good bye

Partial solar eclipse

In the evening we could watch a partial solar eclipse in Heidelberg. All the special glasses were sold out days ago but thanks to some instructions from the internet we managed ti build a pinpoint projector out of a cereal box. From the Ernst Waltz bridge we had a good view at the sun which was close to sunset

At the end of the peak coverage a nice lady gave us her self made glasses

Chloe in town

Mia's old childhood friend was traveling in Italy and added a few days in Heidelberg to see Mia. We tool her to a traditional German restaurant close by where we love to take visitors and friends