The Morans Hit Tokyo Take 2

Thursday night saw the second installment of the Moran & Friends clan arrive. Sarah a.k.a the other middle child, and Daniel touched down Thursday night. Unfortunately in what felt a little like de ja vue, we did not meet up due to a long detour on the Tokyo JR network taken by Sarah and Daniel.

On Friday however we did manage to met up and decided on a relaxing trip to Odaiba, for the girls this meant shopping at Venus fort and for the boys looking around the conveniently located car museum that was housed within - along with a thoughtfully located bar. This clearly was a shopping complex that had some male input. Following the Odaiba experience we once again visited our favourite local izakaya Za Watami for a casual evening of drinking and eating.

Yes a genuine delorian with brushed metal finish!

Our little Japanese style table and booth in Za Watami

Laura, Sarah and Diane inside Za Watami

Saturday found us exploring the Electric Town area of Akihabara, including the massive Yodobashi camera store. A massive electronics store, although unfortunately Japanese prices aren't all that cheap so no-one was found leaving with any large and exciting purchases. After a leisurely day we headed to Ebisu and a quick trip to the Yebisu Beer Museum before heading to another restaurant that we wanted to return to; Jojoen yakiniku on the 38th floor of the Ebisu Gardens tower.

Geoff showing the styles of the lovely Jojoen bibs

Laura a little too enthusiastic with her eating

Laura and Diane both looking lovely in the Jojoen bibs

The beginning of the new week was quiet with a few low key meals and a spot of ten pin at our local alley, where Daniel showed us all how it was done.

This all changed on Thursday, our next big adventure - a night at the Tokyo Dome to watch the Yomiuri (Tokyo) Giants play the Saitama Lions. Tokyo Dome is a huge covered stadium home to the local Giants. The surrounding complex includes shops and also theme park style rides with a rather impressive looking rollercoaster (however we were there for some serious baseball watching so none of those shinanigans)! The night ended in a convincing win for the Giants and a satisfied group of spectators, which may have been influenced by the presence of girls roaming the crowd serving beer. Each girl wore a small keg on their backs, and there were multiple varieties of beer to choose from.

Inside the Tokyo Dome from our seats

All of us on our perches

The Ebisu beer girl looking for prospective customers

As Ebisu is our favourite beer, we promptly became one of them

Outside the Dome afterwards

Friday was the final full day in Tokyo for all visitors: Geoff, Diane and Laura were heading back to Sydney on the Saturday, and Sarah and Daniel were heading down to Kyoto before flying home. And what better way to send them off than a day at the Sumo followed by a night in Shinjuku with some karaoke!

A big finale to end a great few weeks of visitors.

We splashed out and got 2 boxes, each with room for 4 small, or 3ish normal size people. We squashed 7 of us into 2 boxes along with all of our 'picnic' supplies

Diane, Geoff and Laura

After the tournament finished one of the sumo was wandering toward the exit and we stole a photo. This guy actually lost the final match against Hakuho who is the grand champion

Our karaoke room overlooking Shinjuku

Warming up

'The hills are alive'

Britney Spears did come out, this could well have been then

Even those in the back corner got into the swing of things