Day 207- The bath

26 July 2011- Japanese bathrooms are generally fantastic. The bath, though shorter than a typical western one, is quite deep. It also has some clever sloping and channels so that any water on the sides is channelled down to the edge and into the drain area at the base (the black tiles at the bottom)- so even a shower doesn't leave much water. The walls are all plastic panels, so easy to clean. There are no fixtures in the room that cannot be sprayed down with water. If we ever build a house, we're importing some Japanese bath fittings!

Day 206 - Disney Sea!

25 July 2011- We went to DisneySea. It was hot, and crowded. I hadn't realised that it was the 10th anniversary year for the park, so lots of people. Also, because DisneySea has play fountains for kids, a more appealing park than the Land in the summer for kids. As with Tokyo Disney Land, Disney Sea has many picture posing spots.

Day 205- Shinjuku

24 July 2011- A temple in the middle of bustling Shinjuku, well hidden and housing, in Greg's words, "worst flea market ever". Many temples in Japan host regular flea markets- we went to a huge on in Kyoto, and a very flea market/swap meet on in Tokyo last time. This one, which took ages to find (we hiked around Kabukicho in the hot, sunday morning sunshine) had about 5 stalls. We were the only customers. So we went to Starbucks and enjoyed air conditionng and a relaxing read instead.

Day 204

23 July 2011- We went to Kitchen town- an area in Tokyo with a concentration of kitchen ware shops- serving both the home and the restaurant industry. There are a few fake food shops in there- selling the plastic food most Japanese restaurants display outsdie to demonstrate their menu. Someone obviously felt a bit creative with this one. The realism of the food is quite amazing.

Day 203 - At the museum

22 July 2011- After the consumerist shopping of the day before (I went a bit nuts in Fabric Town and then we went to Shibuya) this days was all about absorbing culture. We went to the Edo-Tokyo museum, which has some impressive exhibits- including this reconstruction of a kabuki stage (I think). Unfortunately the english translations were very dry, and inconsistent. Although Greg did point out that they were very economics focussed too- not the norm in Australian history displays. After this we ended up at Akihabara, so not an entirely cultural day. If you want to read about the rest of the trip- Greg does have a travel blog somewhere.