Our eighth morning in Japan started with breathtaking views of Samagi Bay from our room at the Hilton Odawara Resort & Spa.
After a buffet breakfast, we boarded the bus for our first stop of the day, the Hakone Open Air Museum. It’s up in the mountains and the road was still being cleared of debris from the recent Typhoon. The name is a little deceiving, it’s really an art museum with indoor and outdoor galleries. We had a wonderful time exploring the outdoor art installations, including a koi pond.
One of the indoor galleries houses the largest collection of Picasso works in the world. No photos are allowed inside, but they had paintings, tapestries, ceramics, and metal sculptures by the famous artist. The plaques are all in Japanese and English.
My favorite spot was the Kaleidoscope Tower, a four-story stained glass tower with spiral staircases inside and an observation deck on top.
Back on the bus, we proceeded closer to Tokyo to Kamakura, where locals were surfing and wakeboarding on Zaimokuza Beach. It reminded the group of many American ocean communities like Miami and Laguna Beach.
Lunch was at a Western-inspired restaurant called Post by Honey with foods like pasta, chicken tenders, French fries, and pizza bread. After 7 days of Japanese cuisine, many in our group were excited for a taste of home. It was interesting to try a Japanese game on Western cuisine.
Back on the bus, we proceeded to Yokohama, the main cruise port terminal for Tokyo and the home of the infamous Cup Noodle. We made a short stop at the Cup Noodle Museum to design our own cup and learn more about the founder, Momofuku Ando. The exhibits were only in Japanese, but the design a cup experience was available in English. After designing your cup, you could choose the ingredients and the package will expire in 30 days. I chose to draw the chicken mascot of Cup Noodle, Hiyoko-chan, wearing mouse ears.
When we met up with our group, Tomomi showed us her cup but said it felt heavy. She opened it to reveal our pin of the day, Goofy slurping noodles with the day’s title, “Slurps Up.”
From Yokohama, we had a short drive into Tokyo with gorgeous views of the skyline at twilight.
We arrived at the last hotel of the Adventures by Disney Japan itinerary, The Peninsula. This hotel is incredible, with spacious rooms and luxurious amenities. It also has the nicest toilets of the trip with even more features, if you can believe that.
We were treated to a reception at the hotel where our room keys were distributed. The reception came with Disney cookies, but the room also had a chocolate gift shaped like Mickey Mouse.
For our welcome dinner to Tokyo, we went to Gonpachi. It’s most famous for being the inspiration for the restaurant from the big fight sequence at the end of “Kill Bill Vol. 1.” It’s family style and tons of food kept coming to the table, including meat skewers, potatoes, tempura, and fried chicken. A taiko drumming performance occurred during our meal above our heads. It seemed like a popular tourist destination due to the lack of locals in the restaurant, but Tomomi explained that most of Japan was watching the rugby match.
After dinner, we made a nighttime stop at the infamous Shibuya Scramble Crossing. We crossed the street a few times to get photos in the organized chaos. Groups of young Japanese men were charging into the intersection to jump up and down singing “Country Road” to celebrate how well Japan did in the rugby match, even though they lost the game that night.
Back at The Peninsula for the night, we turned on “Spa Mode” (lower lights and peaceful music playing) to relax and settle in for a blissful night of sleep. Tomorrow we will further explore the city and culture of Tokyo.
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