spring break in Tokyo, japan

We stayed in La Vista Tokyo Bay. Since this was a relatively short trip and Tokyo itself had a lot to offer, we stayed the whole trip in one place. We were very happy with the hotel. It's like an all-inclusive resort in the middle of Tokyo, with the best breakfast buffet you can imagine. It's a tad away from the city center, but there was a metro station across the street and a few attractions such as Toyosu Market and TeamLab Planets right next door.

The hotel offers the following (with amazing views each!):
1. Amazing breakfast
2. Asian spas on the top floor
3. Pool with hot tub and gym
4. Top floor bar

Asian spas were beyond amazing, with gorgeous bay and city views from every window. I enjoyed the spas early in the morning when I couldn't sleep, and late at night to relax after a busy day. The kids enjoyed the pool. It's separate from the spa and you have to pay a small fee. 

Note: The spa is separated by gender and you don't wear any clothes. There are plenty of shampoos, conditioners, creams, etc. The spa is free for the guests.

I am sure there are some people who love this place and some who hate it. I'd say you have to visit TeamLab Planets and decide for yourself. If you are staying in La Vista Tokyo Bay like we did, TeamLab Planets is literally a 5-minute walk away. 

Make sure you get tickets in advance as it gets incredibly crowded. Once we got through all the lines and settled down, we had a lot of fun, and the kids decided it was all worth it. There are two areas: water and a garden. The water one, as the name suggests, involves walking through a lot of flooded areas. The garden one has a few other installations with hanging plants and an artistic garden interpretation. They ask you to go barefoot through all of that, which makes the whole experience, unsurprisingly, smell like wet feet. It’s busy, and they try to direct everyone through the experience at about the same pace, which can seem a bit rushed at times. We were in and out in about 90 minutes. 

Is it a tourist trap? Yes. Is it worth going? I'd say yes, absolutely. It made us want to book a visit to another TeamLab place, teamLab Borderless.

I recommend planning a few hours in Nakamise Shopping Street

and Senso-ji Temple. The shopping area which is more than one street, is on the way to the Temple and is a lot of fun. There are streets of yummy and colorful traditional sweets, pastries, mochis, souvenirs, toys, clothes, etc. It's a perfect place to buy gifts and try some traditional delights. The kids had a couple of fun hours here.

The temple is beautiful and colorful, with cherry blossoms starting to bloom all around, and live performances in the park outside. We were also lucky to catch a spiritual ceremony for a local girl about my daughter's age. It's always a privilege to witness or be a part of an expression of traditions and customs. My daughter refused to move until the ceremony was over, it was so cool. 

Tokyo is one of those places where you don't necessarily have to have a plan to have an interesting day. You can just leave the hotel and start walking around. That's what we did one day. We walked by the Tokyo Tower and Kabukiza Theater. We stopped by the Unicorn Gundam Statue and the kids spent a couple of hours in Tokyo Joypolis, an entertainment center that any kid between 8 and 14 would love. We also visited one of the aquarium museums, Art Aquarium Museum GINZA. Those seem to be very popular in Tokyo. It's basically a few rooms filled with extremely colorful aquariums with exotic fishes, flowers, etc, etc. Finally, we visited Hayao Miyazaki's Nippon Television Giant Clock. It's a cool giant steampunk-style clock, which has a little show every hour. It was surprising to find this magnificent structure attached to a high-rise building in what appeared to be a business district surrounded by regular 'boring' office buildings. 

Peter planned a visit to SAMURAI NINJA MUSEUM TOKYO with a little surprise for the kids in the end. We began our visit with a guided tour, which was led by a young Japanese tour guide. He gave us a brief history of samurai houses through generations accompanied by a lot of visuals, then we moved to a room with the traditional samurai wardrobe. Finally, we moved to a room with the armor, where we had a fun dart-throwing contest. 

When the group tour was over, we, along with another family, were invited to move to the top floor for our samurai experience which Peter pre-ordered online for the kids. Peter and the kids changed into traditional clothes with the help of our charming sensei​​. He then demonstrated and taught the group a few sword-fighting techniques used in combat. Our little samurais had a lot of fun, and we definitely recommend this experience to the families. 

Tokyo Skytree is one of those checkmarks you want to draw when visiting Tokyo. It's way too crowded for my liking, but the building height, the elevator experience, the spectacular views, etc, probably make it worth a visit. If I were ever in Tokyo again, I would try to visit this place during sunset to enhance those magnificent views even more.

There is a cafe with ice cream and a bar on the top floor to help you enjoy it. 

Our kids are big animal lovers, they knew about popular animal cafes in Tokyo and talked about them for quite some time. We booked two cafes online a few weeks in advance. I want to say that I wasn't too crazy about the "animal cafe" idea, dreading to see unhappy animals living in captivity. The cafes we visited turned out to be better than I expected.  

We visited Owl Cafe Tokyo Akiba Fukurou on a rainy day and it was a really fun hour. There were 2 rooms full of gorgeous owls. There was one more family besides us. You look around and pick a beauty that you want to hold. One of the keepers brings her to you to hold. The birds are pretty chill, they are just sort of napping on your arm. You can ask to hold other birds if you want. The younger ones were more interactive. You can take as many pictures as you want and they will make one staged photo with the whole family. A unique experience that kids enjoyed.

Hedgehog Cafe HARRY, Harajuku was another fun visit. If the owls were gorgeous but not very active, this place had plenty of interactivity! 

Sea otters were a lot of fun to watch and to interact with. They are extremely social and look very happy with all the people around them giving them attention. That was a relief for me to see. Kids had a chance to feed them, play with them, and hold them. 

Kids also had a chance to hold the hedgehogs. These animals were a bit of a challenge, making it very clear that they are not eager to be held, unlike otters.

There were also a few bunnies and a chinchilla to pet. Kids gave 5 stars to the place! 

We liked our first visit to teamLabs Planets, but we absolutely LOVED teamLab Borderless! This place is a MUST for anybody visiting Tokyo. I am not going to describe anything here since I don't want to spoil your experience. I just want to say that the experience is not only stunning visually but also very interactive, so visitors of any age will enjoy the visit. 

Since this trip was all about exploring Tokyo, we had only one quick trip outside the city. We booked our day trip to Mount Fuji here: Mt Fuji Tour From Tokyo - Day Trips with Transportation. It was about 2 hours drive with one stop on the way. The day was gorgeous. We enjoyed walking around Oishi Park, taking a lot of photos, enjoying the views. Our driver told us that we MUST try the ice cream cafe in the park because it'd be the best ice cream of our lives. He was right! Flavors like lavender, muscat and cherry blossom were unique and delicious. We really enjoyed visiting Chureito Pagoda, a gorgeous temple with Mt Fuji views.

I want to mention a few other discoveries in Tokyo. Visiting Ueno Zoo to see pandas would definitely be on my recommendation list. There are giant pandas and red pandas, which you can admire pretty closely. There were also newborn baby pandas.

As we were walking to see Thousand Toriis in Yasukuni Shrine, we stumbled upon a fishing stop for the kids on a little pond/river. It turned out to be Ichigaya Fishing Center. We rented a couple of fishing rods for the kids and relaxed in the nearby bar across the street while the kids were having fun fishing. 

On our way to the Zoo, we stopped by Shinobazu Pond. It's yet another great place to admire the Sakuras. What makes this place nicer is that you can rent a catamaran and cruise around the lake enjoying the views from the water. 

Another place with sakura abundance was around Nezu Shrine temple.

We were very lucky to live right next to the Toyosu Market, but even if you aren't, we definitely recommend visiting. You will have to wake up early to see the tuna auction, the best part of the visit in my opinion. Today, the tuna auction at Toyosu Fish Market is one of the primary barometers of the market price of tuna.  In fact, every New Year, there’s a tradition of announcing the prices of the first tuna auction of the year.  In 2019, the “Tuna King” and owner of Sushizanmai, bought a 278 kg bluefin tuna for more than 3 million USD.

While you are in Toyosu Market, make sure you stop by the Michelin Star sushi bar SUSHI DAI. I think the best way to do it is to stop by and put your name on the list on your way to the action and by the time you are done at the market, it'll be your turn at the Sushi Dai. It was a delicious and the most affordable Michelin-rated restaurant we've ever been to.

Plan an afternoon/evening in Shibuya where you can visit Tokyo attractions, like Shibuya Scramble Square, Shibuya Sky, and Hachikō Memorial Statue.  My daughter, the biggest dog lover ever, couldn't get enough of Hachiko's story, a symbol of enduring loyalty nationwide.

We loved our sunset time visit to Shibuya Sky, just make sure to get tickets in advance! The 360 view is spectacular, and you can watch tiny people crossing the Shibuya Crossing. There are comfortable sofas and a relaxed atmosphere, you can easily spend a couple of hours here. As we were relaxing in the lounge nets enjoying the night views, a laser show surprised and vowed us.