Tokyo Part II

Today I woke up late and didn’t have time for my morning coffee. (Not good)

Our morning started with a cooking class. We got a cab 30 mins from our hotel, to a residential area. Three lovely ladies gave us a class in Japanese cooking. (When we arrived, I overheard Rik ask if they had any coffee, but no luck.)

Cooking Japanese food is fun because half the process is about the presentation. Out class lasted 3 hours and, after we made 7 dishes, we ate the meal that we had prepared. (At 11am, my coffee-deprived brain started pounding so I dissolved an emergency instant coffee packed into cold water and downed that.  That simple thing may have saved lives.)

The course was informative and our meal was delicious. I took pics of all the recipes but some of the ingredients would be impossible to find in Fredericton. My favourite was the chicken-filled lotus root. 

Me with my cucumber design:

Potato, egg and cucumber appetizers:

Little pancakes that got filled with white bean paste. Sounds yuck but is actually yum. 

Ready to chow down. Everything looks so pretty!

After the cooking class we got an Uber to the zoo. We didn’t see pandas in China, where they belong, so we thought we’d try the Tokyo zoo.  When we arrived, we made a beeline to the Panda Forest. There was a 70 minute wait. When we got to the area where the panda was, we had two minutes to take pictures and then we were herded out of there like cattle, with the zookeeper pushing people out with a giant bar. 😝

Another panda was in the next enclosure but he was passed out behind a tree.

After the giant panda spotting, we went to see the red pandas.  There really isn’t enough space for the animals, though. Aside from seeing the pandas, the zoo was a bit depressing. 

After the pandas, I was in danger of a full caffeine-deprived meltdown so we left the zoo early on a search for coffee. We finally found a 7-11 (the most common store in Japan), I got my caffeine fix and all was well with the universe again.

We got an Uber back to our hotel and I fell asleep in the car. Then, as soon as I got to our room, couldn’t keep my eyes open. I passed out for 2 hours, involuntarily.  When your body is tired enough, you’ll sleep anywhere!

I woke up a couple of hours later and was ready to head out for supper.  First though, we went to the government building next door. It’s a skyscraper with an observation area on the 45th floor. While queuing, we got some instruction on how to be a good tourist from Japan’s favourite: Hello Kitty. 

We got some pics of the Tokyo skyline, watched a light show outside, and then saw Godzilla attack!

We bade our tour mates farewell this morning.  Sayonara!  Our trip is winding down. 

- Ruth