On Friday we had to move hotels since the base lodging would only be able to extend our reservation one night and since we had an appointment on base at 6:45am the next day, we didn't want to be moving hotel rooms that morning. We were able to arrange a taxi (luckily/thankfully) to pick us up and take us to the hotel. The Toyoko-Inn is where we stayed and is the largest hotel in that area. Thankfully we already had rooms booked because it seemed very full. At this hotel we had to get two rooms which was super romantic...ha! Sometimes we make reservations knowing that we'll be bed sharing for the kids, but here they told us only 2 to a room. We were able to get two rooms next to each other but there wasn't an adjoining door, so Max, Woodrow, and I were in one room while Theo and Mason were in the next. The rooms were tiny, so I'm glad we didn't try to make it work with 5 of us in one room. It would not have worked. We actually weren't able to check into our room until the last afternoon, but we could leave our bags with the desk, so we checked in, regrouped, and then went out to explore the local area that we had scoped out on Google Maps the night prior.
It was a warm day, and again the kids interest in walking when not at Disney was minimal, but we took it easy. Although I did take notice that had Mason been solo for this portion of our trip, be probably could have seen half the country and not just a small area. Our first stop was at a nearby Shinmeisha Shrine. We passed through the Shimmei Jido Park and the kids looked at a small streak and played on a small park ride. We walked through The kids liked looking around it, but we also had to explain this wasn't a made-up place, that people come there to worship. They liked seeing all the features of the shrine, especially the large drums and dragon statues. It took me back to 7 years ago when Mason and I visited Japan and were talking about starting a family, and here we were as a completed family of five.
After that we wandered to the Seiganin Temple. It was definitely warmer at this point. We sat by a pond to take a water break and Maximus took a brief nap in the stroller. The big boys were content to watch the Koi, catfish, and turtles swimming in the pond, while Mason wandered around taking photos. There was an event being set-up, I speculate a wedding, which was a pretty nice place for a wedding. After taking a rest and looking at the rest of the temple, we walked to a nearby park. This location was listed on Top 10 things to do in Fussa, so I guess I was expecting more. The Naka-Fussa Park was a short walk from the temple and there was a little play area, pond, and shaded rest spot. Theo and Woodrow found some abandoned fishing poles (string on a stick) and that was quite entertaining for little Tom and Huck. They were pretty cute even when Theo stepped in a huge pile of mud.
After this, we decided to find lunch and we wandered back closer to the hotel. I suspected Mason was tired of our kid-friendly American meals, so I suggested Thai. We walked towards some places that appeared to be close to find out that many places in the area are closed. We also realized we were in somewhat of a red light district. But, we ended up at a cute Japanese Italian restaurant. We successfully ordered (thank you picture menus and pointing) and the meal ended up being pretty good, and the water was refreshing. The kids were excited to try a green drink (Fanta). The drink dispensers took a minute to figure out, so they got to have some fun mixtures.
During lunch we were able to grab some wifi to scope out what we wanted to do next since we were tired but our room wasn't going to be ready yet. We discovered that there was a nearby cat cafe and thought the kids would enjoy going. Cat cafes are quite an experience. The kids warmed up quickly and thought it was fun to play with the cats in this little cafe. They had various toys, snacks, and lasers to play with with the cats and before we left the boys got to vote on which cat would be "employee of the month."
Finally we walked back to our hotel room to bring our luggage up and have a rest before dinner/bed. Our rooms were small and HOT! We quickly cranked on the air to the lowest setting and hoped that it would cool off quickly, since it was warm outside. We regrouped, repacked, and organized because we were going to have a full Saturday and then were leaving early on Sunday. After some quiet time we ended up going back to the Thai restaurant to pick up dinner, but then decided it wasn't that great. Everyone fell asleep in their respective spots quickly and slept hard.
For more photos:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100342301153319.1073741914.77800450&type=1&l=78826c2317
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