Tokyo Day 1 Part 2 | One Day at a Time

Claw machines. Lots of coins were exchanged here.

Boom!!! CL gets her stuffy. This is already turning out better than 9 years ago when RL and I went to a Taito Station and failed at every claw machine.

Of course, no trip to Taito Station in Japan is complete without trying to get a lewd item to bring home.

RL wants the lewd items.

Come on!!!

Alright, figured out the strategy, but it’ll take a few coins to keep shifting it back and forth until it falls.

Boom!!! As I got this, I hear “Sugoi” muttered by two guys watching on. Continuing my streak in Japan of people calling me sugoi, since 2014.

This will look great next to the chub chub figurine that we got 11 years ago on our honeymoon.

RL helped little KL get this. We are doing pretty well this time.

So well, in fact, how are we going to bring all this home?

RL trying to get her phone back from Little KL while he keeps on snapping photos.

Look at this! We are on fire!!!

Running low on coins, but PL really wants this. She was super nice and offered her siblings some of her own coins earlier so we’ll reward her with some extra coin exchanges to see if we can get this Cinnamon roll.

Man…this one is tough…

Crazy goofy child.

Alright…made a little progress, the claw managed to pull the ear and pull it closer.

OK, this is where luck, strategy, and technique all intersect.

Gonna try to pick it up off center to see if I can flip it over the ledge. Since the ears keep catching on the claws, I’ve been using them to drag this stuffy over.

Come on, come on!!

Success!!!!

Really made PL’s day!

Everyone’s so excited and happy!!! What a great time.

Alright kids, let’s get out of here while the going is still good. We’ve dropped enough coins and won enough stuff.

Everyone, line up and show off our goods.

What a haul from Taito Station! This shall go down in the Lee history as The Best Winnings Streak Ever!! We all had a blast, and now our kids will enjoy Taito Station as much as me and RL. I liked how at this Taito Station, the claws machines are set up where skill and technique makes a big difference. Alright, now we need to haul all of our winning back to our hotel. Then we’ll need to get extra duffel bags to haul all this back to America. Worth it.

Checked in and time to get to our room. We’ve got the one suite in this narrow hotel, so we’ve got the whole 9th floor to ourselves, nice. Less worries about the kids being too loud.

Pretty cool hotel. They even have an English comics library for us to use.

This is what $751 a night gets you a short walk to Asakusa Station.

Only downside is that it’s still only got one single toilet. But this toilet does have a tiny sink, which actually came in surprisingly handy. Now we can just wash our hands here if someone else is occupying the shower with the other sinks.

Nice big soaking tub. The tub has a electronic frosting glass facing the living room. Yeah, we won’t be needing that for our family.

Been a long day of traveling and claw machine wins, kids get on your ipads.

The parents bedroom.

The kids bedroom. We also had a futon that we put on the ground so each kid had their own bed. This will work out nicely.

The view out our hotel window.

The 10th floor has water station plus free sake dispenser.

Also has a foot bath for the hotel guests to use. Cool.

Also free Japanese sodas.

We left the kids in the room and came down to the lobby bar to chill and relax. Told them to text us using their ipads if they need anything. It’s nice that the kids are now old enough (well two of them are) to use messaging.

Just us chilling.

It feels nice to finally slow down a little and chill. Traveling with kids means we don’t have many opportunities to drink at a bar, so it’s nice that we get to drink at one in the hotel while the kids are safety upstairs.

I’m tired so I’m triple fisting right now. Sake, beer, and coffee.

So many drink choices. Our bartender/hotel staff even bought out whiskey on the house. We also had a good chat with our hotel staff and found out that two of them are Nepalese. It was really cool to hear about what brought them to Japan as apposed to other countries. There’s a lot of foreign workers here in Japan.

A hold out. I’m sure one of the developers for the two high rises next to what was here tried to buy it at one point.

Even the convenience store landscaping has plants getting grafts.

Alright, got some water.

The tiny sink in our bathroom. Can’t they make that sprout a little higher? Washing your hands means you literally have to touch the bottom of the sink.

Zane. Every hotel room we’ve had in Japan has one. Keeps the kids in line.

Kids still doing well on their ipads, so we are down stairs drinking a couple more before we head out to dinner.

Sprinkles.

Our feet are pretty tired. Seriously, carrying heavy packs and walking around really beats on them. Decided to find something close by for dinner. This place was full.

Another izakaya, but they said no kids allowed. I guess I never realized that many izakayas don’t allow kids since I’ve never really traveled to Japan with kids.