Sleepy in Asakusa

One of the pleasures of having a Tokyo residence is that almost all of the fun and interesting places are just so within reach.

Our apartment, for instance, is just five minutes away from the nearest subway (Chiyoda) and train (Yamanote) stations, and about 1 minute away from the nearest bus stop from where we can take the bus bound for either Asakusa or Ikebukuro.

At a whim, we can actually go to wherever we want to on weekends. In contrast, when we lived in Tsukuba before, it would take roughly 1.5-2 hours just to reach Akihabara, Tokyo's world-famous electronics shopping center, and then go to other interesting places from there. That's why Mommy D and Theo hardly went to Tokyo while we still lived in Tsukuba.

But now, it's different! In just two weekends, Theo has already been to lots of places, as the photos below can attest.


This photo was taken last Sunday at Asakusa. You can read an article which I wrote about this place many years ago here. Despite how historic and interesting this place may be, Theo seemed to be disinterested. This photo was taken with my cell phone camera. It looks surprisingly good for one taken with a small lens having a mere 2 megapixel resolution.




Yesterday, Theo took his first ever boat ride in Shinobazu Pond in Ueno Park. For 30 minutes, he pretended to be captain of his own "ship". Theo was visibly excited on board and he seemed to have enjoyed every minute of it. When the time limit was over, he didn't want to leave. Unfortunately, we had to go so as not to miss our next appointment, which is...


ROPONGGI HILLS! This is one of the places that Theo's Mama Tippi (my sister) and Papa Ian (my brother-in-law) used to love while they were here because it's probably one of the trendiest spots in Tokyo and it's also where the TOHO cinemas can be found. In the photo above, Theo sits beneath the famous spider sculpture which is known to symbolize the place.


As Theo develops mentally, we can already ask him to pose, and in this photo above, we asked him to raise his arms in front of these signs, and he gamely obliged.


Theo loves to play with water, and this wall with flowing water at Roponggi Hills immediately caught his attention. And as you can see, he enjoyed it immensely.

From Roponggi Hills, we headed to the Franciscan Chapel for mass, had dinner, and then strolled from Roponggi to Ometesando (about an hour), from where we took the subway back home. The weather was just perfect last night for a leisurely stroll, even if it was eventually tiring.

Where will we go today? Let's ask Theo....