Thinking Allowed: Day 56-58: Abiko Fureai to Tokyo

Day 56: Abiko Fureai Campground to Katsushika

Hours walked: 7:45-4:30

Distance walked: 27 km

Cumulative: 1,215 km

Another big, hot day of hiking as we approached Tokyo. We bumped our everlasting stroller down two flights of stairs to the lakeside and set out. There were two bike paths right next to each other; ours was a bit less shady and more viewy. It was 30 degrees again by 9am, this heatwave is relentless. Tova’s cooling towel got a lot of use. Levi learned every toddler’s favorite game, ie dropping things and saying “uh oh!”

It was exciting to see Tokyo come into view. The Skytree Tower appeared on the horizon, the world’s tallest freestanding broadcasting tower at 634 meters. Suddenly skyscrapers lined the horizon - we’d really arrived! We ran out of water as we crossed the Shinkatsushika Bridge over the Edogawa River. The sign said 37 degrees, and the sun beat down on us. Levi turned pinkish-red, so we invented a game of peekaboo with the cooling towel to trick her into cooling down - it worked well.

We ducked into an air conditioned pet shop and gawked at the 1,500$ kittens. There was a $700 rat. Our Airbnb in Katsushika is modest but clean, and a good home base for a few days of making our way across one of the world’s biggest cities.

Walking into town

Good thing she’s fond of Tova’s cooling towel!

Turns out Tokyo has a lot of pretty river views

Day 57: Katsushika to Mita

Hours walked: 7:30-3:00

Distance walked: 16 km

Cumulative: 1,231 km

We found all the tourists of Japan in one place! Aurora saw more non-Japanese people today than she’s seen in the last 57 days. It made us think, when we go to new countries, we should really not go to the easiest places. Sensoji Temple was beautiful but absolutely thronged with tourists taking selfies.

Walking through a big city makes us feel like cities trick us in some ways - they’re not actually that great. There’s so much that’s not appealing - Sydney’s beaches are world-famous but then you actually live an hour away and it’s too far to commute. Cities are much better to live in than to walk through, because then you don’t have to see the whole thing all the time.

We lost our right-of-way in Tokyo - dozens of bicycles whisked past on bridges and sidewalks, and we constantly chided the girls to stay out of the way. Between the bikes and traffic lights, we walked a lot more slowly. Eventually we found a nice path along the Sumida River which gave us respite from the traffic for an hour.

People dress nicer and with more variety in cities. Tamar: “I’m always surprised that there are so many older women wearing peasanty farming clothes: kerchiefs over their heads, and smocks - not what you think of when you think of Japan, but that is Japan. There’s hyper-modern Tokyo, then there’s lots of old women in smocks maintaining their fields and immaculate gardens by hand all day.”

Zadie added, “We also experienced gjetost ice cream, which I thought was truly disgusting.” The rest of us quite liked it, though. We finished up our day of city-walking with iced drinks, then took a jammed subway back to our apartment.

Sensoji was as touristy as it was beautiful

A glimpse into another world

The ice cream is made with real gjetost from Norway!

Adventurers at the start of the Tokaido

Our second family photo of the hike

Day 58: Tokyo

Hours walked: -

Distance walked: 0 km

Cumulative: 1,231 km

Our long-awaited Tokyo rest day arrived! We slept in, scrambled some eggs, video-chatted with family and friends. Jakob and the younger four girls went to a scorching playground, then a cute cafe featuring a kiwi frappe and a play area for Levi.

We decided to enjoy a nice Indian lunch, but hadn’t bargained on Tokyo commute times. We ended up eating dal, chana masala and naan at top speed in 34’ weather; it was tasty, but we were too rushed to really enjoy it.

Then we blazed to TeamLabs Roppongi, where we’d splurged on admission but had to enter between 12:30 and 1:00 sharp. We reached the building at 12:57…but it was a maze of an underground mall! After re-enacting the airport sprint scene from Home Alone, we arrived at exactly 1:00:00, with heaving chests and damp brows.

TeamLabs Boundless was very cool, we wandered through room after room of light and sound: hundreds of fluorescent lily pads, trippy auroras, giant marbles rolling all around us. Eventually, we ran out of steam (Tamar: “I feel like this room is just a big screensaver”; Tova: “I want to kill more!” as she chased animated butterflies)

We refueled with overpriced but tasty French pastries, then headed to Shibuya to meet Emma, Zadie’s best friend from Canberra playschool, and her family. We strolled around Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden and chatted with Manami about parenting in Japan vs. Australia. Breaking the ice between two shy 7-year-olds was awfully hard when they no longer share any common languages, but we made do. Then we all had a tasty vegan izakaya dinner (gyoza and karaage, two iconic dishes that are usually off-limits to vegetarians!) Levi wolfed down an astonishing amount of green onion and spicy tofu, she’s got quite the palate for 15 months. We didn’t get home until almost 10, but it was a memorable and fun day of our trip.