Our first night at Andon Ryokan went pretty well. We tried out the jacuzzi on the top floor at the hotel. It was so pretty. It was really cool to see all of the Japanese icons in the tilework – tiger, dragon, Mt. Fuji, the wave, etc.

We went down to the lobby for breakfast, which is included in our room price. I had French Toast and Ryan had the Regular Set which was an egg, a few pieces of ham, a salad, toast and cereal. Everything was really yummy! There’s a community dining area in the lobby. I couldn’t believe how busy it was at 7:45am! Then we ventured out to deal with Tokyo rush hour. We needed to take three trains to get to MariCar. Ohmigosh did we get crushed into those trains. At one point we were on the rapid train instead of the local (or maybe vice versa?) and didn’t get to the right stop so decided to walk the rest of the way.

MariCar was so freaking cool! Our check-in time was 9:45am and we just barely made it. We checked in, picked costumes (Winnie the Pooh and Stitch), watched the orientation video and got in our karts! Our tour guide was Jordan. He was really great about keeping us all together and telling us where to go and when. And he took so many great photos of us during the tour!

Our group had two other couples from the United States. Ryan and I started at the front of the pack. We drove over the Rainbow Bridge, on the lower portion, into Odaiba. Jordan brought us into a parking garage and let us let loose basically driving in circles around the garage! When we got out of the karts he told us to just leave our things in the karts and that Japan is the last country in the world where you can still do that. In Odaiba we saw the mini Statue of Liberty and could see the Rainbow Bridge that we had just crossed.

We took some pictures and then crossed back over the bridge, hitting 80kmph … in a go-kart! We drove past Tokyo Tower, through Shibuya Crossing and throuhg a street that’s famous for its cherry trees. We got back to the shop and had two pictures already printed waiting for us. It was such a nice surprise! Then our guide airdropped us all of his pictures along with restaurant recommendations. He was going on his lunch break so he walked us to a grocery store and showed us his favorite bentos. This place even had microwaves at the registers so you could heat it all up. So we grabbed our lunch and brought it to Higashi-Yatasuyama Park to have a little picnic lunch!

This was right across the street from the Nikon Museum so that’s where we headed next. The museum was really cool, and free! We spent about an hour looking at all of the cameras and lenses from the last 100+ years. I got to shoot with one of the new mirrorless cameras, the Z7, and with a D4s with a 1200-1700mm zoom lens. The lens was so big, the zoom ring had a handle on it! It was crazy! I’m not sure if it still is but in the 90s it was the longest zoom lens in existence. I didn’t realize how much Nikon was involved in optics, scopes and sights, telescopes, etc. It was really cool!

We bought a few souvenirs and then headed out to Shibuya. We rode through on the go-karts but didn’t get a chance to get out and stop. We walked through the crosswalk which was complete insanity, saw the Hachiko dog statue and then walked through the crossing again. Hachiko was a dog who used to come to Shibuya Station to meet his master every day after work and continued coming every day for 10 years even after his master died. It became a famous story and they made a statue of him after he died.

We went to Bic Camera, Tokyu Hands, the Disney Store and Krispy Kreme. I bought an Anello bag at Bic Camera. That store was huge. An entire floor was just for razors, straighteners and blowdryers. It was more like a BrandsMart than a camera store.

We decided to visit the third Traveler’s Factory store. The woman at the shop was so excited about how many stamps I had collected already in my stamp book! In Japan, stamp collecting is really popular so there are stamping stations at most train stations and tourist attractions.