out and about

It goes without saying that exploring any city with young kids takes the travel experience to a whole new level. We're constantly on the look out for a good park, a child friendly cafe, an exit on the subway with the least stairs or even better a lift - which then becomes a preferred station to commute through. Despite living in the thick of Shibuya an extremely busy and electric city within a city, we've been surprised how many fantastic places there are close by perfect for our kids.

It's not always easy getting around. Anna told me the other day 'Mum, I'm over this walking thing'. We have explored solely on foot, scooters and public transport and while it's given us a great feeling for city life, it's not always easy as the girls get tired.

On our third weekend in Tokyo we took the children to the Imperial Palace Gardens, home to the Emperor of Japan and built on the site of an old Edo castle. The East gardens are the only part of the palace that are open to the public and were well worth the effort of walking through. We discovered beautiful manicured Japanese gardens, pretty ponds, bonsai trees and large grassy areas to play ball.

Another great afternoon was an outing to Ueno Park. We decided to visit the Science Museum (Ueno is famous for its string of museums) but once we arrived in the park we had so much to see we never actually made it there.

Tokyo Green 2012 festival was in full bloom. It's a festival showcasing floral displays and miniature gardens across several of Tokyo's parks. Turns out Ueno park is also a fabulous place to come to enjoy street art, so we were captivated for hours by amazing performances, acrobatics, comedy and random performers in some very strange costumes.  At one point this freak half human/ half monster (dress up of course) grabbed Anna's razor to ride it. The audience laughed and she started to scream - it was quite a site.

Next to the Ueno Zoo (600Y/ $5 - how cheap compared to Taronga??) was a little amusement park and also a nice playground. Our troop of 3 were in child heaven. There was also some cool Japanese exhibits scattered around, didn't quite understand what their purpose was, but it all felt very 'Japanesey' and we spent hours captured by the fun vibe and taking photos alongside interesting artefacts.

During half term I took the kids to one of the best playgrounds I've ever seen called the 'Niko Niko park' - meaning 100 yen park (as in you pay Y100 to enter.) A very large, safe enclosed area with brilliant slides, climbing equipment, flying fox and a climbing zone up a wooded and hilly part of the park which my girls loved. Unlike many of the playgrounds which have sand only (not ideal for a baby who eats everything off the ground) the Niko Niko park has tarmac so perfect for baby Jonah.We met some school friends there and spent the whole day there until the park closed at 4:30pm. There was no worry about running out of food as Japan's best selection of vending machines were present at the Niko Niko park and we managed to source everything from hot tea, ice-cream, biscuits, miso soup - you name it from these super awesome vending machines.

KidZania - a mini kids city - was an expensive outing but also worth a visit. It's in Toyoso (in a great shopping centre which I never got to see much of) and is probably best described as a kids world with over 80 different real life experiences for children in a educational realistic environment where the kids role play adult actiivites. Kids either do a job and are paid or have to pay with their kidzania money to do a job. The area is built just like a real city, paved streets etc with real life brands and was pretty impressive for kids and adults. My girls were hooked and would go back in a flash.

Autumn is proving to be a very beautiful time in Tokyo. Over the last few weeks we've been exploring some fantastic spots to take in the gorgeous colours and I have to admit never before have I taken so many photos of trees. I keep my camera close as its so pretty I want to keep the colours alive in my memories of this place. A day out in Showa Kinen (a park about an hour west of where we live) was one of the most spectacular parks I've ever been to. We hired bikes and spent the day riding and soaking up the amazing scenery: ponds, gardens, cosmos fields and more.

Today we found Shinjuku Gyoen another magnificent park with lots of traditional Japanese gardens,water lily ponds and massive cedar trees. The colours were so alive and the kids had a ball playing in fields of massive leaves.

Winter is fast approaching and we'll need to start trying out some indoor stuff. Weather has been great until now, so we've been lucky to spend so much time outdoors in the parks. And if Cherry Blossom season in the springtime is anything as pretty as the fall we've got lots to look forward to.