Day Fifteen - Maureen goes Catatonic

Day fifteen started like so many lately, waking up without an alarm and enjoying a nice sleep-in. It's actually a practicality here in Tokyo, because not much opens before 1100h. So we have got into a habit of departing our apartment and heading out for brunch before proceeding with our day's plans. 

Today we decided to catch up on some of the things we wanted to do, but hadn't had the time to date. Anyone who knows me can probably correctly guess that I headed off to the airport to take some photos. Kyle decided to tag along. We headed out to Haneda International and Domestic Airports. To get there we took the train to Hamamatsucho Station before boarding the Monorail directly to Haneda. 

The view from the Monorail was quite pretty

Crossing Haneda’s replica Nihonbashi ('Japan Bridge')

Many people pray for a safe flight and leave messages on the wooden boarding passes.

Haneda is Japan's busiest airport, followed by Narita Airport. It is the home base of both Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways (ANA) and is the fifth busiest airport in the world. Haneda is really three airports in one, there's the International terminal and two Domestic terminals separated by two giant carparks. Each of the terminals house a six story shopping mall, and each of the terminals has an awesome Observation Deck where you can spend your time watching aircraft. Because it's accessible before checking in, there are no security checks to be had, so families from Tokyo visit on the weekends having picnics and watching planes.

Not the temperature 10.8 degrees C

The view from the Southern Domestic terminal towards the Northern terminal

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In the meantime, Maureen, Sky and Jen kicked off their day with a visit to a Cat Cafe in Akihabara where Maureen treated her Cat-withdrawal syndrome, eagerly patting every cat within reach, even those which were not so willing. 

Afterwards they headed off to a nearby Craft store which was around a fifteen minute walk from Akihabara. 

They then walked towards Okachimachi Station to check out the Ameya Yokocho which is a very popular indoor-outdoor market. There was lots of food (especially Seafood and dried food) and lots of trinkets to be bought, which they did.

They also had grilled meat skewers for lunch before walking back home.

Kyle and I got home around an hour later. Afterwards, we had intended to visit the Tokyo Skytree; however, because it was raining, we decided to delay our visit until tomorrow night when the weather is predicted to be much better. Instead we headed out to Ikebukuro. 

Jen really loves these machine-bought Hot Chocolates

Ikebukuro is known for its Sunshine City complex, with a range of diverse shops including Japan's largest Pokemon Centre. 

Whilst there we had dinner in a Chinese Restaurant before heading back. The weather was atrocious for our visit to Ikebukuro, cold, wet and very windy, so we were keen to head back to the warmth of the apartment and for some warm showers.

Cold, wet and windy