When I was last back in the UK nearly five years ago my parents mentioned that they were thinking of coming to visit us in Japan again which surprised me a bit as I didn’t really think they’d be back. My dad even gave me a list of places he was interesting in visiting based on this blog’s contents! Of course Covid_19 then came along and that list was forgotten about. I found it again though recently when sorting through some old things and so we used it as an itinerary guide not that he could remember anything about the places he’d earmarked on it!

My mum and dad arrived in Tokyo quite late at night in mid-September. It was their third visit to Japan but the first time since 2016. Of course the most important things we did were talking about family and friends as well as reminiscing and other such randomness. None of that lends itself so well for a blog post but luckily the background and settings to such conversation did so this is what we did during their short time in the capital city.

Day 1 – This was a national holiday but I had decided to still work as I had limited days I could take off and I thought they’d be really tired from the long flight the day before. Besides, my wife was off and I thought it’d be nice for them all to spend some time together without me! They stayed local and just went a fairly short distance to Shimo-Akatsuka. A 20 minute walk from the station is the third largest Buddha statue in Japan which is fairly unknown by the majority of people living outside of this area. Nearby is Akatsuka Botanical Garden which they really enjoyed.

Day 2 – Yumenoshima Tropical Greenhouse Dome near Shin Kiba station was our first port of call. The walk around the park was nice but when we got to the dome we discovered it was closed! It seems such places close on a Tuesday when the previous day’s a national holiday!

My parents are very set in their ways and always want to have their mid-morning tea/coffee time with a cake so I decided to take them to Starbucks (which they’re not fans of!) at Toyosu Lalaport.

After that we headed back up the Yurakucho Line a bit more to Nagatacho station where Hie Shrine was a short walk away.

The shrine itself is nothing too exciting but to the side of it is a tunnel of spectacular red torii gates which is the easier alternative for people in Tokyo who don’t have the time or money to go to Kyoto for such a sight.

We then passed the National Diet Building en-route to Hibiya Park.

This park is not exactly a must-see spot in Tokyo but it’s pretty nice with some interesting history. Perhaps more importantly, it gave us a chance to rest our feet and take some respite from the hot and humid conditions.

A quick detour to the Imperial Palace was our final destination for our busy first day back together. I didn’t know it at the time but it seems we went there on both of their previous trips!

Day 3 – After two days of quite niche sights it was time to dive into the heart of modern Tokyo by visiting some of the most popular areas. Hikarie (11F) and Scramble Square (17F) are both good places to get some good views of Shibuya without paying any money.

Hachiko Square, Scramble Crossing and Center-Gai inevitably followed and then we walked on to Harajuku and the famously crowded Takeshita Street. It’s not for everyone but it’s always quite interesting to update myself on what the new food trends and so on are.

Yoyogi Park offered a change of pace and was enough for this particular day as tiredness caught up with all of us a bit. One of the best solutions to fatigue is actually a bottle of Pocari Sweat which my dad developed a bit of a taste for on this trip!

Once my wife had returned from work we went out to a conveyor-belt sushi chain for dinner.

Day 4 – I thought a quite easy day trip to Kawagoe in Saitama might mix things up in terms of scenery. No sooner had we arrived and it was break-time. Very few places were open at that time of the morning so one of the only options was a Nagoya-style restaurant chain. It proved to be a good choice as the drinks went down more favourably than at Starbucks a couple of days earlier. I ordered a miso katsu sandwich which is the restaurant’s signature dish and my dad was fairly impressed by it.

Kawagoe is known as Little Edo (the old name for Tokyo) due to the historic buildings in the warehouse district which really is a mix of old and new at times. Bell Tower, Hikawa Shrine, Kita-in Temple and Honmaru Palace were on our itinerary. I underestimated the distances between some of these sights and so we ended up walking a lot anyway.

The nicest moments were perhaps just spent together in our apartment and thankfully our chihuahua was mostly ok with them.

Naturally there were times when he barked at them a lot (for invading “his” home!) but he was generally better behaved than expected, and by the end of the trip he had become quite tender in their presence.

Day 5 – With mum and dad needing to be at the airport early evening, it was just a relatively easy trip to Komagome station in the morning to visit Kyu-Furukawa Gardens. They had been to the nearby Rikugien Gardens on their previous two trips to Tokyo and I wasn’t really expecting to go there yet again but my mum expressed an interest so off we went.

After a couple of hours chilling at home I finally took them to board the Narita Express at Nippori station. Time really does fly by and after many months of looking forward to their visit it was over in a flash. Hopefully we made the most of our short time together though!

Click here to read ‘Parents In Japan 2016 Pt I: Tokyo’ 

Click here to read ‘Parents In Japan 2016 Pt II: Hiroshima’ 

Click here to read ‘Parents In Japan 2016 Pt III: Osaka’ 

Click here to read ‘Parents In Japan 2016 Pt IV: Kyoto’