Everyone slept in this morning. We then had breakfast in the apartment as everything (especially food) is super expensive in Tokyo.

We set out under Rhys’ guidance at midday and stumbled upon The Sumida Hokusai Museum (すみだ北斎美術館), on the way to the metro station from Sumida. It is a museum dedicated to the ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai, commonly referred to as Hokusai. His most well-known works include ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’ and ‘Red Fuji’, which are a couple of prints from the collection Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. The museum was opened in November 2016 in Tokyo's Sumida Ward where Hokusai was born and where he spent most of his life. Not really knowing anything about Hokusai (except his famous wave art work), we were impressed with the museum. We paid extra to see the special exhibition depicting food. It was interesting, but seeing the permanent exhibition would have been sufficient for us. Dad got a birthday discount as his birthday is this month, and our Owen gained free entry for children aged 12 and under (nice bonuses for our family).

Next was Takeshita Street which is a funky part of town near Shibuya Station. Takeshita Street is the centre of Japan's most extreme teenage cultures and fashion styles. We happily strolled around, we even saw celebrities there, not that we know who they were but there were TV cameras, interviewers and an entourage of fans trailing them. We also hit Daiso again (this has been one of our favourite places to pick up knick-knacks and souvenirs).

Shirohige's Cream Puff Factory was next on the agenda. We went to the cream puff factory as a treat for the kids as we couldn't get entry for the Ghibli Museum (reservations need to be a month in advance). Our experience wasn't so positive, possible due to the time of day. We arrived about 6pm (it was dark and cold), followed Google maps and found ourselves walking down a very quiet residential neighbourhood. The map then directed us up an even quieter lane (I was starting to get sceptical wondering if it was a wild goose chase), but there it was at the top of the street. The cafe is small, we decided not to stay as it was expensive (with 6 people to feed) so we bought a couple of Totoro puffs (to make our effort worthwhile and they were yummy by the way) and headed back to the station. A little known fact (even by Ghibli fans), is that the bakery is managed by the sister-in-law of Miyazaki. We also got caught out because the location exceeded our Tokyo subway limit and we had to pay adjusted train fares in and out of the area. Was it worth the effort getting there? I think not.

From there we made our way to The Ghibli Clock in Shiodome to watch the 8pm chiming session and it was fantastic. The kids loved it. It satiated our Ghibli passion! The enormous Ghibli clock is a Steampunk-Victorian style clock made by Hayao Miyazaki. The clock is located at the Nippon TV Tower in Shiodome district in Tokyo and is inspired by the Ghibli movie of 2004 : Howl’s Moving Castle (a movie the kids have watched countless times). 

We then headed home and hit the local grocery store where we found great meals (like sushi, noodles) going for 50% off. This, we have found has been the best way to have an inexpensive, but delicious feed here in Tokyo.