3 – 9 June 2018
The Divine Winds or ‘Kamikaze’ according to Samurai legend twice saved Japan from Mongol invasion in the thirteenth century. The history of Japan is filled with stories of war and peace. We spent time in a few of the many museums and gardens in Tokyo to gain a basic understanding of the island nation’s history and culture.
Samurai Museum
Tokyo National Museum
National Museum of Nature and Science
Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
3 – 9 June 2018
Tokyo has a number of entertainment districts and tourism sites throughout the city. We spent most of one day on Odaiba, an artificial island that was redeveloped into an entertainment district, adjacent to Rainbow Bridge. There was plenty to see and do all of which lit up nicely at night.
Rainbow Bridge and Odaiba
Tokyo Tower is an iconic structure that was “inspired” by the Eiffel Tower. At 333 meters (1,092 feet) it was the tallest structure in Tokyo when it was built in 1958. On the tour they would have you believe two great men with a unique vision created this magnificent structure. Don’t get me wrong, it’s cool. We really enjoyed our visit and the views from the upper deck. How can anyone take much credit for essentially copying a famous building and painting it international orange because, well, they had no choice but to comply with flight safety regulations?
The real genius was to hide a television and radio communication tower in plain sight. The tower could stand alone as a successful tourist destination and internationally recognized icon; however it’s real purpose was as a communications tower, the rest was just icing on the cake. Ironically when Japan transitioned to all digital television broadcasts, the tower was not tall enough so the Tokyo Sky Tree was used.
Tokyo Tower
Tokyo Sky Tree became the second tallest structure in the world when completed in 2011. You can see it from most anywhere in Tokyo. We decided one observation tower was enough for us so we did not go up.
Tokyo Sky Tree
Tokyo Dome City is an entertainment district centered around the city’s largest stadium, Tokyo Dome. The Dome is home to the Yomiuri Giants, one of Japan’s professional baseball teams, and the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.
Tokyo Dome
3 – 9 June 2018
For a city who’s history dates back to the twelfth century, there are few historic buildings to be found. The Great Kanto earthquake of 1923 and the WWII bombing raids of 1945 cleared the path for a very modern city to rise from the ashes.
Imperial Palace
Akasaka Palace State Guesthouse
National Diet (Capital) Building
3 – 9 June 2018
Tokyo, the capital city of Japan, is the largest metropolitan area in the world with almost 38 million people, however spending a week navigating public transportation we’d never have guessed it. We arrived prepared for the noise and congestion of New York or London but instead found quite a different place. By comparison Tokyo was quiet, clean, safe and green.
The trains and subways handle a massive amount of people but they are orderly, clean and efficient. We rarely had to wait more than 5 minutes. At first finding our way through the system was challenging but once we figured it out, moving around the city was easy.
The Japanese are extremely polite and friendly. Staring dumbfounded at the largest train map we’d ever seen, a stranger came up to us who knew little English. Not only did he want to help, he quickly decided to take us to our destination. I do not mean he offered to walk us to the train terminal, he planned to take two trains in the exact opposite direction he was travelling to make sure we got to our destination unscathed. I couldn’t even imagine someone wanting to help that much.
Given we only speak one language, we had some concerns about communicating. At times it was difficult but for the most part Tokyo is multilingual. Much of the signage included English, Chinese and Korean translations. Most young people we met spoke varying degrees of English and restaurants often had pictures of each menu item that you could point when ordering. For eveything else there was alot of hand gestures, smiling and nodding to get through basic interactions. They might have been thinking ‘you stupid Americans’ but they never made us feel that way.
We spent six days exploring the city and only scratched the surface. More pictures to follow.
Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Buildings
Shibuya Crossing, allegedly the busiest intersection in the world
Takeshita Street, busy markets – love the name
Tsukiji Markets
Akihabara Electronics District
17 May 2018
On our last full day in Canberra, we decided to travel like locals and rented bicycles. We peddled 25 km on the paved trails around Lake Burley Griffin. The bike paths are a great way to see the city. We did not rent a car so they gave us a fun way to expand our travel limits. Along the way we found several spots we wish we could have spent more time.
Canberra might be less exciting than larger Australian cities, however it also has less traffic, crime and unemployment. It might not make the top ten places to holiday but it seems like a great place to work and raise a family. In those ways it reminded me of our home town of Raleigh, North Carolina.
Australian-American “The Eagle” War Memorial (top left), National Carillon (top right), Beijing Garden (middle right), and Bike Trails (bottom left and right)
16 May 2018
For a small city Canberra has alot to offer, and much of it is free! In addition to Parliament House, Museum of Australian Democracy, and Australian War Memorial we also visited some of the city’s other attractions.
The Royal Australian Mint was interesting for the whole family. The guided tour was only 30 minutes but we spent another hour taking in the exhibits.
Australian National Botanical Gardens are at the foot of Black Mountain and the Telstra Tower. The gardens are nice but fall short of the botanical gardens we experienced in the larger cities. To be fair we visited in late Autumn, not exactly the best time of year to visit them.
National Museum of Australia is housed in a large sprawling modern building with a diverse range of exhibits. Throughout our travels across Australia we have been fortunate to visit most of the country’s major museums. The NMA sits on a prime piece of real estate and the building is architecturally daring however I think it failed to reach its potential. The collection has some interesting exhibits but much of it seems thrown together, loosely tied together with themes lacking definition. There are fantastic museums in Australia, this is not one.
We only had time to spend at one of the art museums. We chose the National Gallery of Australia over the National Portrait Gallery. The museum is a good mix of modern and classic art that had something for everyone in the family.
Royal Australian Mint
Australian National Botanical Gardens and Lakeside Walk
National Museum of Australia
National Gallery of Australia
15 May 2018
The Australian War Memorial is an impressive monument to service and museum of military history. We planned to spend a couple hours and ended up spending most of the day.
We started the day by taking a cab to Mount Ainslie Lookout – the best place to get a vew of the city – and hiked down the Summit Trail to the War Memorial. After a day at the memorial we walked down ANZAC Parade to see the various memorials along the way.
View from Mount Ainslie Lookout
Australian War Memorial
Wall of Honor
ANZAC Parade and Memorials
14 May 2018
Parliament House, completed in 1988, is the center of national government. It was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm Mitchell/Giurgola whom also designed the Wright Brothers National Memorial Visitor Center in Kill Devil Hills and Davis Library at UNC near our home in Raleigh, North Carolina. The shape was based on two opposing boomerangs. Instead of sitting it on Capitol Hill above the surrounding structures, the design buried most of the structure below grade allowing the public to enjoy the green space above. The concept was to put the people above the politicians instead of the other way around.
Parliament House is open to the public. We were lucky the Senate and House were not sitting the day of our visit so we had access to both chambers.
The Old Paliament House (1927-1988) was intended to be temporary until a suitable capitol building could be constructed. Sixty-one years later the original building transitioned into the Museum of Australian Democracy. We enjoyed seeing the Old Parliament House however the highlight was a gallery of 2017’s best political cartoons.
Parliament House
Old Parliament House, Museum of Australian Democracy
13 – 18 May 2018
Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory is the capital of Australia and next stop in our travels across the country. Similar in arrangement as Washington in the District of Columbia, the ACT is an independent territory surrounded by the state of New South Wales. The capital city has grown to about 396,000 residents making it Australia’s 7th largest. Since planning this trip we were surprised how many Aussies had a negative opinion of their capital. Most cited it as being unexciting and filled with no good politicians. When researching places to live before moving down under, Canberra rose to the top as a safe place with a strong economy and short commutes – perfect for a family like ours.
The Commonwealth of Australia gained it’s independence in 1901 with a peaceful separation from the United Kingdom. The site of Australia’s capital city was a comprimise, located between rival cities of Sydney and Melbourne. Canberra was named for the area it was built, orignally called Canberry. Other suggested names included Paradise, Captain Cook, and my favorite – a combination of kangaroo and emu – Kangaremu.
Canberra was developed during WWI and the Great Depression so initial progress was slow. The city was planned by Chicago architect Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion Mohoney Griffin. Walter Griffin worked under famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright and later became one of his professional rivals. He resigned from the Canberra project before the inital work was complete due to strife with appointed government officials – almost an identical story as the design and construction of Sydney’s Opera House. Much later the lake in the heart of the city was named Lake Burley Griffin in his honor.
After all the negative impressions we given of the capital city, we have another suggested name, Under-Rated. Here are a few pictures from our first few days with more posts to follow.
View from Mount Ainslie Lookout
National Carillon on Lake Burley Griffin
Autumn along the Lake
27 – 28 April 2018
The perfect way to end our trip to the Blue Mountains was a day in Sydney. We had such a good time here over the holidays, we were excited to visit again. Sydney is a great city. We enjoyed walking through Circular Quay, Darling Harbour, Hyde Park and the CBD. Lunch outside the Opera House highlighted a our brief return.
American Family Travels 
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