Trip Around the World: Phase 2 and Happy Birthday Vivian!

The second part of our round the world trip was flying from D.C. to Tokyo to meet up with Jeff for our second R&R. We left the States on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Japan on Friday afternoon. Jeff didn't show up until later that night, but finally we were all back together.

We were staying at the Sheraton Miyako hotel, which is a bit outside the city center, but close to Haneda airport, and on the right side of town for driving south to Yokohama, which is where our cruise was leaving from. A fun bonus that I hadn't realized from the website is that the hotel has an absolutely beautiful garden behind it, so we had a lot of fun our first day exploring it.

Unfortunately, Vivian got sick. Apparently her body didn't appreciate being dragged all around the planet. We got lucky though that the hotel had a small medical clinic in it. The doctor spoke English and was very nice. He prescribed some medicine for her, which helped, but she spent most of the weekend in bed.

By Sunday, which was her birthday, she was feeling well enough for an outing. We had found her an Alice in Wonderland themed restaurant and made a reservation for an early dinner, so we got a taxi and headed to a part of Tokyo we hadn't explored yet. It was a busy area with lots of pedestrian side streets that would have been fun to explore if Vivian was feeling better.

The restaurant we were going to was in the basement of one of the buildings, and we came into a small waiting area guarded by card soldiers.

Then it was down and around a narrow corridor that was also guarded,

to the main dining area.

We had a table along the side for the four of us. All the food was Alice in Wonderland themed, so the presentation was a lot of fun, even if the taste itself was only so so.

We started with some corn soup.

I got a salad that was decorated with flower petals and an Alice cracker.

Elena enjoyed her Cheshire Cat spaghetti.

We had also requested a happy birthday plate for Vivian.

There was another dessert that some other people got that looked over the top, so we were happy with the birthday plate.

I had emailed the restaurant asking them to write Happy 15th Birthday Vivian. They almost got it right, and the presentation was great.

We were all full at the end and had a little more fun with the cards before we left.

While we wish Vivian was feeling better for her birthday, it was a fun outing, and it's great that we had the few days in Tokyo to recover from travel and get ready for our next adventure, a cruise!