mybigadventures.com

Whilst Dani has been finishing her marking, I thought I'd add a bit more content to the site. During our American adventure in 2013, the site was down and so there was no blog content. When I redeveloped the site a couple of years ago, I uploaded the photo albums but was a bit disappointed there was no description of our trip that I could link. However, on each of our big adventures -  Europe, America and Japan, we have kept a journal, which we've later turned into a photo book. So today I added the journal entries to the site and linked them into the relevant albums. It's still a work in progress, but should be complete over the next day or so, then I might look to do the same with Europe and Japan. You can find all the new entries under July and August 2013, or by following the tag #America2013

The summer came around as quickly as ever this year and with just a couple of weeks to go before the end of term we actually managed to book a holiday. In fact not just any holiday, but a Canadian and American adventure no less. So after a few end of term drinks on Friday we were off on Saturday morning for the airport, first stop Toronto! The flight was fairly standard with a decent selection of films to help pass the time, and before we knew it, we had arrived. Getting through the airport was an absolute doddle and after our cases were amongst the first off the plane, we were quickly on our way. We caught the train into the central station which is only a 25 minute ride and $12 each from Pearson airport. After a short subway ride we were at the hotel about an hour after landing.

The hotel is located in downtown Toronto and pretty close to a range of places to eat and a short walk from Starbucks which should sort us out for breakfast. By the time we checked in it was about 4.30pm and so we spent a bit of time slobbing about before heading out for a bite to eat at a nearby Dennys. The food was nice but there was food left as the portions were massive. We were starting to feel pretty tired as jet lag was starting to catch up with us so we headed back to the hotel, going to bed about 7.30pm local time which is 12.30am back home in the UK. Tomorrow we'll have an explore and no doubt take a few photos!

We arrived early afternoon yesterday and managed to get to the hotel relatively easily on the express train from the airport. The hotel let us check in early which was fantastic as we both fell asleep almost as soon as we had dropped our stuff in the room. The jet lag had caught up with us and we slept through until late in the afternoon. The room is nice and the hotel is pretty close to shopping, restaurants and transport which is great.

That makes today our first proper day. We had the included buffet breakfast in the hotel which was great before heading out. We had decided to visit one of the most popular attractions in Tokyo; the Shinjuku Gyoen national park. It was only a short walk from the hotel and we spent a few hours looking around. It split into a French formal garden an English landscape garden and a traditional Japanese garden. One of the more popular sights are the Japanese cherry trees which blossom during spring but it was nevertheless a great place to spend the day and a bargain costing about £3 for the both of us.

After the park we headed for a view at the Tokyo Government Building which allow you to go up to their observation towers, free of charge. The view was spectacular and you could see the vast sprawling landscape. On a clear day you can apparently see mount Fuji although it was a just a little too hazy to see that far today. It's cooled down a bit now but stayed pretty toasty so far at around 30 degrees, although I think it's about that at home at the moment too!

I've uploaded a few photos to the Tokyo album linked below. Let us know what you think.