Just got back from a week in Tokyo with my son and a close family friend (girl) - both he and she are 14 and going into the 9th grade. This was his third trip to Japan and her first. Perhaps some of our itinerary and activities may be of interest to others planning a trip to Tokyo with teens.

We stayed at the Hilton Shinjuku; an excellent hotel in a good location convenient to the subway as well as Shinjuku Station. With my HHonors Gold status we were upgraded at check-in to the executive floors which included a bountiful breakfast buffet and evening snacks. This turned out to be a big budget savings when you have two hungry teenagers in tow - scrambled eggs, rice, sugar frosted flakes, miso soup...you get the idea. At check-in I asked about getting a rollaway bed brought in to our room. Shortly after arriving to the room there was a knock on the door, it was housekeeping with the extra bed, more towels, more toiletries and an extra "yakuta". So we ended up with three twin beds which essentially took up the entire room. Incidentally the hotel didn't charge me extra for the cot or third person.

Just want to say that on a previous trip two years ago my son and I visited Edo-Tokyo museum and the Tsukiji fish market. Not to be missed if you can fit them in. We skipped these on this visit in favor of other activities.

In short, here's what I ended up doing last week as a "tour guide" with two 14 year olds in Tokyo:

-- Saturday: Departure for Tokyo from SFO via YVR on Air Canada. BTW there is a Canadian immigration checkpoint at Vancouver even for international connecting travelers. The officer definitely wanted to see the parental permission letters for both kids before we were allowed in to the international departures terminal.

We made really good time westbound from YVR to NRT arriving Sunday afternoon an hour ahead of schedule which was a nice surprise. The lines at Japanese immigration were l-o-n-g and it took nearly 45 minutes to get through immigration. We took the Friendly Limosine Service (bus) from the airport directly to the hotel (3000 yen per person). Before leaving the airport I bought three 2000 yen Suica cards for the Tokyo train/subway system to get us started for the week. If you're wondering why we didn't take the Narita Express (train) it's because the bus went directly to the hotel and was more convenient in that case.

-- Sunday evening after arrival: Visited Harajuku as it is only two station stops "south" of Shinjuku. Lots of teens hanging out, some in cosplay which was fun to see.

-- Monday: Spent the entire day at Disney Sea. More crowded than expected but not unmanageable.

-- Tuesday: Went to Nikko Edomura (Edo Wonderland) near the town of Kinugawa Onsen in the Nikko region. From Asakusa station we took a Tobu train two hours to the town of Kinugawa Onsen then a short bus ride to the theme park. The Tobu Railway tourist office (at Asakusa station - English spoken) sells various passes exclusively for foreigners; for this trip it was 6000 yen per person which included entrance to Nikko Edomura and the round trip train/bus. There's an upcharge to ride the express train as opposed to the regular train. We took the 9:00am express (upcharge) which was very comfortable with reclining seats and a snack car. On the return we took the regular train which took longer and was not nearly as comfortable.

Edo Wonderland turned out to be a favorite for us. We arrived just before noon and stayed until 5pm. Since it was a Tuesday there were very few customers. Employees dress up in period costume (you can even rent costumes yourself - want to be a samurai for a day?) and they go out of their way to interact with you and make sure you are having fun. Between the costumed employees and the buildings constructed to look like those of old Edo, it is easy to imagine that you have traveled back in time to feudal Japan. Photo opportunities abound! There are several shows and demonstrations; the Ninja show and traditional Japanese theatre were two of our favorites even though we don't understand Japanese language. There are many activities, shops and food stalls to keep you busy between shows.

By the time we got back to Asakusa station that evening it had started to drizzle. We stopped at Mos Burgers for dinner (right outside the Tobu Asakusa train station underneath the train tracks); you can't go wrong with teens at Mos Burgers.

-- Wednesday: A rainy day. Not a problem as I had a rainy day plan. Off to Odaiba to visit Joyopolis (giant indoor arcade with an emphasis on motion simulator rides - there's also one in Shinjuku I'm told); a visit to Toyota Megaweb where we rode the electric commuter cars on the test track, played with the driving simulators and looked at some very cool cars; then shopping at Venus Fort / Palette Town - in the latter we ran across a Sasuke TV game show "set"; Sasuke is titled "Ninja Warrior" in the USA and comes on cable TV (G4 network IIRC) and is a hit with both kids. Basically contestants go through a very difficult obstacle course - the attrition rate is easily 99% - but the fun is in watching the spectacular failures. At Palette Town you can buy a ticket and go through four of the obstacles; you land on foam rather than mud though! My son made it through the first challenge which for those of you familiar with the show is the handcrank across a pit. Unfortunately he didn't do so well with the other three, but he was thrilled to have completed at least one!

-- Thursday: Today dawned hot and humid; no more rain! After breakfast we get on the subway and back we go to Asakusa, this time to visit the Sensoji Temple (must be undergoing some kind of restoration as most of it was covered and there was lots of scaffolding about), see the five level Pagoda, shop along the Nakamise shopping street. We also walked over to Kappabashi Dori avenue to browse the kitchenware stores. There are several knife shops here; we visited one where they had every imaginable knife for sale. The owner was very patient with the kids; she was shopping for a nice reasonably priced chef's knife for her dad and my son was asking all kinds of questions about the very cool knifes on display (including a giant "maguro" (tuna) knife). I ended up buying a lightweight, perfectly balanced hand forged chef's knife for my own kitchen; not cheap at around $250 but I considered it an investment.

In the evening we walked around Shinjuku East for a few hours, dropping in to the ubiquitous arcades - what is with the Japanese addiction to those claw machines? We watched some guy drop a good $40 into one of these things before he won...a poster. And he was absolutely giddy with joy when he won it. The kids wanted spaghetti for dinner (I tried to convince them that noodles were close enough but they weren't buying it). Back at the hotel the concierge's desk directed us down the street (left coming out of the hotel) to a moderately priced Italian restaurant where dinner for the three of us was about US$75 or so. Incidentally near the hotel within walking distance of a couple of blocks there is a small food court, a AM/PM convenience store, a McDonalds (always important if you are traveling w/teens...they love those fries), a Starbucks and a supermarket.

-- Friday: Akihabara was the targeted neighborhood for our last full day in Tokyo. Known collectively as Electric Town for the multitude of electronics and camera shops that are found here. There are also many cosplay and anime stores along with several "maid cafes". We just had to visit a maid cafe, which is a definite only in Japan experience. On the street we found a young lady dressed in a French maid costume handing out flyers to her cafe. With a simple "doku desu ka" (where is it?) she motioned us to follow her and she led us to a non-descript building on a side street where we were taken up the elevator to the fourth floor. When the doors opened a line of "maids" welcomed us (I think they said "Welcome Master" in Japanese but I'm still learning the language).

According to photos on the wall at the entrance this particular maid cafe was visited by the Backstreet Boys (a boyband) and used in their music video "Bigger".

You don't come to a maid cafe to get full from the food. You come here for the experience, which is apparently quite popular with Japanese "otakus" (nerds). We were given a bilingual menu and our maid came by to take our order. We settled on a piece of cake and small soda apiece, which at 1200 yen each was about the cheapest set on the menu. But hey, the maids are certainly very cute.

After a bit our maid came back with our cakes and drinks. Before we could eat she asked us to sing a short jingle while making some kind of heart gestures to make "maid magic" on our food. My son is rolling his eyes at this point (he thought the girls were cute but couldn't stand the whole maid cafe concept) while his friend is giggling away (going to the maid cafe was high on her list of things to do in Japan).

I had ordered an iced coffee and the maid insisted on adding the cream and sugar then stirring it for me. I should have asked her to feed me my cake but I didn't think of that until later!

It's lunchtime and the cafe is filling up. It was kind of fun watching the otakus (there were several there and easy to spot) interact with the maids. A group of seven Japanese teens came in and sat down next to us - three girls and four boys. After a bit it became clear that boy #4 didn't have a girlfriend and his friends had brought him in to the maid cafe for some good-natured fun at his expense. They ordered omlettes for lunch and their maid creatively decorated each omlette at the table with ketchup from a squeeze bottle.

Taking pictures is frowned upon but I managed to sneak a few shots, especially when the teens at the next table started taking photos of their decorated omlettes. If you want a picture with your maid, that's a 500 yen charge - this buys you a Polaroid photo of you and the maid; she then decorates the photo with felt pens. My son skipped this part of the experience but his friend did it and she ended up with a very cute souvenir. I had to beg to take a separate photo of the two of them with my own camera; they were reluctant ("our camera only") but finally relented.

Was it worth the $40 by the time we got out of there? Strictly speaking, not for the food. But the experience, once, was worth it.

For the rest of the afternoon we wandered around Akihabara. We tried to find the nearby Transportation Museum but as near as we can tell the original site on my Tokyo City Atlas was torn down. A helpful passerby on the street, when I asked where the museum was, indicated that it had moved. He gave directions but with my Japanese vocabulary of approximately 20 words it all went over my head.

Saturday -- Checked out of the hotel and on the bus by noon for the flight home.

A few more things the kids enjoyed:
-- Visiting a supermarket and shopping for Japanese snacks and candy to take home
-- Interacting with Japanese school children who invaribly would come up to them and want to practice their English
-- Riding the trains and subways...after getting over their first shock of transiting Shinjuku Station at rush hour
-- The politeness of Japanese society and how friendly folks were especially when we tried to speak their language
-- Trying Japanese fast food: Mos Burgers, Yodabashi Noodles, a yakatori stand near Shinjuku east, rice crackers and dough balls on Nakamise street in Asakusa, etc.
-- Vending machines everywhere

It was fun playing tour guide to two 14 year old teens in one of the world's great cities. I'm sure they'll remember this trip for years to come.