Tokyo

Home Tokyo

We made it – a long and boring flight that was thirteen hours long. We made it through the Toronto Terminal 1 and boarded a full flight. Tokyo is the first stop – layover for many other places in the Far East so the daily plane is always full. Even with our newly purchased neck pillows, something that the travel bloggers extoll for maximum comfort and inflight sleep, we didn’t – sleep that is! But having been fed two meals and a couple of snacks we staggered off the plane well fed even if sleepless.

Arriving at Narita we all looked for our Customs QR code. This was a procedure that we had to set up for quick and easy entry to the Country. Found in an app on the phone and then completed online (it was free, just time-consuming) it was then shown to the Immigration Agent after we were fingerprinted. Off the the baggage claim and picked up the bags and then another flash of the code and we were out. Immediately we were then accosted by a man, who appeared to know us and grabbed my bag and we followed him. Instructions to meet the Driver who would take us to the hotel had been previously received on ‘Whatsapp’. He had told us to go to a certain place and he would meet us. This guy however was on a roll taking us to the Parking Garage. “Hey are you Kagai?” I yelled. “No” – taking my bag back we stopped and waited where we should be. Thinking about it after, I thought perhaps it might have either been a mistaken identity problem or a kidnapping!

An hour later we were at the Hotel. Again faced with infernal machines, this time the check-in machine. We followed instruction given by the front desk person and did for ourselves all they would have done. Up to the room – very small and completely Japanese. Now to sleep after more than 26 hours since the last one.

Jet-lag kicked in and we were up very early. Down to breakfast for a ‘Western Buffet’ but it wasn’t! A good selection of Japanese stuff and a mix of coffee and pastries. Fish for b’fast was not a usual Mickey Ds breakfast sandwich. Nothing too much to complain about in the way of ‘Culture Shock’ yet.

We had arranged to use the day riding the ‘Hopon Hopoff’ bus for a few hours but as the weather did not cooperate – it was still raining we cancelled and decided to go an see the “Shibuya Crossing” – wiki ref here. Using the Uber app we called up one and set off. Arrived to see a seething mass of umbrellas and moving people. Took pictures and then tried to find a Mall which would have been warmer and dry. We found one but being before 10am it was not open so we put in our steps just wandering around.

OK the ‘crossing’ was ticked off the list, What next? I had planned to visit a camera store to purchase a lens for my camera, it was another ‘Uber’ away. Arriving at the ‘MAP’ camera store going to the 3rd floor I was the proud owner of a ‘new’ used lens. Saving about $150 (25%) of the cost avoiding customs charges and Ebay shipping fees – a good deal.

“Now What?” Wandering the streets of Shinjuku and window shopping hunger kicked in and one of the party of six decide that Wagu or Kobe beef would be a good lunch. Four floors up we entered a small room seating 12 people at a counter – cook top on one side, stools on the other. A truly Japanese cooking experience! Many dollars later, actually Yens, we left well moved and satisfied with the food and the experience.

Back at the hotel we then had a couple of hours before we had to go to the “SumoLand” experience. One of our party is the consummate organisor and being much younger than us has to fill the day with activities and this was one of hers.

Sumoland is a wrestling gym but provides a meal. So we eat and live the lives of a Sumo and then watch demonstrations with a twist. The audience is invited to participate but in true Japanese style. All the volunteers had to drees up in inflatable sumo suits and pretend to fight with the real Sumos. The owner of the place was once a Champion Sumo and now puts on three shows a day for about 50 people a time. It works and was entertaining.

Off to bed!

Day 2

This day was supposed to be a free day for us and a trip to Mount Fuji for Jeff and Michelle. However yesterday they decided that as the weather for today was going to be rainy and no visibility then a trip to Mt. Fuji would be a waste of money. We all chipped in and used the car today.

Travelling to the first place on Michelle’s wish-list was the Snsoji Temple; wiki ref here. Next on the wish list was sought at a Japanese specialist shop as she wanted to buy a statue of a Samurai warrior. Not seeing one we left but not before two others in the group bought something. Still on the trail of the Samurai we then went shopping in a tourist trap – Yanaka Street. Nothing there we moved on to lunch. The driver having been told we wanted burgers drove us to MacDonalds. Hmmm. Seeing that he dropped us off in the Ginza district, an upscale area with posh restos. We settled on a place called “Bill’s” an Australian restaurant in name only. Very good but the normal high price. It must be mentioned that eating out in Tokyo is expensive. Yesterday’s Wagyu lunch was so expensive we must never mention the price?

After lunch we dropped in at the Largest Shrine in Tokyo – the Meii-Jingu; wiki ref here. At this Shrine we tried our luck at a ‘wish-locker’. One dropped a 100 yen coin in the slot which then allowed you to shake a stick out of a metal box. The stick had a number on it and then you went to the corresponding drawer in the ‘wish-locker’ and selected a sheet of paper that indicated whether you had picked ‘best luck’, ‘good luck’ or ‘bad luck’. If you had ‘bad luck’ you had to suck it up but could fend it off by tying the paper to a rack of lines. One of us had ‘good luck’ look at the image to see if 100 yen ($1 cdn) had provided a road map to prosperity.

The driver had dropped us off at the parking lot but told he would pick us up at another place 1 KM away. Dropping a pin on the Google Maps we walked back the 130 metres to the pickup point which was at a very busy intersection – long story cut short he had a hard time finding us. He did but not before the rain had made us all wetter than before. On to the last stop – the Tokyo Tower. This was a washout as the visibility made even the top of the Tower invisible.