Tokyo

Day 1

We arrived into Haneda airport around 9.30pm. After many hours travelling with a layover in Beijing for 3 hours, we were excited to just get to our hotel and get into bed. On arrival at the airport, everything was pretty straight forward with signs and instructions in English too.

We took cash out and enquired after a pocket wifi but were too tired to work out exactly what we needed. We headed to the taxi rank as we thought this would be the best way to get to our hotel.

The taxi was the quickest way, particularly without starting our JR pass. However, out of the rank of taxis, we seemed to get into the only one that wasn’t a Japan Taxi and cost more than the flat fare. We ended up paying around 9000 yen to get to our hotel (around £64). This did seem a lot but the travel on public transport for the two of us would have been quite considerable and we just wanted to get there after a long flight.

On arrival at Hotel Rex, we were impressed! As soon as you walk in it feels luxurious with its plants and waterfall feature above the bar in reception. Great room facilities with nespresso machine, kettle, fridge, robes and well equipped bathroom with a lovely japanese bath and toilet.

After showering, we couldn’t resist just having a brief walk out into the surrounding area to find a snack and were pleased to find a Japanese 7-eleven selling very fresh food, including sushi. We tried a sushi pack and chicken with jalapeno cheese. We then headed swiftly to bed!!

Day 2

We didn’t set an alarm and the room stayed so dark. Having woken up initially around 6am, I was surprised to wake up next shortly before 10! Lack of sleep I suppose will do that. So we missed breakfast but given our midnight snack, we were not particularly hungry! We had done some planning of what we wanted to see, but decided to just head out and see the lay of the land.

We didn’t buy the pocket wifi at the airport and having googled and asked at our hotel, the answer was that you could only buy this from the airport and we didn’t fancy going back there… Having googled, it looked like there were other shops available in tokyo- surely?!

We decided to get out and walk towards Shibuya. It was around a 45 minute walk from our hotel but having been cooped up travelling for so long, we enjoyed the walk and seeing some sights on the way.

On arrival at Shibuya crossing, you can see why it is such a tourist attraction. We took our photos from the Starbucks (busiest in the world) and from the crossing itself. We also exchanged our JR rail passes at Shibuya. There is a tourist information centre at Shibuya, this process was really straight forward and there were signs everywhere.

We picked up a pocket wifi from shibuya (ANY-Fi Wi-fi Rental, Shibuya). The cost was £99 for 14 days with unlimited usage and a postage envelope to return it. The cost we were quoted was actually cheaper than the airport too.

We were starving by this point, so went for lunch in the ‘dining dining foodhall’ at the top of the department store next to Shibuya station. It was pretty reasonable and very tasty.

We then hopped on to the Yamanote line which is accessible using your JR pass. We got off at Tokyo and took some pictures from the upper level. We walked over to the imperial palace, and although it was closed we took some great photos and on the way back through fountain park. Back at Tokyo station, we hopped back on the Yamanote line back two stops to Shimbashi station and walked across to the Caretta Shidome. If you take the lift to the 46th and 47th floor, you’ll get some great views of Tokyo for free!!

As we were celebrating 9 years together, we also went to a bar right next to the observation deck. It was happy hour 5pm - 7pm and we sampled a manhattan, vodka martini, beer and a japanese whisky. The views from the bar were incredible and worth every penny!

After our drinks, we were feeling shattered, starving and a little tiddly… We headed off back towards the station and found a small restaurant down one of the alleyways off the main road. We shared a sashimi and had a couple of beers before then heading back to our hotel. We paid for a subway back home, two tickets on the Ginza line for around 300 yen and saved our poor legs.

Steps - 20,000!

Tip: If you have table service, they expect you to get up and pay at a cash desk at the end. They might bring you the bill but still expect you to pay on the way out.

Day 3

Having been absolutely shattered by the time we returned to our hotel and got into bed, we both woke up and were wide awake at around 2am. Tom decided to head out to the 7-eleven for some midnight supplies! Instead of an early morning we gave ourselves a couple of extra hours in bed as we were awake for a good 2 hours or so in the night. Breakfast was provided by the hotel, it was a continental option but pretty good. Also had scrambled eggs and bacon on offer.

We headed from our hotel across to Shinbashi station, which again is on the JR Yamanote line. We headed up to Akihabara ‘electric city’. It definitely was an experience - the lights, neon and gaming stores! We spent some time just wandering round the smaller stalls, and headed into some of the bigger gaming stores to have a go!

We were tempted by the maid café, but decided we couldn’t cope with this extreme! We had an amazing ramen for lunch which was 1100 yen. I just googled ramen and went for the one with the best reviews. There was a small queue but it didn’t take long and mainly because there are limited seats once you’re in. Thoroughly enjoyed our lunch spot!

After lunch, we headed back down the Yamanote line to Tokyo. Having seen the imperial palace yesterday, we wanted to check the gardens out when it was open. It was such a beautiful day at 21 degrees that it was lovely to stroll around the beautiful grounds. However, by this point, two days of walking was catching up and we stopped for a coffee on the way back to Tokyo station to rest our aching legs.

Given we had free use of the Yamanote line, we then headed over to Shinjuku. The flashy neon lights of this district were something else! We headed over to Omoide Yokocho, this is a narrow and rustic alley with loads of little Japanese izakaya pubs, only 6 seats or so in each one. We stopped in at one small bar and had two beers and tried some of the little meat kebabs. We weren’t too keen on the pork hearts or chicken gizzard though…

Shinjuku is also home to the red light district called Kabukicho. The lights, noise and people are quite overwhelming here! It’s great to catch some neon photos though and experience the atmosphere.

This was our last night in Tokyo, and we were shattered so headed back to our hotel a little earlier to get some rest in and pack ready for our next stop! We took the Marunouchi line back to our hotel, which cost 178 yen each. We were home in 20 mins which was ideal.

Steps - 16,500!

Tip: As we ate in the ramen restaurant, I noticed a sign to say no blowing your nose. Having done some googling (pocket wifi working really well), apparently it is rude to blow your nose in public in Japan! Particularly difficult if you are eating something spicy… SNIFF!