Monday, March 18, 2024

It is quite a nice room, if a bit small “tastefully” decorated in browns and beiges. As you come in on your left is a small bathroom…I say bathroom but the bath itself is a typical Japanese affair, very narrow and deep so you would probably need to sit up rather than lay down in a bath. There is a shower with a curtain that pulls across. Yes, they have one of those fancy heated-seat, electric toilets with various…cleaning and drying…options that I have always been too chicken to try out.

The main part of the room has a double bed in the corner on your immediate left with power sockets in the headboard and a shelf above on which to place your devices as they charge. We are on the top floor in room 1003 though the view out the window is of an enormous blue and white tarpaulin covering a neighbouring building under construction but if you lean you can see the lights of the buildings of Ginza to the left and right.

There is a small desk under a television that we found that we can “cast” to from the Apple iPad we brought with us so - Netflix is on! Which is good since there are NO English channels on the television. The hotel has Wi-Fi throughout.

At the end of the bed is an interesting device which I had read about before our stay - An “LG Styler” which is a tall slender closet like device that has two hangers inside on which you can hang your clothes. It has a couple of settings including sterilising, steaming and refreshing with the only requirement being that you add water to a container at the bottom and select the appropriate option. I would not quite call it a washing machine but it will come in handy for, well, quick refreshing of our clothes during our stay.

The 5,000 mile flight from Abu Dhabi arrived about fifteen minutes ahead of schedule though it took quite some time to taxi to the gate. We were told there are wind warnings in effect and the area has been suffering from a drought. As we were landing we saw small sandstorms around the airport which is odd considering there is so much forest and vegetation in the Narita area though all the open spaces looked pretty brown to us.

It was a bit of a walk to immigration from our gate. We were just happy to have arrived without any issues. I had done some work in advance to fill out our immigration details online so that, ideally, we would be able to pass through quite quickly but for some reason they were unable to pull up my information when scanning my passport, taking my fingerprints and picture while in the queue but they waved me on to the immigration officers who did it all again. We were soon through and picked up our luggage though not before someone mistook one of our pieces for theirs and had started to walk away before we stopped them.

Mel was looking for a coffee so in the arrivals hall we found a small friendly café that delivered an “ok” coffee after a bit of a wait. So far, so good for basic communication. Mel has been learning some basic Japanese and seems to have the accent down quite well. It is important to at least be able to say “good morning/afternoon/evening”, “please” and “thank you” as it is both polite and shows you are at least making an effort. No problems here.

We took the escalators down to the train station which was, of course, a bit of an assault on the senses with signs and people everywhere. Another part of my preparation had been in the purchase of “JR Rail” passes which have recently changed a great deal. They are quite a bit more expensive and additional restrictions than when I was last here. We have gone for the general pass which basically allows us to take any train in the country (though not necessarily local subways) and even some buses (those run by JR) without any additional cost. We only have the pass for one of the weeks we are visiting. Having a pass for our whole visit would have been expensive and not cost effective. We are not really doing any difficult travel but it does cover quite some distance so we are going to do this all in the last week we are here, ending with our return trip to the airport from Kyoto. Part of my research included looking into the costs of the individual trains without the JR Rail pass to see that we would be able to save money using it.

The JR Rail pass can only be purchased outside of Japan and when you arrive in the country you exchange the purchased voucher for the pass itself. This exchange can happen at different locations in the country including Narita airport. I knew the rail pass office here can get very busy so we agreed I would only exchange now if it was not too busy, after all, we don’t need the pass for another week anyway! In any case, it wasn’t too busy though interestingly they were only letting in one person at a time so Mel had to wait outside while I went in and queued for a few minutes. After exchanging the voucher the pass, to reduce the demand on the rail pass staff, you are only allowed to book one train trip (you can book your others from any other JR Rail office in the country anyway) so I got our next week tickets to Kyoto.

We did have a quite look into a “Gacha” shop - A space full of coin operated toy machines. There must have been hundreds of these uniform white machines stacked up to four high in places. There was everything you could think of: Dolls, replicas of cars, small plastic robots, stickers, plastic insects, lots of plastic replicas of food (yes, including sushi), and soft toys.

Next up we had to get to Tokyo as the airport is quite some distance away. There are much cheaper options but I opted for the Narita Express (NEX) which I am familiar with. It takes us to Tokyo station which is only a short distance from the hotel (though several subway lines…). There was a small queue of people for the NEX ticket machines and many tourists were having a tough time of it but we were able to pick up our ticket for a train without too much of a problem using my Visa card (always nervous the first time using my card in a new country in case my bank decides to decline…).

We declined an otherwise helpful employees suggestion of taking the train leaving in 2 minutes (14:20) but rather picked the one leaving about 30 minutes later (14:45)…It turns out maybe we should have chosen the earlier train since the weather had delayed the trains quite significantly and we ended up waiting nearly an hour before our train eventually arrived. It was fun waiting on the platform though, watching how the rubber string platform barriers raise up to let people on and off the trains.

Mel was quite fascinated by the coin operated machines everywhere including on the platform. Mostly they are cold AND hot drinks (including coffee and tea) but some contain food or other items.

Eventually we caught our train into Tokyo. The NEX trains are very modern and similar to the Heathrow Express in London with a fast, efficient service into the city. We passed through hills, small towns, bamboo forests, and farmers’ fields on the hour+ trip into the city. Mel was hit by the travel and spent most of the time dozing. I had a thrill seeing the “Tokyo Sky Tree” for the first time - We were finally in the city but Mel had only a brief look before her eyelids fell once again.

On arriving at Tokyo Station I knew one of the first thing we should do was to get a SUICA card. This is a stored-value card that you can easily use on most local transport in Japan including subways and buses. I had a couple of cards from my last visit so looked to see if I could top them up by visiting a convenience store in the Tokyo Station underground concourse (most convenience stores are able to top up these cards) but, sadly, this did not work. I had been reading that tourist SUICA cards expire after 10 years and I think it might have been longer than this since I last used them…Plan B was to visit a JR Rail travel centre in the station to buy a new SUICA (there is a 500 yen deposit). After looking around and accidentally bumping into a commuter a helpful rail employee directed us to the travel centre and we were soon in the queue. It was quite a wait despite there only being a few people in front of us. Everyone seemed to get having long conversations with the staff and getting piles of tickets. I wasn’t entirely sure how much we would need but opted for an initial 2,000 yen to be put on our new SUICA cards. Well, we can top it up if we need to later…

Despite Tokyo Station being quite close to the hotel we had to take three separate subway lines to get to it. I am hoping that we will figure out a more optimal route but for now we just wanted to get to the hotel, dump our luggage and relax. During the trip there were a few long flights of stairs, unfortunately, and made us quite tired by the time we emerged to street level just around the corner from the hotel which had helpfully posted directions and pictures on their web site. “Turn left at the Family Mart…” It was easy to find the narrow, tall, hotel which is in a quite area of Ginza.

The hotel. Hum, yes. It is “Henn na Hotel”, which is a small chain of hotels in Tokyo whose claim to fame is that they are the first hotel with working robots operating on reception. So, the first challenge was always going to be checking in but thankfully there were touch screens that allowed you to change to English and made check-in very straightforward. I ignored the two creepy lady robots in uniform behind the screens that were chattering away to me (in English after I selected that language) while I pressed buttons. I did need a bit of assistance as it did not recognize my name, so a press of another button brought a human employee to my aid (“try putting your last name in the first name box and your first name in the last name box…which worked).

Thankfully, with the delays to our train it was also well past the earliest check in time as well so we were able to get our keys and head up to our room. It was good to see by the elevator (lift) free amenities such as pyjamas, brushes, toothbrush/paste, and combs.

A quick shower and we were ready to head out for dinner. We knew it was important that we make the effort to stay up as long as we can on the first night in order to help our adapting to the local time zone which is 9 hours ahead of the UK. We agreed we would head out to find something to eat.

Our hotel is only a few streets away from the former site of the Tsukiji Fish Market. I say “former” because since my last visit the market itself has moved to a much larger site – “Toyosu” – on the other side of the river though Tsukiji still has a number of food stalls and shops remaining.

We wanted to get our bearings a bit so took a bit of a scenic trip to the market along the quite, dark back streets around the hotel. There is an interesting looking diner at our corner with bar-style seating and some interesting donburi (meat on rice) options. Mel pointed out the birds nests of cables strung between buildings and poles along the streets. There are not a lot of shops here, with a few small restaurants here and there. We passed by a 7-11 which, as I always do, I checked to see if they served “Slurpees” (shaved ice drinks) but, sadly, it looks like this trip will be “Slurpee-less”. The corner stores are quite fascinating with lots of food options including hot rice, hot water, soup and fried chicken in most locations as well as microwaves for heating.

At “Tsukiji Station” we wandered around the impressive “Temizuya” Buddhist temple with a huge forecourt with water fountains for washing your hands before entering.

The temple itself has a small café on the right but it did not look like it was open so we continued across a busy road to the narrow alleyways of the old Tsukiji market.

At this time of night (almost 7 pm) many shops were closed with their tables covered in plastic tarpaulins and the security shutters down. Even so there were some shops open as we wandered through the dark alleyways finding one particular restaurant that appeared to be quite popular and very busy while the surrounding shops were bathed in darkness - “Sushizanmai”. The garishly lit exterior features several huge plastic tunas and a welcoming life-sized plaster chef standing outside, his arms open in welcome. Yeah, ok, seems a bit touristy.

In the small restaurant we were offered bar-style seating near the chefs preparing the dishes and given a computer tablet from which we could place our order (yes, in English).

There were a number of other tourists but, thankfully, there seemed to be a number of local “salarymen” who seemed to be enjoying themselves…and the food. The chefs were quite animated as well. At one point they took a live fish out of the giant tank behind them, paraded it around, showing it to all of the diners before respectfully placing it on a cutting board, doing a small prayer of thanksgiving before dispatching. That is fresh.

The prices were not all that cheap but we placed our order of a variety plate containing sushi containing many fish and ingredients I have never heard of (even in English). We also ordered simple tuna maki roll and miso soup as well as “o-cha” (matcha tea) - I was quite pleased that as we were sitting down I said “o-cha onegai shimasu” to order the later and was completely understood!

After we placed our rather large order of sushi, one of the chefs working in front of us showed us a piece of paper with a “special of the day” which he seemed to be suggesting we would like. We nodded in agreement and this turned out to be the dish we enjoyed the most - We believe it was the large jaw of a tuna fish, grilled to perfection, with wonderful, succulent meat that we picked out of the bones. Delicious.

The rest of the sushi was really good as well. We were not offered wasabi on the side, which was correct, as this is a seasoning that should be applied by the chef in the correct quantities rather than applied by the customer though, of course, we had soy sauce for dipping.

It was getting later so after settling up and wishing good evening to the staff at the restaurant we returned the straightest way to the hotel. It was quite cold and windy out and we were getting tired so just wanted to get into bed and sleep for a long time. After all, it was getting up to 8 pm…

Around the corner from the hotel is, surprisingly, a “Denny’s”, an American “family diner” chain, which we passed on the way back. I suppose if we get stuck for a restaurant it might be an option but I have to think we will have to be REALLY stuck…

Back at the hotel it was nice to see an assortment of snacks and, surprisingly, drinks…both alcoholic and not…set up in their small eating area just off the reception. There was an assortment of liquors and a whiskey, juices, coffee, tea and water as well as some bar snacks. These were arranged on the left side of the room with the middle of the room dominated by two large tables with chairs leaving very little floor space free and bar seating on the right. The back of the room is presumably where food is prepared and in front of that a small preparation area with microwaves and toasters. It is a nice touch to have this all included with our stay. Evidently, breakfast is between 6:30 and 9:30, “tea time” is between 10:00 and 17:00 then “cocktail time” is between 17:00 and 22:00…all free of charge!

Before we returned to our room to collapse into bed we put two tags beside the time we wanted to have breakfast. Somewhat optimistically we chose 9:00 but we really have no idea how long we will be sleeping as it has been a long day.

>> Next: Day 4