Bachwig travellers: Travelling to Tokyo

Day 1 - Travelling to Tokyo

Japan, Tokyo

Saturday, 28 June 2014

It was a very early start! Taxi picked uS up at 6.00am and we spent a pleasant hour or so in the Air NZ lounge enjoying breakfast and reading. Then onto the flight. As we neared the gate we got our first introduction to crowded Japan because there was a horde or students queuing for the flight. We had chosen premium economy and I'm SO pleased. It was cheaper than an economy seat for the return and not that much more for the flight going up. This is the 777-200 so the original premium economy design so without the bells and whistles of the current design. Even so - tons of leg room; extra special service and the food was fantastic! Bruce of course got well looked after and when he wanted a reisling the stewardess got it form business class for him!

We arrived an hour early and made our way though the passport facilities. We bumped in to Geoffrey and his mum from Michael's class. They are flying back the after us and I think visiting family.

We easily found where to buy the Narita Express ticket and luckily Michael is considered a child. They have a special tourist deal going from Narita to Tokyo is 1500 yen and 750 for Michael. We then decided to be brave and instead of getting a taxi to our hotel we took the subway. Cost us 170 yen each...and ..Bar a few stairs was remarkably easy. The hard part was deciding which entrance to come out of and then to find the Hotel! We came out of number two entrance (which we now know is the right one) but then struggled to get our bearings and work out how to find the hotel. After some mucking around we got it and where there. However ..future note - entrance 2 has escalators and exits only over the road from 1.

The Hotel is great! A wee little lobby, great English, very polite and they had our package with the MIFI ready there. We were on the 7th floor. I knew the room was huge (55sqm) but this is outstanding, Bruce and I had a small double each and Michael had the sofa bed which he loved. Plenty of room to spread out. And the toilet...a heated seat and buttons for bidet options. Even though we were hot and sticky we decided to quickly freshen up and go and find a light dinner. We had wandered through a really nice area but it looked quite western so we headed down an alley round the corner from the hotel where there appeared to be lots of affordable eateries.

There was one place that looked quite interesting the sign had pictures but no prices - and then out walked a family from Texas who told us how much they enjoyed it and what they paid - so we went in. A fantastic choice. You entered through two glass doors which you press a button and then they automatically open. Inside was a corridor with flooring that was stones. The water showed us to our table that was a little room! He brought us English menus and we very much enjoyed our sushi and yakatori meal.

Then back through the drizzly rain to a really good nights sleep.