The third and final segment of our October vacation was in Tokyo, Japan. I just realized we never posted this portion so here it is written by Brett....
For lunch we stopped at a small place that had pot stickers for 200 yen. We each got a plate while we developed our next plan of action. It was just an appetizer, so we headed back in the direction of the market. Near the market there is a big side market with a lot of shops and restaurants. We found one of the sushi restaurants that have the rotating plates so we stopped there. Basically, each color/type of plate is a different price, and you grab what you want as it’s on a big rotating conveyor belt (and the chefs are in the middle of the conveyer belt constantly creating new sushi). I ate 800 yen worth of sushi. It was all so good, but my favorite was the seafood salad roll. Tiffany doesn’t like sushi, but she did find one thing that was acceptable, it was a seared salmon roll. It’s the same as the salmon, only the chef uses a blow torch and cooks it.
After lunch, we rode the subway up north and stopped at a few parks. There seemed to be a Buddhist Temple at every park. Most of them had water, koi, turtles, old bridges, etc. It’s a very tourist friendly city. We actually had plenty of time to spare to see whatever we wanted. When you’re up and going by 5am you can get more than you think accomplished.
After lunch we went to the really big park next to the fish market. It was a pretty cool park; they had lots of the typical Japanese pine trees. We learned they don’t just look like that in Japan; the reason they look the way they do is because workers carefully trim them to grow the way they need to. I actually took a short nap there it was so pleasant. After my nap, we found the restroom and it had an American plug, so we charged our camera for 15 minutes. After the charging, we headed along the river that runs along the park and much to our amusement we saw jumping fish as well as sting rays.
With still plenty of time left before out 12:30am flight back home we took the subway west to “times square.” There’s a giant mall there, but we didn’t shop for anything. We did buy some cookies and candy at one corner store though. After walking around in the area we found another rotating sushi restaurant, so that’s what we had for dinner. Again, the seafood roll was my favorite. At this place, in addition to what was already set out, there was a big menu of options if your sushi was not already out. You could just point to what you wanted and the waiter would yell it Japanese to the chef. When I pointed to the crab salad roll the waiter yelled it to the chef and the chef yelled back in broken English, “Crab? Crab salad?” looking at us for approval. He was so happy with himself knowing a word or two of English (which is a word or two more than we know of Japanese).
With nothing more we wanted to see we headed back to the airport. We were back at the airport by 8:30pm. It was fine to be back that early, because as I mentioned before, free wifi and it’s nice. We checked in on a kiosk and headed through security (because outside security was so crowded). We were so early that we were the only ones in the security line. It’s nice going in and out of Japan. I wish international travel was always this easy. I think we were the only ones in the international departure gates. We had our choice of benches and by the this time, we were dead tired. We both fell asleep until right before our flight. We got business class no problem and there were still about a hundred coach seats open in coach. We arrived in LAX (technically before we took off in Japan) at 6:30p on Saturday 20th.
10-18-12
Thursday: We
arrived home from Kona at 7am. Although we were
dead tired we managed to unpack. We’ve
made the mistake of leaving wet clothes in our bags before. One idea was to fly to Japan since we still
had until Monday to go to work, but it was a small idea. Tiffany quickly fell asleep after unpacking
and showering. I headed to a place with
internet (the Residence Inn) to check on some things including Tokyo flight
loads just in case.
The loads looked great. It would require us to fly to LAX, then there’s a nonstop to HND (Haneda, Japan from LAX that left at 6:30p).
When I got back home Tiffany was still sound asleep. It was obvious she wasn’t getting up any time soon, so the Japan plans were quickly fading. At about 12:45 she woke up and asked if we were going to go. I said, “no, probably not because we’d have to leave in 10 minutes if we want to catch the flight.” Surprisingly she got up and said “Ok, I’ll be ready in ten minutes” … We rushed and packed as fast as we could and were out the door. We arrived at the airport about 35 minutes before departure. TSA always takes their time and after we were through we rushed to the gate and made it there about 10 minutes before the door closed.
We didn’t eat anything in LAX because we knew we would get business class to Tokyo (the flight loads were that good, and really, we would not be going if it wasn’t a 100% chance we would get business class). The time to board came quick and before we knew it we were sitting in style in business class preparing ourselves to be pampered for the next 11 hours. We watched the Avengers, and some other movies I can’t remember.
We arrived in HND at 10:30p. The airport was surprisingly nice and comfortable, which was good, because our plan was to sleep in the airport. Telling our plans to the Customs agents is difficult because they don’t understand why/who would fly to Tokyo, stay in the airport one night and fly home the next day. The airport also had free wifi. It was about as good as you can get for staying in an airport. We slept well, probably because we were so tired. We didn’t sleep long though, we didn’t want to waste any time. We have never been to Tokyo before, so everything we were doing was a learning experience.
The loads looked great. It would require us to fly to LAX, then there’s a nonstop to HND (Haneda, Japan from LAX that left at 6:30p).
When I got back home Tiffany was still sound asleep. It was obvious she wasn’t getting up any time soon, so the Japan plans were quickly fading. At about 12:45 she woke up and asked if we were going to go. I said, “no, probably not because we’d have to leave in 10 minutes if we want to catch the flight.” Surprisingly she got up and said “Ok, I’ll be ready in ten minutes” … We rushed and packed as fast as we could and were out the door. We arrived at the airport about 35 minutes before departure. TSA always takes their time and after we were through we rushed to the gate and made it there about 10 minutes before the door closed.
We didn’t eat anything in LAX because we knew we would get business class to Tokyo (the flight loads were that good, and really, we would not be going if it wasn’t a 100% chance we would get business class). The time to board came quick and before we knew it we were sitting in style in business class preparing ourselves to be pampered for the next 11 hours. We watched the Avengers, and some other movies I can’t remember.
We arrived in HND at 10:30p. The airport was surprisingly nice and comfortable, which was good, because our plan was to sleep in the airport. Telling our plans to the Customs agents is difficult because they don’t understand why/who would fly to Tokyo, stay in the airport one night and fly home the next day. The airport also had free wifi. It was about as good as you can get for staying in an airport. We slept well, probably because we were so tired. We didn’t sleep long though, we didn’t want to waste any time. We have never been to Tokyo before, so everything we were doing was a learning experience.
10-19-12 Friday:
I’m calling this Friday the 19th, but it’s not really
accurate. Crossing the international
dateline messes everything up. We left
on Thursday the 18th and arrived at 10p on the 19th
(essentially skipping my birthday). So
according to Tokyo time, this day I’m writing about is technically Saturday the
20th. But for journal
purposes, I’m going to keep it on American dates.
The trains started at 5am, and we were up and ready to go by then. We bought our tickets, including a day pass on the subway. It costs 400 yen to ride the train to the subway, and 800 yen for a day pass on the subway lines, and 400 yen to ride the train back to the airport. The first stop was to see the Tsukiji fish market. We were there before it got busy since it officially opens at 9a. The market is HUGE. Just imagine an area the size of a few football fields filled with boxes and boxes of fish and vegetables. There are also carts and people carrying fish everywhere and you have to be careful not to get in their way!
The trains started at 5am, and we were up and ready to go by then. We bought our tickets, including a day pass on the subway. It costs 400 yen to ride the train to the subway, and 800 yen for a day pass on the subway lines, and 400 yen to ride the train back to the airport. The first stop was to see the Tsukiji fish market. We were there before it got busy since it officially opens at 9a. The market is HUGE. Just imagine an area the size of a few football fields filled with boxes and boxes of fish and vegetables. There are also carts and people carrying fish everywhere and you have to be careful not to get in their way!
Fish heads!
For lunch we stopped at a small place that had pot stickers for 200 yen. We each got a plate while we developed our next plan of action. It was just an appetizer, so we headed back in the direction of the market. Near the market there is a big side market with a lot of shops and restaurants. We found one of the sushi restaurants that have the rotating plates so we stopped there. Basically, each color/type of plate is a different price, and you grab what you want as it’s on a big rotating conveyor belt (and the chefs are in the middle of the conveyer belt constantly creating new sushi). I ate 800 yen worth of sushi. It was all so good, but my favorite was the seafood salad roll. Tiffany doesn’t like sushi, but she did find one thing that was acceptable, it was a seared salmon roll. It’s the same as the salmon, only the chef uses a blow torch and cooks it.
Foot Masager in the Park
After lunch, we rode the subway up north and stopped at a few parks. There seemed to be a Buddhist Temple at every park. Most of them had water, koi, turtles, old bridges, etc. It’s a very tourist friendly city. We actually had plenty of time to spare to see whatever we wanted. When you’re up and going by 5am you can get more than you think accomplished.
After
walking through a few parks we headed back to the market area by the fish
market. Tiffany was getting hungry at
this point so we were on the hunt for something non-fishy. We passed a little restaurant that was serving
beef stew over rice; the tricky part on this one was that they knew little to
no English. All I could do was point at
the stew, then I pointed at the size of the bowl, and handed them 1000 yen
(knowing it’d be enough, and hoping they would be honest and give me change
back). It was delicious and well worth
the hassle of trying to get it.
After lunch we went to the really big park next to the fish market. It was a pretty cool park; they had lots of the typical Japanese pine trees. We learned they don’t just look like that in Japan; the reason they look the way they do is because workers carefully trim them to grow the way they need to. I actually took a short nap there it was so pleasant. After my nap, we found the restroom and it had an American plug, so we charged our camera for 15 minutes. After the charging, we headed along the river that runs along the park and much to our amusement we saw jumping fish as well as sting rays.
With still plenty of time left before out 12:30am flight back home we took the subway west to “times square.” There’s a giant mall there, but we didn’t shop for anything. We did buy some cookies and candy at one corner store though. After walking around in the area we found another rotating sushi restaurant, so that’s what we had for dinner. Again, the seafood roll was my favorite. At this place, in addition to what was already set out, there was a big menu of options if your sushi was not already out. You could just point to what you wanted and the waiter would yell it Japanese to the chef. When I pointed to the crab salad roll the waiter yelled it to the chef and the chef yelled back in broken English, “Crab? Crab salad?” looking at us for approval. He was so happy with himself knowing a word or two of English (which is a word or two more than we know of Japanese).
With nothing more we wanted to see we headed back to the airport. We were back at the airport by 8:30pm. It was fine to be back that early, because as I mentioned before, free wifi and it’s nice. We checked in on a kiosk and headed through security (because outside security was so crowded). We were so early that we were the only ones in the security line. It’s nice going in and out of Japan. I wish international travel was always this easy. I think we were the only ones in the international departure gates. We had our choice of benches and by the this time, we were dead tired. We both fell asleep until right before our flight. We got business class no problem and there were still about a hundred coach seats open in coach. We arrived in LAX (technically before we took off in Japan) at 6:30p on Saturday 20th.
1 comment:
What an amazing birthday! A day in Tokyo! That was so fun to read!
Thanks for sharing!
Love
Mom O
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