Tokyo 東京, Japan Trip (Day 1)

27th December 2014, Saturday

Yippie! Going to fly to Japan.....after my first visit in 2009 with a travel agency. This time i am going for free and easy trip..to Tokyo, Nikko, Kyoto, Osaka and Nara. Bought the air tickets from SQ during a promotion...so it costs around $600 plus...Had only started to plan the route on 2 weeks before the actual flight day....and most of the hotels are already packed full due to the New Year.....So had to change the route a few times so as to find available hotels during this period....And of cos, Japan subway/trains network are really confusing....They have too many lines...and you will need to know which line are the JR lines and which are the subway lines....cos you need different tickets for JR and subway trains...and JR are more expensive....We had also ordered our JP passes online and my friend also spent alot of time on which data sim card to buy when we reach there.....We also made a table reservation in this ninja restaurant -Ninja Akasaka (expensive restaurant but there will be ninjas running around in the restaurant and doing stunts while you having your meals).....But we finally managed to get everything booked and prepared despite all the frustrations we had during the planning.....

Disney House in Changi Airport

Went to the airport by myself on cab.....there was a guy waiting for a cab too when i reached to the roadside, think he had been waiting for some time...but i walked further up in front of him and managed to get on a cab before him...felt a little bad for him though...hehehee...Then i reached the airport T3 at around 7 am...The flight was 9.50 am...so after i met up with my friend, we went to check in our luggage and went into the departure....Saw some Mickey's display as Changi Airport Christmas celebration theme....Went to burger king too to eat our breakfast before we walked to our departure gate....We boarded the plane at around 9.30 am...and the plane was decorated with Christmas ornaments inside...and we were flying to Tokyo!!

Suica Card

Airport Shuttle Bus Stop

It was about 6 plus hour to reach Narita airport...once we came out from the arrival hall, we started to look for JR office so that we can exchange our JR vouchers to a JR passes....the office was located in the basement of the arrival hall...and the queue was long...the staff was telling me that the waiting time could take up to 60 mins....but we just continued to wait...while i was in the queue, my friend went to find data sim cards service and Suica pass (like our ez-lnk passes)....Initally she wanted to buy Pasmo pass instead but when she got to the ticket machines, there was no English language for it whereas there was English language in the ticket machines for Suica cards. So she bought Suica pass instead and she could also enter our names to print on the cards....(Both cards can be used to take buses and subway in the whole of Japan...i think there are some train or bus companies which are not allowed using Pasmo pass but allowed with Sucia pass...And there is English language supported in Suica pass. So top up the card is quite easy. But overall these 2 cards are ok to buy if you don't want to spend time on buying individual tickets....Finally i was done with the exchange of the JR passes and at the same time my friend also came back after buying the surica cards...After this, we went up to the bus stop to take the shuttle bus to Tokyo station. It was super cold when we stepped out the airport...the wind also blowing too...we quickly took our jackets (i wore the down jacket which i bought from Taiwan) and wore it....but we had to wait for 10 mins for the bus to arrive...and the trip costs $1000 yen each per pax....The bus came and we boarded...the whole journey took about 1 hour to reach Tokyo station....The bus stopped some distance away from the station, we had to cross the road to enter the station...The station was very big...there were many signs for directions too...even down under the basement level, there was a ramen street and anime street and many other shops....

Inside Restaurant

Pork Ramen

Pork Ramen (Dry)

As it was already 8 plus, we decided to find some food to eat first...getting very hungry already...we went to a ramen shop, which was having a queue there...we bought our ramens from the vouchers machine outside the restaurant....it took us quite a time to figure out which are the dishes and the names....hahaha...was looking for the main character in the long names of the dishes....anyway we managed to buy what we wanted...and we waited for our table....The staff later let us in and sat down on the tables....and our ramen were served very fast...mine was with soup and my friend's one was dry noodles....The ramen and the pork meat were very nice...my friend liked mine better...hahahaha...After eating, we left and went to take the metro to our hotel....but don't know why we had walked to the transfer station (Otemachi station) direction instead of taking metro from Tokyo station...lol....i went up to the street and checked the guide map board and see whether the station was too far away while my friend waited downstairs....Then i went back down and told her it was a straight road down and maybe will take around 5 or 7 mins walk...and it was abit cold too...My friend said ok, we will walk to the next station instead....So we zipped up our jackets and put on our gloves and cheong up and started walking in the cold...lol...It was really cold...stopped by at a 7-11 shop and bought some snacks before we continued our way....

Hotel Room

Finally we reached Otemachi Station and took the Hanzomon line to Hanzomon Station...it was a short trip, just 3 stops away....and we had no idea where to walk after we exited out from the Hanzomon Station exit...and it was also night time....So we turned to the left side and walked towards it but after some time, it wasn't seem correct, so we walked back to the station again and tried to figure....hahaa....We stood in front of the map for at least 10 mins and this time, we turned to the right and walked down. My friend recognized the street name and then we turned into an small alley...and i saw our hotel name high on top of the building...somehow the hotel was the tallest building among the rest of the houses....Finally we reached the hotel...and we checked in the hotel...we got a room in 11 floor and the room space was very small....got a cozy double bed but there wasn't much walk space around...and the toilet wasn't very big too but they had provided Shiseido Shampoo, conditioner and body soap (Shiseido brand is expensive in SG.....hehehe) and even rubber bands, combs and cotton....My friend was very happy that the hotel had provided so good brand shampoo and got coffee for her too.....We even got 2 pairs of slippers too...1 disposable to wear in the room and the other to wear to walk in the hotel grounds....Then i went to take a bath while my friend slept on the bed....and it was sleeping time to prepare our outing for the next day....

Hotel Stayed:
APA Hotel - Hanzomon Hirakawacho