Advertisement
Published: March 13th 2012
Edit Blog Post
Monday, March 12, 2012 We arrived at the Tokyo Narita airport on Monday, March 12, 2012. We were originally scheduled to land the day before, however American Airlines had maintenance issues in Houston causing our flight to be late in Dallas; we missed our first flight to Narita.
Tokyo Narita airport is surprisingly older, however well maintained. We were very surprised with how quiet one the busiest airport in world was. After clearing immigration control, we went to get our luggage, however with all delays, the luggage never arrived. The baggage claim area was very nice and did a good job setting the expectation when our luggage would arrive. They provided us with a $800 US for clothes purchases, however in Tokyo, this does not go far.
We proceeded to the training departure area so we could exchange our Japan Rail voucher for a 7-day rail pass. This process was very interesting and took a while; however they were very thorough in making sure everything was in line.
We were given our first class seat on the Narita Express to the Tokyo station and quickly maneuvered our way to
the train loading area. The Japanese rail system is punctual on arrivals and departures. This journey is about one hour to Tokyo. The Narita Express train we were in was incredibility nice, felt almost new. The seating is comfortable and spread out. I attached photos of our family on the train.
The Tokyo terminal is massive. It is for the Japan Rail and the Tokyo subway. It was sure hard to navigate through the terminal area; however we were very thrilled that a lot of the personnel spoke English.
After figuring out the correct subway, we ended up in the Ginza area where our hotel was located.
All I can say is, WOW about the Ginza. It is incredible, particularly at night. The lights are amazing. Not only are all the top brand stores located here, they are all multiple stories high. One of the neatest things I have seen in a long time is the street light. Not only are the lights on top of the pole, but the lights actually line the poles. If you look at the photos attached to our blog, you can see what I am talking about. Jenny shopped
for replacement clothes at Forever 21 and Michael at Abercrombie and Fitch. Michael and Jenny made comments that the Abercrombie and Fitch store was like a night club, they played dance music loudly.
Cindy and I did not find any clothes. Hopefully we will find some Tuesday.
We checked into our hotel located just off the Ginza. We stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott. The hotel is very retro and service outstanding. The lobby had your traditional front desk, bar and restaurant, but also had an area where you could sit and read a book, work on your computer, or have a meeting. The hotel rooms were very interesting, much different than the states. They had a button next to the entry door where you could request service to your room or do not disturb. There was a light that displayed outside your room door. The bathroom had a baday and a mirror that had lights built into the mirror and also had an area on the mirror (eye level) where the mirror would not fog up while taking a shower.
After our brief visit on the Ginza, we walked to
the world famous Imperial Hotel,
http://www.imperialhotel.co.jp/j/tokyo. Cindy’s Dad is staying here in Tokyo while attending a Board Meeting. We met him at the hotel and ate at the Ten-ichi restaurant at the bottom level of the hotel. Our meal was a traditional Japanese dinner. Cindy and I ate Tempura and Michael and Jenny at Shabu Shabu. The Shabu Shabu was cooked at the table. The Tempura was served in a box. The service was incredibly good. We were very fortunate to have this experience.
After a quick tour of the Imperial hotel, we headed back to our hotel.
I will update our journey on Tuesday.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.112s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 12; qc: 42; dbt: 0.0354s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb