First day of travel and first night in Tokyo

We are heading to Tokyo to visit Akash and Nicole before they move in a couple months. It also happens to be peak cherry blossom season when we arrive!

Madhu managed to find some really great award travel on United, so we flew into Toyko Narita direct for 35,000 miles each and are flying back from Osaka Kansai direct for 35,000 miles each. 

Our flight to Tokyo was operated by ANA which turns out to have wonderful service and pretty comfortable economy seats. They even gave us ice cream with our meal.

 

 

This was probably the nicest flight I've ever been on. It was also the easiest long haul flight I've done. We also landed an hour early which was a nice bonus. 

Once we were at the airport we went through a fairly long immigration line, and then again had to wait a while to hand over our customs forms. This is the only country I've been to where handing over your customs form is somewhat chaotic (several lines) and they seem to use it as a way to ask you more questions about what you are taking into the country. Not efficient. It's like going to the grocery store and getting stuck in the wrong line. We got stuck in a couple wrong lines before we could get through.

We had decided ahead of time to take the airport limo bus (https://www.limousinebus.co.jp/en/bus_services/narita/index), since it drops at several Tokyo area hotels. There are other buses and a train, but they only drop you at Tokyo station. The limo bus has several ticket counters, and it was literally right outside the exit of the baggage area. There are different stops depending on where your hotel is, but the signage is good, and you can show your tickets to the porters and they will tell you where to stand and tag your bags. 

It's about 90 min into Tokyo from the airport, but the bus ride was smooth, and we didn't hit any stop and go traffic. We did get to see some interesting architecture along the way. I'd highly recommend the limo bus, it was very stress free. 

 

 

Our bus didn't actually drop at our hotel,  but most people just pick a nearby hotel and then walk to theirs. 

We are staying at the Hotel Mystays. It's pretty nice, except when we checked in they insisted we had booked a smoking room. After checking the reservation, I confirmed it said Smoke-free room and tried to argue this point, but this only seem to convince them that I had indeed booked a smoking room. I contemplated whether this was a translation issue, whether they thought a smoke free room meant free to smoke. After talking with Nicole and Akash, it appears this does not matter, as Japan does not really have designated non-smoking rooms, they are just sprayed down and run an air purifier. 

 

Our hotel room is about ten paces long (I'm being generous). 

 

All Japan hotel rooms are tiny. You should pack lightly here. We only brought a carry on and a backpack. Given that our room is ten paces, I find it hilarious that we have, not one but two sets of slippers in the room: house slippers and bath slippers. The idea that there is the space to change or to even have an extra four sets of shoes in this room is lost on me.

 

The note indicates there are bath slippers in the closet. 

There isn't a closet in here. Just a rod with hangers. In any case, every time we enter the room, I trip on these slippers. 

"The closet"

 

After checking into our hotel, we walked to Akash and Nicole's to see them, their adorable baby, and Timm, who is also visiting. We found our way easily with google maps, which was lucky given that by then it was around 2am San Francisco time and I was getting tired. 

Ishaan loves The Itsy Bitsy Spider

 

We went to Ippudo ramen in Rappongi for dinner and had amazing ramen. It blew all ramen I've had in the US away. Apparently it is a chain, but they speak English at this one, and the menu also has photos, so it makes it very accessible to us. We have heard various things about eating at restaurants being somewhat challenging in Japan. Ippudo can be an easy ramen go to. Nicole said we can use Yelp to find other English accessible restaurants. 

 

 

After dinner Akash showed us Rappongi crossing, so we could find our way back to the area in case we ever get lost in the coming days. We also went to see a mini Mount Fuji light/art installation which was very cool that was centered around a cherry blossom viewing spot (very pretty). We also went into a high end shopping center where we could see what a $200 mango looks like. I'm still confused about that. 

 

 

I managed to stay up until 9pm Tokyo time which is 5am SF time. Now I'm awake at 5 am Tokyo time. Not too bad for a first day adjusting.