Going to Tokyo

Today was our last day at the B&J Family guest house in Kyoto. I was quite relieved to be going to a proper hotel in Tokyo (the Tokyo Prince Hotel, so part of the same chain as the one we stayed in in Oiso). At the B&J guesthouse, we didn't have our own bathroom/toilet, the upstairs shower always seemed to go cold after a minute (though there was also a downstairs shower), and our room was pretty tiny (also we had a double futon to sleep on between us as opposed to separate beds/futons).

Another thing I like about proper hotels is that you get a toothbrush and toothpaste provided, I hadn't bought one on holiday with me, and didn't want to buy one (they were 300 yen) just to use for a few days while we were staying at the B&J Family guesthouse, so I just went without brushing my teeth while we were there.

We had to check out by 11am, so we got up quite early and went to To-ji temple. We got there about 8.30am, which was when it opened, and had a look round, which was 500 yen. There was also a museum you could look round, but that cost another 500 yen. Looking round, it looked like all the buildings were closed, but Moccle found out that they were open, just you had to open the doors (normally open temple buildings have doors open so you can see they're open).

It didn't take long to look round there, and there wasn't that much to see, mainly more golden Buddha statues (that you're not allowed to take photos of) inside the temple buildings. Inside one of the temple buildings they seemed to have an art exhibition by some artist selling loads of cartoon style drawings of Buddhas and monks.

We got back to the guesthouse about 10am, and went on the internet on the laptop to see how to get to the hotel from Tokyo Station (or Shinjuku if that was nearer, which it wasn't). Then we checked out and went to the station. On the way, we tried to go in the same shop that we had been in yesterday evening so we could buy some breakfast, but we went down the wrong street, and so went in a different shop instead.

At the station we bought our Shinkansen tickets, which were totally expensive. We thought the woman asked us if we wanted a result sheet, which we though was a print-out of something, so I said yes, but then actually she was asking if we wanted 'reserved seats', so I said no. The first train we could catch to Tokyo was too crowded, so we got off again before it left and waited for the next train, which was a 'Nozomi' class train (faster) as well.

The next train (the 11.09am) was crowded as well, but we did manage to find some seats next to a Japanese business man. So we ate our breakfast/lunch on train, and got to Tokyo about 1.30pm.

We followed Moccle's information he had written down in the morning about what trains/lines/stops to get to get to the hotel, and got there okay. We got a Metro/subway ticket from Tokyo to Otemachi, where we had to change and buy a subway ticket to Onarimon (you couldn't buy a ticket from Onarimon from Tokyo station). When changing at Otemachi to the train to Onarimon, we had to walk quite a way through the underground station to get to the line that went to Onarimon. From Onarimon, it was a short walk to the hotel.

When we got to the hotel we had a cup of Cafe Latte (the hotel didn't have any coffee sachets in our room, just green tea and 'special roasted tea', so lucky that we bought the Cafe Latte sachets). We sat around for a bit drinking our coffee, then explored the area around the hotel, which includes the Zojoji Temple, Shiba park, and the Tokyo Tower. Inside the Tokyo tower was a Sega exhibit, but it cost 500 yen each to get in, and seemed to mostly be a 3D Sonic film. The end of the Sega exhibition part of it that we could see from the entrance didn't look that interesting either (just posters on the wall with a photo of a Sega games console and some info about it). There was also the Guinness World Records exhibition, which was 800 yen each, and a Wax Works, which was 500 yen each.

To go up the tower to the 150m viewing deck cost 820 yen each, or 1420 each to go to the higher (250m) viewing deck. They also did a ticket for 2000 yen which allowed access to the Guinness World Records Museum, Wax Works, and Space Wax (the Sega exhibit), and the 150m viewing deck (not the 250m deck it seemed). We decided not to go up the tower at the moment given the high cost, but went to the convenience store (Family Mart) on the bottom floor instead.

We tried to walk back to the hotel, at first without using the gps, but were actually walking in the opposite direction. After getting back to the hotel, we had our dinner. I checked out the window to see if we could see the Tokyo Tower from our room, and we had a good view of it, so I took some photos of it.

Moccle planned how we can get to the Studio Ghibli Museum tomorrow.

Food
Breakfast/Lunch: Large Packet of pizza flavour crisps; French cheese (sweet bread with cheesy stuff on top and creamy/soft cheese in the middle); 2 waffles; water; JR Coffee.
Dinner: Instant noodles/ramen; Pocky Chocolate (Chunky Pocky sticks); 1½ pieces of croissant style bread; a few cups of green tea; 2 cups of Cafe Latte.