Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
CrewFamilyTravels
Our 10 hour flight from Melbourne to Tokyo was not as torturous as I'd feared, everyone even managed to get a few hours sleep.
On arrival, we whizzed through customs, caught a shuttle bus to Narita's Terminal 2 and found the post office where we picked up our portable wi-fi gizmo.
A very helpful gent at the information counter helped us buy some "Pasmo" cards (put ¥5000 on each to last 4 days) to allow us to travel on all rail within Tokyo (despite my pitiful Japanese language skills), and we caught the Narita Sky Access into Tokyo. Confusingly, even though we stayed on the same train, the name of the line changed 3 times according to who owns it, so we only had to transfer once in order to find our Air BnB apartment- mainly thanks to a bit of research on the Hyperdia travel app where you can find the best rail route to take in Japan.
Our smooth journey thus far was thwarted by the apartment's new maid who had forgotten to leave the master lock and key out for us! Our host took an hour to answer our email and another to come from the other side of town with a key - very apologetic! On a positive note, it gave us a chance to have a wander round the neighbourhood of Azabu-Juban, perusing little market stalls, wowing at all the plastic food displays in restaurant windows, and finding some convenience stores for supplies.
Hot, bothered, tired and a little cranky - our dinner while waiting was some street food from the window of an exceedingly busy yakitori restaurant. A selection of chicken and pork skewers was "totemo oishii desu yo!" - very delicious- but wasn't convinced by the mysterious skewer that may or may not have been spleen or tongue.
Finally our host arrived and showed us around our wonderful, spacious apartment on the 8th floor, with really comfortable beds (though the kids had to share), well stock kitchen, laundry etc. Plus a coffee machine! We'd found a "Peacock Supermarket" a little way up the road which had plenty of breakfast and snack supplies, as well as wine, so I went back out to stock up.
Early to bed.
On arrival, we whizzed through customs, caught a shuttle bus to Narita's Terminal 2 and found the post office where we picked up our portable wi-fi gizmo.
A very helpful gent at the information counter helped us buy some "Pasmo" cards (put ¥5000 on each to last 4 days) to allow us to travel on all rail within Tokyo (despite my pitiful Japanese language skills), and we caught the Narita Sky Access into Tokyo. Confusingly, even though we stayed on the same train, the name of the line changed 3 times according to who owns it, so we only had to transfer once in order to find our Air BnB apartment- mainly thanks to a bit of research on the Hyperdia travel app where you can find the best rail route to take in Japan.
Our smooth journey thus far was thwarted by the apartment's new maid who had forgotten to leave the master lock and key out for us! Our host took an hour to answer our email and another to come from the other side of town with a key - very apologetic! On a positive note, it gave us a chance to have a wander round the neighbourhood of Azabu-Juban, perusing little market stalls, wowing at all the plastic food displays in restaurant windows, and finding some convenience stores for supplies.
Hot, bothered, tired and a little cranky - our dinner while waiting was some street food from the window of an exceedingly busy yakitori restaurant. A selection of chicken and pork skewers was "totemo oishii desu yo!" - very delicious- but wasn't convinced by the mysterious skewer that may or may not have been spleen or tongue.
Finally our host arrived and showed us around our wonderful, spacious apartment on the 8th floor, with really comfortable beds (though the kids had to share), well stock kitchen, laundry etc. Plus a coffee machine! We'd found a "Peacock Supermarket" a little way up the road which had plenty of breakfast and snack supplies, as well as wine, so I went back out to stock up.
Early to bed.
- comments