Today was going to be a very busy day. I was leaving Tokyo and travelling to the north Island of Hokkaido. Still on unusual time I woke 4am and left the capsule hotel by 7am which wasnt that comfortable compared to others and was full of cigarette smoke.First I had to take a local Yamonote line train down two stops from Ueno to Tokyo station. My train to Hokkaido was at 8.40 so I tried to see if I could switch to an earlier train but no window seats were availabl...

Today was the end of a very long first day, walking Yokohama old town, and exploring Kamakura's five temples. Finally before heading to my capsule hotel for tonite I was going to do a walk thru Akihabara district.In its heyday in the 70s and 80s this was the 'go to' place to get the latest in electronics from cameras, watches, radios, cassette tapes and recorders, vcrs, tvs, walkmans, batteries, and video cameras. With the growth of rival foreign brands and newer...

This morning having walked Yohohama Old Town in the humidity and drizzle (which I was supposed to do yesterday on arrival) along with my luggage I wanted to drop my luggage in a station locker before more walking this afternoon in Kamakura.Like Kyoto Kamakura has more than a dozen temples spread around the city and surroundings you could spend a day or two exploring. Using my guide I picked out the five most important and planned a walking route. I went first to ...

Saturday morning my first full day I was exploring Yokohama old town. I was supposed to do this yesterday when I arrived but the flight arrived late in the evening when it was already dark.Leaving the capsule hotel I went down a pedestrian street towards the Yokohama Stadium where people were lining up early for some kind of event.First I went to the waterfront past the municipal building which was rather bland looking. The waterfront had some historic ship which...

Early Friday evening I arrived at Tokyo Haneda airport. I'd been delayed an hour from take off in Toronto when the fuel truck broke down and needed to be towed. On this trip I arrived at Haneda which is closer to the centre then Narita which I flew to on my first trip.First thing upon arrival was to get my JR pass and pocket wifi which I'd both ordered online. The JR pass was easy as they always have a JR office at the airport. I thought they would give me the po...