What a day - more than 36 hours on the go since we left Adelaide. 2 x 7 hour flights with a few hours in Singapore in between makes for easy travel. The 2nd leg from Singapore to a Tokyo did allow us a few hours sleep so we could hit the ground running in Tokyo. Our first challenge was getting to the hotel. We had a meet and greet guide who met us at the airport and he gave us the option of the mode of transport. Did we want to take the train, the bus or a taxi. Just for a challenge we opted for the train and after the poor guy had to repeat himself a number of times, he waved goodbye to us as the doors closed on the first leg of this journey. 3 trains later and more very helpful advice from randoms in the stations, we made it to our hotel. It was lucky for us that we were traveling at 7 o'clock on Saturday morning and not peak hour! The Monterey Hotel at Hanzoman is excellent. Well located and very good facilities. Everything we needed including toothbrushes, hair brushes and pajamas ! After breakfast and a shower we head out to see a bit of the city. It's overcast but warm and steamy. The Imperial Palace which is very close to the hotel is the first place we visit. The grounds and gardens are enormous and surrounded by a moat. We walk and walk but never actually see the palace but we do see the Bancho's or guard houses where the Samurai would be stationed to protect the Palace. We are both very surprised at the amount of green parks and trees that are in the city and also the water. Rivers and canals or waterways run through the city and there are many bridges crossing them as well as the roads and expressway that has been built above the water. It's quite a network. The Japanese are friendly and more than happy to help bewildered tourists even though the language is a barrier. Because our time in Tokyo is short and this is definitely not a walking city, we chose to do the hop on hop off buses. There are 3 different routes that will take us past the main attractions. The unusual thing about these tours were that they we all run in Japanese. The guide sat on the bus and talked in Japanese non stop for the whole journey even though the majority of people on the tour were clearly not Japanese! We were given headphones to listen to a limited English commentary. It was funny because in most cases the narration did not match the attractions and we were told to look left when the highlight was on the right! Might be something to consider improving in order to appeal to a wider audience. We finish the day at Decks Tokyo Beach on Tokyo Bay. It's an entertainment hub with shopping, restaurants and bars and a great place to watch Tokyo light up as the sun goes down. It's another 3 train trip to get back to the hotel. It's been a great day, it's nice to be here and look forward to tomorrow. .