Japan Visit 2010

We arrived this morning at Narita Airport at 11:00 (02:00 UK time) after a 2-hour delay at Heathrow.  Got to say I was very impressed with Virgin Atlantic.  First time I’ve flown with them and the service was excellent.  Still 12 hours on a plane isn’t easy but movies and episodes of Family Guy and Glee do help!

Customs was very easy to navigate and very efficient (would you expect anything different here in Japan?).  Once through it was on to the Keisei Skyliner into Nippori.  The ticket office is right in front of you when you come through customs!  The train journey takes just over an hour and you get to sit back and relax in clean and airy cabin – ScotRail please take note!  The train was waiting for us at the platform and was getting cleaned.  Just before the doors opened the seats all moved to face the direction of travel – very cool!  Also had our first experience of public toilets – spotless as you can imagine, and to top it off the seats are heated!!

Nippori Station was a little more difficult to negotiate but after a minutes thought it was easy to find the ticket office and make our way on to the train travelling to Shimbashi.  Amazingly most the signs on the trains and in the stations are in  English so it’s very easy to find your way about. 

From Shimbashi it was a 10 minute walk to the hotel through the ultra modern Sio-Site.  We got a little bit lost at this point but soon found our way.  The Park Hotel is located inside the Media Tower in Shiodome and we have a lovely room on the 34th floor with some amazing views over Tokyo. 

After arriving we were both very tired so a quick sleep was the order of the day.  After which we went down into Shiodome to a get something to eat.  Found a great wee restaurant that served curried noodles – they even give you a paper vest to put on, and boy did you need it.  It was also our first experience of the noises the Japanese make when they eat.  The louder you slurp the more you are enjoying your meal.  Neil decided to partake in this – I didn’t!  Maybe by the end of the 3 weeks I will.

So all in all a good first day.  We’ve arrived safe, our luggage arrived safe, the hotel is lovely and so far it’s seems that Tokyo is very tourist friendly. 

We are off to enjoy our complimentary half bottle of champagne and chocolates that we got as part of the honeymoon package.