On arrival at Heathrow Terminal 5, we check in our baggage
and we’re thrilled to discover that we’ve been given a free upgrade to Premium
Economy by British Airways. What a treat! With our baggage zipping along miles of
conveyor belt from check-in to the airplane we take the opportunity to explore
the airport shops and grab some breakfast. While on the whole the shops are far out of
our price range I do manage to secure myself a massive meringue from Carluccio’s, where the lovely lady goes out
of her way to sort through the pile and find me the largest meringue in the
stack!
I enjoy a lovely breakfast at giraffe
of free range eggs on toasted focaccia, a side of crispy potato wedges and a
refreshing glass of fresh lemonade with mint which is served in an adorable
mason jar with a handle. The fancy fruit
juices served at giraffe
include a brightly coloured giraffe swivel stick, and I am suffering serious envy
as other people’s drinks whizz by. Our
lovely server can clearly sense my love of cute and swiftly presents me with a
set of five giraffes, one in each colour.
I am over the moon, and we haven’t even boarded the plane yet!
Finally it’s time to board, and we take our seats on the
plane. The on demand film selection is fantastic
and the first few hours fly buy as I enjoy watching a selection of the newest blockbusters,
a Japanese film and some of my old favourite Disney movies. As our flight is at midday we are served
lunch, and I enjoy Japanese miso yaki with cute carrots that are cut into
flowers, a potato salad and yummy apple pie with custard. I am so surprised when our lunch is served on
actual ceramic plates with metal cutlery – such a treat for plane travel!
It’s soon enforced night time, which I find the least
enjoyable aspect of any long haul flight.
My subconscious control freak never lets me sleep when on a plane; I
think it’s the fear of the unknown, and if I’m not awake I don’t know what’s
going on. As I know we have a full day
ahead of us on arrival in Japan, I do try to get some rest by listening to The
XX on my iPod and sitting with my eyes closed for four hours. I fail miserably at actually falling asleep,
but at least I feel more refreshed than if I’d just sat watching more films.
The arrival of scrambled egg and baked beans indicates that
there are just a couple of hours until our arrival! It's a beautiful day in Japan, and the captain announces that Fuji-san can be seen out of the windows on the right hand side of the plane. I frantically try to catch a glimpse, but can't see him anywhere. A couple in the row in front soon spot him and point him out to me. I'm overjoyed that Fuji-san was visible and happy to greet us as we arrive in Japan! The next thing I know we’re stepping off the
plane and into Terminal 2 of Narita Airport.
There’s a whole host of ground crew waiting to greet us with a chorus of
“Good Morning”. My year of Beginners
Japanese comes in handy, and I’m so proud to hear my parents join me in a
chorus of “Ohayō Gozaimasu”. I’d spent
the month prior teaching them basic greetings and phrases and it’s lovely to hear
them participating.
There’s a brief moment of panic as our cases appear to be
the last to arrive in the terminal; probably something to do with the fact that
we were some of the first passengers to check-in! With our luggage safely in hand we make our
way through immigration and into the arrivals hall. The first thing I spot is the mascot of
Narita, who is known as Unari-kun. Apparently Narita city is famous for both
eels and Narita Airport, and Unari-kun
is a combination of an eel and a plane.
I think he’s adorable, and dash over to watch the video of him doing a
funny little dance!
When planning our trip I’d read about the convenience of
using a luggage delivery service to move baggage around Japan. As we have three large suitcases and two
cabin bags between us, and we’ll be travelling extensively on the train network
we decide to let Yamato
take care of our big bags for us. We
find the desk and instantly a lovely man comes to us and helps fill out the
paperwork for our baggage. Although he
has very little English, and I have only beginners Japanese we work together
with a series of broken sentences, hand gestures and the help of the guide book
I made (more on that later) to ensure our bags are all tagged with details of
their destinations. This is the best
welcome to Japan I could’ve hoped for as the Yamato man is so
sweet and helpful, and makes us feel so welcome. It really is true that the best customer
service can be found in Japan! For the
equivalent of around £25 Yamato are going
to deliver two of our bags to our hotel in Osaka the next day, and they’re
storing our other large bag for a week before delivering it to our second Tokyo
hotel.
With our baggage taken care of we head to the JR East Travel
Service Centre where a friendly lady swaps our exchange orders for JR Rail
Passes. I’ve included details of all of
the Shinkansen trips we intend to take in my guide book, and we soon have a
mass of seat reservation tickets which will last us the whole of our trip! We also book return tickets on the N’Ex
airport service, and purchase our Suica cards ready for exploring Tokyo.
We take the next available N’Ex into Tokyo and I enjoy the
view out of the window as we pass through fields and areas of traditional
wooden houses, before the landscape merges into a cityscape. A lady wheeling a trolley of snacks and
drinks traverses the carriages of the N’Ex in an adorable lilac apron with cute
big buttons and a criss-cross back. I
don’t buy any snacks yet as I am saving myself for the conbini later! Soon we arrive in Tōkyō Station and the
excitement really hits me! We’re
actually here at last! I read the signs
and we soon find the JR Yamanote line heading in the direction of Hamamatsuchō. As the train arrives in the station the doors
open and we hop on. Just before the
doors close a cute little tune plays, known as a train melody. Each station, and sometimes platform, has its
own unique melody. You can hear the
Yamanote line Tōkyō Station melody here.
Hamamatsuchō is just six minutes from Tōkyō Station, and
provides us with our first opportunity to use our Rail Pass as the Yamanote
line is operated by JR. We show our
passes to the two men on the station gate and they smile and wave us
through. I’m pleased we chose Hamamatsuchō
as our base for the first night as the station is very tourist friendly with
just two exits. It’s a beautiful sunny
day, and we stroll through crowds of suited people on their lunch breaks as we
make our way to our hotel for the evening, The
Intercontinental, Tokyo Bay. As a
family we’re not usually accustomed to such plush surroundings, but family
rooms in Japan which accommodate three adults are few and far between, and even
at Intercontinental prices it worked out far cheaper for us to stay in a family
room, then have two separate rooms in a standard hotel. We’ve even gone as far as treating ourselves
to a Bay view!
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I take the opportunity to take a few snaps of the Rainbow
Bridge out of the hotel window.
Refreshed after a shower, we walk back to Hamamatsuchō Station and take
the Yamanote line back to Tōkyō Station.
You can hear the Hamamatsuchō Station melody here. My guidebook includes a map for an afternoon
of exploring, but we get a little lost just trying to exit the station! We find an exit next to a large branch of
Daimaru, which includes a branch of Tokyu Hands. I make a mental note to return here
later! At the crossing there’s a man
handing out pocket tissues and I’m a little over excited when he hands me a
pack too. The packet has some adorable
animals in suits and bowler hats, and I figure out from the hiragana that the
tissues are advertising an animal mansion game.
We’re on a mission to find the Tokyo Stock Exchange, but in
our tired state we soon get lost. I
realise we’ve walked a little too far, so we back track and I find a few
business people to ask for directions. I
feel so proud when they understand my wobbly Japanese and we get pointed in the
right direction. We were just one street
away! We take a free self guided tour of
the Stock Exchange, and are intrigued by a film crew who keep ringing the big
bell and clapping. I think they must be
filming for breakfast TV. There’s not
too much to see at the stock exchange as it’s now mostly all automated and
there are just a handful of people at desks.
I did find the slightly imposing mascot, “Mister Share”, and didn’t miss
the opportunity to have my photo taken with him.
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Although it is still only early afternoon we are all
starting to feel a little sleepy. I had
planned to visit the Kite Museum, but instead we go straight for dinner at
Taimeiken. Sorry Kite Museum, I promise
to visit you on my next trip! Taimeiken
is famed for its omuraisu, which is a savoury omelette which is traditionally
filled with rice mixed with ketchup, ham and vegetables, and is topped with
more ketchup. My absolute favourite J
Drama is Tumbling, and I don’t
think there is a single episode were the cast aren’t seen eating omuraisu. The omelette was perfect and so fluffy! I would love to know how the chef manages to
make each one so uniform. My mum
proclaimed to the waitress that the food was delicious with a cry of “Oishii”
and instantly all of the staff are grinning from ear to ear! Our waitress rushes over to present us with a
gift of branded matchboxes, such a swift gesture. These will definitely make it into my
Japanese memento box.
Slightly delirious, we return to Tōkyō Station to explore
Tokyo Character Street. I make my first
purchase of the trip from Snoopy Town, which is soon followed by a plush totoro
from Donguri Garden and little souvenirs from the Rilakkuma and Kapibara-san stores. Overloaded by the kawaii goods on offer, I
make plans to return later during our trip.
We’re all shattered by the time we make it back to our hotel
and after a few snaps of the night view from our window I crawl into bed and am
soon fast asleep. I sleep well until my
dad accidentally makes the toilet get stuck on constant flush. At one point I think about ringing reception for
assistance, but after pushing a combination of buttons on the crazy toilet
control panel it finally quietens down. When
I get back to sleep I find myself dreaming of tomorrow’s adventures in Nagoya.
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