Thursday 28th July 2016
After taking the N’EX downtown to Tokyo Station we weaved our way through the maze and up to the Yamanote line to continue our journey. We only had to take the train 1 stop to Yurakucho and then walk around the corner to our hotel for the night, The Peninsula Tokyo. The check in process took a little bit of time because, you know, Japan but soon enough the staff member took us up to our room. We had been upgraded for our final night of the trip to an Executive Suite with a brilliant view of the Ginza area and the train lines below.
We didn’t stay in the room long, just enough time to change some shoes out and then it was off to find some dinner. It was pretty late, but a lot of places were still open and after wandering around for a while, we found one place that interested both of us. It was the kind of place that sells noodles and you buy the tickets (that is you pay) the vending machine. The ramen was fantastic and we both really enjoyed it. Pretty cheap too considering how expensive some things can be in Japan.
We wound back to the hotel via the convenience store for an ice cream and then back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.
Friday 29th July 2016
Woke up kind of early this morning as I wanted to head out for a run before I had a breakfast meeting thing for “work”. The track around the Imperial Palace is meant to be 5km and I was determined to do it. I did not find a running map in the hotel the night before so figured I would wing it. Probably wasn’t my brightest idea because I blew through 5km and kept on going. I stopped about 5.5km because my knees were just done by that stage but I was nowhere near the hotel. I could see it, but it was ages away. So I had to walk back to the hotel from that point. I did over 7km so that should give you an indication of how far off the path I had gone…. Woops!
Back to the hotel for a cooling shower, packing of my bag and then a breakfast site inspection with the hotel rep. The rep turned out to be a bit of an avgeek so it went from a normal breakfast meeting time to something truly awesome. Got to see the conference room dedicated to the japanese aviation history. Similar to the Clipper Lounge in Hong Kong this conference room was full of memorabilia and was a great showcase for the hotel chains love of aviation.
After a great breakfast, Heidi and I headed off to Tokyo station to see if we could find some candy, and also grab some food for our train ride out to the airport. We could have gone just about anywhere in the city but decided to stay close because we didn’t want to get to in depth into the city and then not want to leave. We stopped to reserve our seats on the train and then wound our way through the 1st Avenue shopping mall to see if I could find some kit kats. Instead we found Heidi some goodies and lots of photo opportunities. Although I didn’t find any kit kats, we did manage to get our Ekiben (Train Bento) in the shape of a Shinkansen train. The food inside was of no great importance to me, I just wanted to the box itself We jumped back on the train to our hotel, so that we could pack up and head out to our last big flight of the trip. Time to head back to the USA.