Tokyo Trip Day 1

This is the trip I had been sooooo looking forward to, my first trip to Japan! It's strange as many of my friends have the impression that I've surely been to Japan before as I've traveled so often, but all these years I did not have the chance to. Now, I'm finally going to Tokyo! As this is the first time I'm going to Tokyo and we're going on a free and easy trip, I did as much research as I could from April onwards. We booked an early flight on Delta Airlines as this is the cheapest option among the carriers that do not need us to transit. I always travel on the cost saving budget airlines but this is a 7 hour trip we are talking about, it will definitely be a nightmare since all budget airlines flying out from SG require us to transit and the journey will take us 10 hour or more.

We had some bad experiences previously (overslept and missed our flight last year and we also almost missed our flight at Langkawi) so I made extra care to make sure I do not use a weekday alarm for a weekend trip. Interestingly, we did not sleep that night but we were still late. -_- We planned to leave our place at 4am so that we will be at the airport before 4.30am for check-in, but we ended up leaving at 4.40am instead. My heart sank when we arrived slightly after 5am and when I checked the board for departing flights, the gate was already opened! We rushed to the counter and they informed us that the counter was closed at 5am, the check-in actually started at 3am as this flight goes all the way to Seattle. But thankfully, the staff kindly helped us to rush through a check-in and we managed to board the flight! Thank god! It was a really stressful morning for us, and frustration had already set in earlier when we realised we're taking longer than expected to pack. On top of that, after booking and traveling on budget airlines for two years (usually seats would already be chosen and paid for when we check-in at airport), I also forgot to do a web check-in and thus we had to sit separately for a 7h flight. :( When we arrived at the gate, there was still a long queue as the scanning is more stringent for a flight going to the US, most of the passengers on this flight looked like Americans transiting at Tokyo.

I started to unwind and feel much better once we got on the plane. Even though the airfare was cheap, the flight was comfortable and they had an interesting safety video that caught my attention, american humour indeed.

The only thing I did not like on the plane was the breakfast provided, the egg was too salty, the tomato/vegetables were overcooked and it tasted awful. I'm not a fussy eater and usually I enjoy plane food when most people complain about it, so you get the idea how bad it was. The ham croissant they gave us as snacks hours later was not bad though, still warm and much better compared to the previous meal. I did enjoy the in-flight entertainment, though I had a problem following movies without subtitles, I managed to find Chinese subtitles movies selection and watched "Jane Eyre", which was quite a good movie.

When we reached Tokyo Narita Airport Terminal 1, the local time was 2pm but the airport was much more deserted than what I expected from the busy city. We were the only passengers arriving at the customs and as most of the rest on DL166 had their onward flight to Seattle, it was just the few of us. Once I stepped out of the customs, I immediately located the Airport Limousine buses parked just outside (quite unlike my previous Hong Kong trip when we took some time to get to the Airport Express A21). The bus just left when we reached the area, but we only waited 15min for the next bus. 

The ticket for the bus can be purchased at the ticket counter inside the airport (very near to the area the buses are parked). It cost 3100Y/$38.75 SGD, compared to the one in Hong Kong ($33 HKD/$5.5SGD), its seems very expensive in our standards since both journey is roughly an hour one way, but this is Tokyo we're talking about. I figured out that its already considered cheap since taking the train will be more inconvenient for us and taking a cab in Tokyo for such a long journey will cost us an arm and a leg. I'm extremely glad that the Airport Limousine bring us right to our hotel (Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku) and thus we do not need to do any walking at all. We noticed from this board that the Airport Limousine only stopped at two hotels in Shinjuku, and ours was one of them! In fact, when we alighted at the hotel, most of the people taking the bus were also tourists alighting there. 

Back to the Airport Limousine, there were attendants helping us to load and unload the luggages so we did not have to worry about them at all. The service was really good and we were a little amused when we noticed the attendants actually bowed at the buses when the drivers drove off. The Japanese are really polite and serious when it comes to serving others!


I'm really glad that my research brought us to the right hotel, I really loved it! The rooms are so clean, and the size considered better than expected as this is Tokyo. Here are some amenities that got me really impressed. 

These are magnets that we can paste on the door, quite innovative.

The slippers are comfortable and of good quality, I like the little note to indicate that the slippers were cleaned. 

This has to be my favourite! The Japanese were the ones who started this automatic toilet thing and you simply have to use it in Japan to like it. I've seen it in Singapore and other hotels but instead of having warm water like this one, the cold water spurting out always made me squeal (not with delight). The ones in Northpoint or other public toilets in Singapore are always not working. Anyway, when we sit down on the toilet bowl, there is a sensor to get the system to warm up the water and we will see a blinking green light. After that, we can start showering our butt or use the bidet. I believe during winter, the seat will be warm for our butts as well. Now, I really enjoy peeing, the feeling of warm water washing my butt is really good! I know I sound crazy. 

The hotel also provide body soap, shampoo and conditioner. Although I use my own shampoo and conditioner out of habit, the body soap is quite good. I love this good quality sponge that they provide (dry and flatten in the package), it does not tear or break apart after multiple usage. Good stuff! 

The Japanese are more environment conscious, so there are two thrash bins provided in the room, one for normal thrash and the other for recyclables.  

I did not know what this when I first saw this flat thing with a small plug attached. I only realised that its a ironing 'device' after reading about it from another blog. I've not seen anything like this before. :) 

Although this is not like the yukata they provide at ryokan, I still enjoy putting on these after showering every night.  After I showered at the hotel for the first time, I noticed something special about the mirror, the area just in front of the basin didnt get crowded up like what normally happened after a hot shower. After examining it for awhile, I realised that patch of mirror is heated up to prevent it from clouding up, thus hotel guests can apply their makeup/brush their teeth etc easily after shower. How brilliant!

After such a early flight with no proper sleep, we showered and napped in the hotel till late evening before we finally venture out for our first meal at Tokyo. I've heard about how complicated and extensive the railway system is over here, but I had no idea until I've ventured into the station right next to our hotel (the Keio line) thinking that it should linked up to the other exits like in SG but that was not the case. There's many lines serving Shinjuku and some of them share the same station/entrance/exits while others have their own gantry and exits. We only figured out how to navigate our way around when we started taking the train to other areas the next day. 

We decided to just walk along the pavement towards the tall and bright buildings around the huge Shinjuku JR station, it also gave us a good opportunity to get a sense of the area around us, gawk at the colourful buildings and take photographs. Initially I've wanted to look for a 'Alice In Wonderland' themed cafe that someone had blogged about, but we failed to find it with just descriptions about the place as the building was huge. Interestingly, we realised that many eateries are built at the basement of the building, with a small staircase leading down. It may look really ordinary with a few signboards from the walkway, but when we ventured down the narrow staircase, it was actually crowded and full of life in the eatery. We walked a few rounds, gave up on locating that restaurant and just started looking at the signboards to see if anything appeal to us. 

I'm not a fussy eater and I dont mind trying all sorts of Japanese food. Unfortunately, my companion is not really adventurous and prefer food that are familiar, basically comfort food. Its strange to eat at a drinking bar on our first night there, but the signboard with nice steak on it really got our attention. I reckon that was due to the fact that we did not get a proper meal all day and were already really hungry. After we went in, we realised it is really difficult to order food as the servers do not speak or understand much English, we had to point at the menu and try to decipher what they were trying to tell us. I finally figured out its a requirement to order drinks at the bar as the very nice and polite server came back a few times to gesture and ask about our drinks. I actually did not want to get any drinks as a cup of coke cost 500Y when a nice piece of steak was only 1000Y, but I did not want to offend our host. I had mussels cooked in white wine, it tasted normal and nothing extraordinary but the steak turned out really good and its not expensive (about S$12.50). In the end, our bill came up to almost 4000Y due to the drinks, but at least we survived our late first dinner, so paying a bit more was okay for me. Its also nice to note that there is no service charge and GST in Japan, even though they do provide really good service. I will not really recommend this place as its meant for drinkers and tourists who want some western food, but this is the Road House Beer Bar around Shijunku area.