The first part in this series is HERE.
RETURN TO TOKYO
DAY 12, Tuesday 7/4/15
We arrive back in TOKYO @ 9:05pm. Walked down stairs to Marunouchi Line (M17), boarded train (M14) Kokkai-gijidomae Station, walked 435m to Capitol Hotel room # 2715 next to our previous room but interior layout in reverse! Confusing!
DAY 13, Wednesday 8/4/15
When Greg went to pay for our breakfast (as this time it was not part of the package) there was a bit of a mix up. They asked if Greg wanted to be billed to our room but Greg said he wanted to pay “separate” (meaning from the room) they charged him for one breakfast and then wanted to charge Tren. They were apologetic as they thought we wanted to pay separately from each other.
We organised with Concierge to book the Limousine Bus and charge it to the room. He suggested 7:20 am to get to the airport on time.
We also asked him how to get to a particular shop that might sell bowls. He printed out their website and gave us a map. We checked their web pages but decided they were too daggy.
12:53 pm As the 2nd part of our stay @ The Capitol didn’t include access to the Library Lounge, Greg went down to the small Starbucks between our hotel & train station to buy two teas with honey ¥712.
After tea we took the train to SHINJUKU. We had a look through Keio Department Store & were very happy to come across a range of hand printed bowls. We bought 3 small glazed bowls (¥1800, ¥1200 & ¥1500 ) + 4 chopstick rests ¥100 each = ¥5292. ($59.28).
We asked the girl who served us if she could wrap them well as we were taking them to Australia, she wasn’t sure what we wanted & neither was her colleague but once again Greg did this time an interpretation of a plane flying. They laughed but understood.
Man, what an art! She first cleaned the bowls & rests & removed the price labels, then wrapped each item in tissue paper (Origami style), then the same but plastic foam wrapping, then bubble wrap & finally put them in a store quality thick plastic draw-string bag showing us we could have blue or red, we chose red. It was a stunning performance, would have taken me all day & would be a bit of a bodge job.
Shinjuku is like the futuristic Ridley Scott movie – Blade Runner full of brightly coloured buildings, noise, flashing lights and people galore.
We went to a Pachinko (pin ball) game centre that was smokey & noisy, music blaring, with lots of people playing the machines.
4:30 pm we went to Head office store of Yodabashi Camera, a smaller, older store than the other one we had been to. It was a muddled kind of store so asked a young man for assistance. He was very helpful to us as we knew what we wanted to buy.
We bought Greg a Canon Powershot G7X camera, ¥57500 on special and a black camera case ¥991 like the red one I had bought, then we were taken across the road to another building which was also their store to get the Nikon small binoculars 4x10D CF, ¥11788. We got tax off and a further discount for using Visa card (¥4086). Total ¥64,013 ($715.52 AUD) he put the certificate in Greg’s passport, it was 4:48 pm.
We were so relieved we had asked for help straight up because the entire process had taken less than 20 mins, absolutely something we would not have been able to do without assistance!
We opted for the easy dinner choice going back to Hobgoblins British pub. We were sat at a table next to about 8 friends all getting warm heartedly pissed. I love pubs even with their average food, sticky floors & full ashtrays.
Greg had the British burger & this time I had fish and chips and a salad. Greg had a beer and I had the white wine. ¥5,500 paid at 9:12 pm.
DAY 14, Thursday 9/4/15
8:55 am. Breakfast not included in the room tariff so paid ¥8552 for 2 buffet breakfasts.
11:24 am Greg went & bought 2 cups of English Breakfast tea from the nearby Starbucks. ¥712. The woman who served Greg wanted to learn Australian English. Greg taught her “Beauty Mate”!
We spent the day packing as we would have no time in eve because we were meeting Wayne at 4pm in Shibuya to head to Yokohama.
3:22 pm back to Starbucks for 2 Earl Grey teas & honey ¥712.
Met Wayne @ Shibya near the dog – Hachiko. Got lost in department store before meeting him but asked a young dude on street & he walked us in direction of Hachiko – dog statue.
Wayne was waiting. Caught train to his place, cold brisk walk & talk.
Met his dogs, the Ls. Luke fairly hyper, Luna so tiny, like a toy, very shy & reticent.
Wayne’s apartment is quite large by Japanese standards. It’s in a nice suburb in Yokohama.
Wayne fed the dogs, then took Luke for a brief walk. We took the opportunity to use his loo. Very happy to find he had a heated toilet seat, we have one in our apartment, he also had a hand basin over the cistern which flows water from hands into the cistern, lovely!
When he returned we walked to his local favourite Yakitori bar. We sat at the bar and left the ordering of the meal to Wayne.
Yakitori is various types of food on kebab or satay sticks. We had meatballs, chicken livers, camembert & tomato, chicken wasabi that cleared the nasal passages, Wayne’s favourite is mulberry leaves wrapped around a soft cheese/meat combo (?).
We also ordered a green salad which never arrived. Wayne isn’t very impressed with the Chinese woman who works there as she seems to get a lot of things wrong.
I ordered a glass of white wine – we ended up with a magnum of white wine so Greg & Wayne drank 2 pints each of beer & then 2 glasses of wine each. They were a tad tipsy but it was a really convivial night out together.
Our shout! We paid for food and drink, ¥12,400.
Wayne tried to hail a taxi without any luck, so we 3 walked, arm in arm to the train station, en route (Professor) Wayne telling cyclists to turn on their lights…
Wayne tried to sort out a train for us. He paid, spoke to the guard who was helpful, telling us which train to get on & gave us a docket to give to any other guard if we had problems.
We bid each other farewell, took a selfie, an Australian word according to Wayne. We waved farewell, I cheekily told Wayne to make sure he turned his light on his bicycle; which he was collecting from the station. When he rode home we chuckled & waved good night.
Happily on the train ready to go home feeling quite sure we were in good hands suddenly our guard dashed on the train to tell us to get the train on the other side of the platform. We got on the train & Greg realised that it did not stop at the station they had agreed we should go to.
Greg got out his map looked puzzled, then studied the map on the train, scratching his head, when a young man offered assistance, telling us our best route was to go to Shibya station. We agreed even if it would cost more, we knew the station better.
11:54 pm Greg went to the Family Mart (Convenience store we could see from our window). He bought yogurt and OJ for breakfast ¥265. We were going to have an early start to catch the Limousine Bus.
DAY 15, Friday 10/4/15
Up at 6:00 am! Light breaky.
Capitol Hotel Bill 3 nights @ ¥46,850 plus Limo bus tickets, ¥6,200 total ¥146,750 (AUD$ 1,645.55)
7:20 am Depart. Limousine Bus arrived promptly (of course). The bus was scheduled to arrive at Narita Airport at 8:45 am, it arrived early.
AIRPORTS, FLIGHTS & TRANSFERS
JAL – stopover KL
Malaysia Air – Perth
Go through usual procedure.
10:07am @ Blue Sky, gate 99 Greg bought 2 coffees and a bottle of water ¥650. Needed 8 tiny milk capsules.
DAY 16, Saturday 11/4/15
12:41 am JR Duty Free at Perth Airport Greg bought 2 (1 litre) bottles of Baileys for $49, and 2, 1 litre bottles of Jameson Whiskey for $59, + a Red Callico bag total $111.65.
1:05 am Natalie rather than Nance was waiting for us. We had missed the texts sent regarding the change.
It was lovely to see her. We paid the parking, $8.50 – for 43 minutes! Thank goodness it was Nat driving as there was a maze of witches hats & road works. We didn’t know where to go but she took it all in her stride. Nance, understandably would have freaked out!
Nat told us that she had been to the 20th reunion of her school & had a ball catching up. As a result, one of the teachers suggested she may like to join a group of students going to China later in the year!
Nat was overjoyed. She had previously looked at costs & found that she would be up for in excess of $7,000. This opportunity was too good to refuse, $3,000 all included.
She was staying the night in South Perth with a friend called Ash. They were going to her first Comic-con gig at the convention centre, so was quite a happy thing.
We arrived home @ 1:30, gave directions to get to Ash’s place from ours then set about unpacking essentials for showers & the like & hit the sack at 3:00 am!
We are home and in bed so that’s the end of Part 4…But there is a Part 5 to this series…
