I previously mentioned that the mainland Japan leg of this trip included 'Tokyo II,' a reference that OB and I coined after our last visit to Tokyo for the next opportunity to visit to the city. There were still sights to see that we couldn't do back then, and it was just a matter of when the next trip to Tokyo would happen.
So finally here we were. 'Tokyo II' was happening after years of being away. It was a nice and smooth two-hour ride on the Shinkansen from Osaka to Tokyo, but even though we sat on the left side of the car going up, we were unable to see Mt Fuji because of haze and clouds. Man, what a bummer. ...but I guess that's how it goes. We didn't really look into when the best times of the year to see Mt Fuji from the Shinkansen were prior to the trip, but later found out that the winter months were the best times. We definitely weren't in that time frame because the average temps in Korea, Okinawa and here were in the high 80s and low 90s.  |
| Somewhere in there is Mt Fuji. |
OB and ML were sitting behind me and enjoying the ride, and it was satisfying for me to finally see what the Shinkansen was about after a lifetime of wondering about it; fast, efficient, clean and timely.
Arriving at Tokyo station, we were ready to go and get the final leg of our trip going. I was concerned about what side of the station we'd end up after exiting the train because of seeing videos on YouTube where people got lost, but that was in Shinjuku station and we were at Tokyo station. As it turned out, we ended up at the Yaesu Exit right at the taxi stand area along with a large group of what appeared to be American middle school-aged kids and their chaperones.
I thought how great it was to see them being able to experience probably a trip of a lifetime and bring back good memories. You could see the excitement in their demeanor and in the chaperones discussions while they were waiting.
Despite the field trip group and others ahead of us, it wasn't long before we were able to get a cab of our own and head out to our hotel - the New Sanno in Minato Ward near Roppongi, where we stayed at during 'Tokyo I.' I'll do a review of it somewhere down the road as it truly is a cost-saving and great location property.
One of the conveniences of traveling in Japan is that you can have luggage shipped to the next city that you're staying in, and we certainly took advantage of that because of all the shopping we did in Korea and Okinawa. Our second suitcases were full and we still had one more city to go! Knowing this, we used Sagawa Express
to ship our suitcases from our hotel in Osaka to the New Sanno - a great service available that saves time and even worry in that one doesn't need to be concerned about where to put their suitcases on the train if space isn't available. ...and it was done efficiently and timely.
We had just arrived and were just getting started! ~
