One Night In Tokyo

One Night In Tokyo

27-28 August 2005

So, we finally leave for Japan. So, we leave out of LAX airport on Saturday morning at 11:00 for our XX hour flight. Saw a bunch of movies and slept for a while. The funny thing about it was even though we were in the air for a LONG time, and we lost like 2 days, it was light outside the whole time. They have everyone close their blinds and dim the lights at the appropriate times for people to sleep. But, you basically are flying with the setting sun, and it never sets. Because of the time change (17 hours ahead) and the crossing of the Int'l date line, we didn't actually land in Japan until Monday afternoon. And due to the fact that the AF travel agents are worthless, and the Japanese airline system is a bit wacky, we are forced to spend the night in Tokyo. Basically, there are two large airports in Tokyo , Narita and Haneda. If you are coming from the US, you can only land in Narita. And, you can only fly locally in Japan from Haneda. So, you are forced to take a cross-town bus ride of about 45 miles to get from Narita to Haneda. Thing about that is, you never know with the Tokyo traffic how long that is going to take. Being as we landed at 2, and the last flight to Misawa for that day was at 5, we were not sure we could clear customs at Narita, get to the base, make the trip, and have enough time to check in at the other airport. So, we just decided to spend the night. And, good thing we did. It took over an hour for us to clear through immigration at Narita. It was really easy to find the bus to Haneda. And, there was no traffic on our trip, which took about a hour. I got to see a little of Tokyo on the bus ride; I say I because Jenn slept the whole way. I guess she didn't sleep much on the flight. But I did see some stuff because some of the views were blocked by the large walls around their toll roads (I imagine for noise). But, we did see from afar Tokyo Disney, The Tokyo Tower, and other weird and interesting buildings.

We decided to stay at a hotel in the Haneda airport, so getting on our flight the next day would be easier. First, we checked in. Then, we took a while to explore the Haneda Airport. It is a beautiful airport. It looks pretty new, with a few floors of shops and restaurants. Tons of vending machines as well, which is also an everywhere in Japan thing. They have 1 vending machine for every 3 people in Japan. I don't know why they would not have flights from the US to Haneda. They really hurt their inter-Japan travel by doing that. Maybe they want Americans and other international travelers to stay in Tokyo? Anyway, they also had a rooftop observation level where you can watch the planes take off and land. Viewing the planes, we were exposed for the first time to the Japanese love of cartoon characters. As it turns out, they use them everyone, like below, on planes, on adds, on maps. They love making things look cartoony.

After taking in all of the airport, we wondered down to the subway/monorail entrance in the airport. It was a large maze of entrances and ticket machines. They have both a subway and a monorail out of the airport. It took us a while staring at the Tokyo map to figure out where we wanted to go with our very limited time. Then, after figuring out what we wanted to do, it took another long while to figure out how to get there. After staring at the ticket machine for 5 minutes, and watching people use them for another 5 minutes, we finally figured out what we needed to do to get a ticket for the monorail. The monorail takes you to the center of Tokyo. Since it was already getting late, and we were exhausted from all the travel, we would just wonder around in the city for a while.

The monorail was indeed a good choice because, unlike the subway, it rides above ground. So, even though it was dark out, we did get to see some of Tokyo. Surprisingly, there is a lot of water running through Tokyo. There are a bunch of waterways running this way and that. Some look like alleys between buildings. Some are rivers with large bridges. There is just lots of water everywhere. There is also buildings everywhere. Tons and tons of medium and tall buildings.

At the end of the monorail line (it is not very long, running to the city center and a main subway changing point), we got out and just started walking around. We found the largest street with the most lights, and just set out down the street to see what we might find. What we found was Wendy's, McDonald's, and Burger King. Ok, we found all sorts of other interesting places to eat too. Little places along a well lit and traveled street. And, we were actually looking for a place to eat dinner. But, most of the places looked very foreign, and we were a little afraid to try the funky food. And most places seemed to be serving a soup dish exclusively, and we didn't really want soup. Luckily, most of the food places have plastic samples of what they serve in their windows. Unluckily, we couldn't find anything that looked good. So, when we came upon Wendy's, Jenn recommended a burger. But, I just couldn't bring myself to eat at an American hamburger place the one night in Tokyo, and our first night in Japan.

So, we kept walking around, despite being dead tired. We did notice, off in the distance, a very tall red and white tower. I had seen info on it in the airport, and also in our Japan travel book. It is the Tokyo tower. Modeled after the Eiffel Tower, but much newer and taller, it just so happens it was just down the street from where the monorail let out, in the middle of Tokyo. So, we started walking towards it, not sure if we would go the whole way, just to see what we see. Along the way, we ran into a really interesting park with statues and shrines. It was dark, so we couldn't see a lot of it, but it also made it very mysterious. Eventually, we exited the other side of the park and ran into the base of the Tokyo Tower. It was still open, so we decided to go up. 1400Y per person to go to the first observation levels at like the 80th floor.

The Tower is pretty much exactly like the Eiffel Tower, except that the tower is larger, it is red, the base has a mall in it, and there are funky cartoon characters all over. There is also a nice but odd wolves in the snow statue out front. Not sure what a large tower downtown has to do with wolves, but hey, it looked cool.

We took the elevator up to the 82nd floor. There are two observation levels at this height. For an extra $20 per person, you can go up another 10 floors or so. Probably not too much of a better view, and the two observation levels here were pretty nice. It was pretty late (9pm) on a Sunday night in Tokyo, but there were still a ton of people in the observation areas. They had signs pointing out each direction tell you what you are looking at. The observation levels are actually quite larger than the ones at the Eiffel Tower. Looking out over the city reveals a city full of buildings. That is about all you could tell at night. During the day, you see Mount Fuji (if it was clear), along with Tokyo Disney and other amusement parks. We did see the Rainbow Bridge, a fairly well known suspension bridge near downtown.

They also had numerous see-thru floor sections you could walk on and look down all the way to the ground hundreds of feet below. It was VERY freaky to stand on those window-floor sections.

All in all, it was fun to see. It is funny how the Japanese make this tower much like the one in Paris, but the things they do different show they culture. This tower was just more up to date and techy than the Eiffel Tower.

After leaving the Tower and on the walk back to the monorail, we had to find something to eat. After trying the find the plastic sample food that looked most edible, I found a small diner type place that served gyoza. They are fried pork and veggie wonton type things. They looked good, did not have fish or tentacles sticking out of them, and were not a soup. So, they won. The place was one small room with bar and counter type seating. There were no other customers, but I was hungry. I ordered my gyoza which were promptly fried up. And they were great. I should have ordered more. But, it was time to get back to the hotel. We headed back to the monorail, and made it safely without incident back to the Haneda Airport and the Excel Hotel.

The next morning, we packed up our stuff, and headed up to the observation deck to check it out in the daylight. The deck is pretty cool - great view of the planes taking off and landing. They also have signs showing where the main attractions are located - you can see Tokyo Disney and other resorts. If you look at the pictures of the plane coming into land below, you can see the Tokyo Tower in the city skyline.

Then, it was off to catch our plane to Misawa. We did have to go from Terminal 2 (where our hotel was) to Terminal 1. They have a really nice underground walkway and free carts to use in the airport, so we figured it would be easier to walk than try and get all our bags on and off the shuttle bus. And, it would have been if it hadn't been for the TINY Japanese sized elevator to get to and from the walkway. With my huge black wiener bag, I barely fit. And, Jenn and I had to go separately, of course. But, we got on the plane with no problems. As we flew out, we got to see a bit more of Tokyo than when we flew in. Narita airport is outside Tokyo, while Haneda is right near downtown. We saw the bridge again, some interesting boats and bridges in the Bay, and our first sighting of Mount Fuji (ok, you can just barely see the top sticking through the clouds, but it is Fuji. We will be back to both Fuji and Tokyo.