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So… this will be back dated, obviously, so it fits in the timeline but today as I write this, it’s actually October 30th… 2014. Yes. I’m four and a half years late on updating this blog. And I’m really sad about that, because I’ve forgotten sooooo much.

I’m not really gonna say much. Just post pictures and a bit here and there for clarification. Sorry I suck.

First thing in the morning, we went over to the Mori Tower (in Roppongi, next to the Hyatt) and looked around – famous for their upscale shopping and views of Tokyo Tower.

At some point, we must have hit a konbini. I remember eating onigiri while sitting on the bed at the Hyatt. It must have been from the night before.

Despite being in the land of REAL sushi… we chose “New York Sushi” for lunch. Americanized, fake stuff, but the best versions of California roll and Dynamite roll we had ever had.

We packed up and headed to our less expensive (still really expensive, but considerably less so) hotel, the Park Prince, in Hamamatsucho (pretty much right next to Tokyo Tower).

I was amused over our taxi driver watching kung fu movies on a dashboard mounted DVD player. Those are illegal here for safety purposes but his driving didn’t seem to be hindered by it. I was also again enthralled by the “real life” doilies on the seat covers and entranced by the fact that the passenger doors open and close automatically. Still waiting for that feature in North America…

Hubby wasn’t happy with the first room we had (asked for non-smoking and it wasn’t) so we moved up one floor. That was fun trying to explain that to the non-English speaking porter girl…

Our view wasn’t on the tower side, but we could see the next door temple, called Zozoji, and a distant view of Odaiba and the Rainbow Bridge.

After a 15 minute or so walk to the Hamamatsucho station from the hotel, we took the subway to Akihabara.

(For those that know, each station in Tokyo has a “song” that plays when trains are approaching. It helps when you are on the subway, coming to your stop, but might be sleeping. You know it’s time to get off without opening your eyes. I became obsessed with “our” song and ended up bringing home this keychain as a souvenir.)

There are “maids” (It’s a thing. If you don’t know, Google it.) lining the streets handing out fliers for their various cafes. Don’t take pictures of them. You’re supposed to pay for that honour. We didn’t know.

Donki Hote building. One of the coolest places ever!

gamers paradise (I was bored.)

The main thing I needed to check off my to-do list was to check out @home Cafe. It’s a maid cafe I had seen online for the past few years. Even though I had planned out the trip on Google maps (street view is amazing, BTW), it took us awhile to find it. Eventually we did. You aren’t allowed to take pictures inside any of the cafes, but our dinner “sets” came with a photo op with a maid of our choice.

Walked around a little more afterwards.

Even though I’m not a Gundam fan, I so wish we had gone in here. I’ve since seen videos online profiling it and it’s supercool. Judging on the huge line up, it must have just opened.

We went into the Ichi building before we left – something hubby had seen online and wanted to check out. Didn’t see too much. There was a museum type display of cartoon characters and a floor of just restaurants. That’s all I really remember.

I love Japan for soooo many reasons. Fake food displays is one of them.

We finally headed back to our hotel, but ended up spending awhile in Tokyo station. I hope to go back someday. Why do we not have train stations like they do in Japan? It’s amazing. They are all cool, but Tokyo station is the biggest (and best shopping area). I was soooo tired at the end of the day, I was practically in tears. And my feet! Ugh. Hence, no good pictures.

NOTE: Hubby may have hit Mos Burger on the way back from Hamamatsucho station (?) and we are pretty sure we saw a naked guy giving onlookers (us) a show from the hotel window.

We did NOT go to the Imperial Palace or Ginza and did NOT go to Cafe Little BSD or sleep at capsule hotel (obviously).

(originally posted to Japan – Here I Come!)

We finally got to our hotel a little after 7:00pm. The airport bus lets you off within the garage. You walk through the doors and reception is right there. A porter came over to me and asked to take my luggage ~ I feel bad in hindsight but I was so tired and overwhelmed… I hesitated and said that I was okay with them. He looked jilted… like I had denied him the pleasure of relieving me of my bags! I learned with more experience, they don’t let you carry anything if they can do it for you ~ even little shopping bags. Oh yes, the efficiency of creating jobs in Japan! No wonder the unemployment is so low…

We stayed our first night at the Grand Hyatt (6-10-3 Roppongi, Minato-Ku Tokyo, Japan 106-0032, 03 4333 1234) ~ it was expennnnnnsivvvvve (42558 JPY / $452.76CAD) but, keep in mind, this trip was acting as our honeymoon… I thought that at least one night should be spent in luxury~

These pictures are from their website.

our room looked exactly like that

Our favourite part was the bathroom~  These are our pictures.

My husband loves the Japanese toilets! He even wants to buy a toilet seat for our house. Mmm, heated seats~

There was this nice little tea and coffee bar when you first walk in the door. We didn’t partake in any of what it had to offer because you have to pay for it, but it was nice to look at!

There was a small closet opposite the sink with two terry robes and cellophane-wrapped slippers. I love to save the environment but I don’t like wearing something next to my skin that has been worn next to uncounted numbers of other people’s skin so I wasn’t a fan of the robes but I slipped a pair of the slippers into my husband’s luggage. (They are now his basement slippers.) I also took all of the provided toiletries ~ they were packaged so nicely!

We could see Tokyo Tower from our room but it was pretty far away ~ We got a better view of it from the Mori Tower.

One thing they didn’t mention to us was how the lights work. There was a maid in the room when we got there so she had used her key card and therefore took it with her when she left. 30 seconds later, the lights went out. None of the light switches worked. We felt like idiots but my husband called the front desk and they explained we need to put our keycard in the slot beside the door in order for the lights to work. Duh… We found out that it’s pretty standard of Japanese hotels. Usually a porter will accompany you to your room and bring your bags on a cart but for some reason, we were on our own here. Also on the lights/keycard pad are buttons you can press which light up on a panel outside your door ~ one for “do not disturb” and the other to “please make up room”.

As nice as the room was, the bed was not comfortable. It was very hard. (I must have told my husband I liked it but… I really didn’t.)

My husband is all about reading up on things before buying so he was all over the hotel review sites. He actually even wrote his own to submit of each place we stayed. This is what he had to say about our experience~

Grand Hyatt Tokyo: King Superior Room
Said to be one of the best hotels in the world. I have stayed in a lot of nice hotels and am hard to impress but this hotel is by far the best.
The Room: Everything from the décor to the mini-shampoo was high-end quality. The bed was a bit hard for my liking but my wife really liked it. The bathroom was awesome… Rain shower and separate hand held shower head that had it’s own controls. Everything was done in high quality dark hard-wood. 42inch flat screen tv but not HD.
The Service: As per usual Japanese culture the service was great. They kept wanting to carry my bags for me…even a little grocery bag. The reception spoke pretty good english.
The Amenities: Didn’t really use them as we were out most of the time. Gym, pool…the usual. The lobby had several floors of high-end restaurants with variety of cuisines. If you want to spend a lot of money on over-priced food then eating at the hotel is for you. We ate at the Japanese restaurant here one night and it was okay…the portion sizes were small but the price tag the highest of our trip. However, the décor and atmosphere was incredible. Situated next to Roppongi Hills so high-end shopping and food close by.
Great experience… price tag about $530CAD per night.
I rate it 9.75 out of 10.

(He’s so cute!)

We went over to the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower for a few hours (which I’ll explain next time) but came back to the hotel fairy quickly because we were starving. We didn’t realize that the restaurants would be closing at 11:00.

The hotel has about 11 restaurants, I think. My husband wasn’t in the mood for sushi so we went to one that seemed to have “regular food”. There was a steak house but we thought we should try some Japanese cuisine. It was quite good! I had chicken and soba and my husband had tempura vegetables.

NOTE: I never got around to finishing up explaining the first day. The only “story” really to tell was when we went over to the area around the Mori Tower and Roppongi station, we found someone’s JR pass on the ground. (I can’t remember the name on it, but it looked Portuguese…) It was dated for three weeks. Knowing what we paid for ours, I felt horrible for this person who had dropped theirs. In hindsight, I should have left it there where I found it, but instead I took it into the station and after some miming trying to explain the situation, gave it to an attendant. He didn’t look like he understood me at all. 5 years later and I still feel bad for that person and how I handled it. I was only trying to help. Hopefully karma took care of that guy.

In my very sparse notes, it says: Hubby bought taco Doritos, giza giza ripple chips and Coca Cola Shock and I bought choco melon pan, cream pan, onigiri and Calpis from AM/PM and I got regular melon pan and a Lipton Royal Milk Tea from another konbini. We did NOT go to Odaiba to the Oedo Onsen Monogatari.

(originally posted to Japan – Here I Come!)