Asakusa - Feb 29

Today we got up, and had a coffee in our room. I had brought decaf Starbucks instant for Dave, and I used the hotel's nifty little bags of grounds that became a one cup drip brew (another great little Japanese innovation). We had bought yogurt at the little grocery store last night so had a good start to the day.
Then we were totally non-adventurous for breakfast and went two doors down to Starbucks, where I had my latte and Dave had another brewed decaf (they don't have decaf espresso) with a sandwich. We made up for our American breakfast by having a Japanese lunch and dinner. At lunch we had chicken katsuda and rice. Our restaurant choice was based on the attractiveness of the plastic food in the window, plus the fact they said they had English menus. It was a good lunch. For dinner we had Sean to guide us and attended a restaurant we had bypassed at lunch because we had no idea what it offered. We had chanko nabe (a sort of hot pot meal cooked in broth at your table, apparently developed for sumo wrestlers). Very tasty.
After breakfast we walked a block the other direction, looked at the Asakusa Culture Information Centre, where we picked up maps of the area, and got schedules for the boats on the river and the shuttle bus to Skytree.
Walking outstide the centre an attractive young girl approached us to take a rickshaw ride around the Asakusa area. We took a rickshaw ride with Kristi who was a lovely girl. She is a university student, studying to be a translator, and has an American mom and Japanese dad. She is also very strong as she wheeled Dave and I around for half an hour, all the while keeping up a running commentary. Kristi dropped us off at the side gate to the Asakusa Temple grounds.
We  wandered around the grounds for an hour or so. Besides the traditional Japanese style temples, shrines and pagodas, there were some quite lovely spots in the grounds. There were also a number of people dressed in traditional kimono. Dave still being jet lagged required an afternoon nap. After work Sean joined us for our dinner.

Trip to Japan - Feb 27 & 28

When we did our 24 hour prior check-in I clicked the "upgrade" button - and we decided that although we would never pay for Business Class tickets in the first place (at 5 times the economy price), as a last minute upgrade the price was much more palatable and we would give it a try. Now having flown in our own little pod, with seats that convert to flat beds, down comforters, restaurant style food, linens and real cutlery, bigger TV, port with the cheese tray and all around excellence - we will never revert to straight economy again on an overseas flight (unless, of course, business class is sold out, because we still couldn't bring ourselves to pay full price). We now know what it's like to be a princess, and want to be one.

Here we are enjoying our relaxing flight.

Upon arrival at Narita we picked up luggage, whizzed through immigration, and Sean met us to escort us to our hotel (so we didn't get lost). I had thoughtfully (actually, accidentally) chosen a hotel that didn't require any transfers but was a direct train from the airport.

Our hotel is very handy to a lot of tourist things, and is right in the Asakusa area. We were going to have a beer on the roof top lounge, but it was too cold. So after our photo op we went down to the restaurant. Here is Sean and Dave on the roof top lounge, with the Skytree behind them. Also behind them is the Asahi(?) beer building, with the roof top sculpture locally known as The Golden Poop.