Train from Tokyo to Osaka - Mar 6

This morning was occupied with packing and checking out of our hotel. Sean arrived and we took the subway to Tokyo station to catch the Shinkansen (high speed train) to Osaka. We picked up a bento box lunch at the station to eat on the train. The train passed through cities, open country, towns and over rivers before arriving in Osaka. We then caught the subway to Namba station as instructed. The directions to our hotel were non-existent, but Sean took a good guess as to which exit to take and the hotel turned out to be less than a block away.
Lovely hotel - they gave Sean a Japanese style room (which is how he sleeps in his apartment)but Dave and I had requested a Western style room, which is easier for the old arthritics. There are going to be some nights on this tour that we are relegated to the floor, but not yet.
we went across the street to a yakitori restaurant for supper and had skewers of chicken, chicken liver, gizzards, ground chicken balls and chicken skin. Couldn't bring ourselves to eat the skin. we supplemented with lotus root, fish and shrimp. An interesting meal and kind of a fun experience.

Lunch with Sean and Friends - Mar 5

This morning Dave and I wandered around the area, looking at stores, cafes, real estate offices, buildings, a museum, and people.  We ended up walking through the temple grounds again as well. Dave was taking a photo of me and a passing man offered to take our picture, so now we can prove we were in Japan together (we tried selfies together a couple of times, and were unsuccessful - I blame Dave's fused neck, which doesn't allow him to look up at the camera).
Sean arrived and we went across the street to our lunch reservation. Craig (originally from Regina, but has been here 12 years, married with a little girl), Go (from near Tokyo, married) and Daisake (from further south in Japan) all joined us. It was nice to finally meet those friends Sean keeps talking about. Unfortunately I forgot to take their picture, so no one else gets to know what they look like. The restaurant we had booked was a tempura restaurant, and in order to reserve we had to pre-order a set meal. So we had an extensive Japanese meal, from the bean and sardine-like appetizers, through lots of tempura (including shrimp, sea bream, something Go's translation program said was abductor muscle, long green beans, and so on). After two courses of tempura, we got a bowl of rice and some miso soup, with more tempura (kind of a shrimp nest) on top. Finally green tea and a little custard for dessert. We took the 2 hours they had estimated we would take, and were all stuffed. But it was really tasty (though I never ate my shrimp things, Dave seemed to have no problems eating two of them, so I assume they were also good).
So after 3 p.m. we came back to the hotel for a nap. Since we begin our travels tomorrow we just took it easy the rest of the day, and started packing things up a little. Tomorrow we basically just take the bullet train to Osaka and check into a hotel to join our small tour group.

Kitchen ware town - Mar 4

  Once again, Sean worked all day, and was busy tonight. Dave and I started off the day by arranging a reservation for lunch with Sean and 2 of his friends tomorrow. This required the services of two girls at the front desk, a lot of checking with the translation program on the computer (plus sign language - a cutting motion with index and middle fingers of both hands to indicate "crab", etc), 3 phone calls to the restaurant, printing out of menus and quite an expenditure of time for everyone involved. I let Sean know we had successfully reserved (a table, no less, rather than tatami mats). It turns out that a third friend is also coming; Sean said to leave things as they are - it will likely be easier to change things in person tomorrow when we arrive.
Dave and I then rewarded ourselves with a Starbucks break (where we met ladies from England and Australia) before going to the Post Office. The Post Office is the most effective place to use the ATM with an international debit card, and we wanted more cash before we begin our tour.
From the bank we carried on a few blocks to Kappabashi, the kitchen ware street. Blocks and blocks lined on both sides of the street with a variety of kitchen ware and restaurant supply stores - dishes, metal good, sign boards, etc. We had fun looking at things, and bought some chopsticks (small, unbreakable, easily transported).
During our walk we found Google Maps to be very helpful, coupled with the portable Rental Wi-Fi we got for the month we are here. It found the Post Office for us, and made sure we never lost our hotel.
After a late lunch Dave had a nap. For dinner we went to a local sushi restaurant, and had a lot of nigiri (red tuna, crab, scallop, red snapper, salmon) plus a couple of hand rolls (cucumber and blue fin tuna) each. Now we are both stuffed and happy. I took photos from our rooftop terrace in the afternoon and in the evening today. Here they are.

Skytree - Mar 3

Once again we were on our own for the day, although Sean is coming to meet us for supper tonight.
We got started a little late as Dave got involved with his e-mails and then had to phone a client. We decided to find the little deer leather shop our rickshaw driver had pointed out to us. We recalled it being on Orange Street, not far off of the street our hotel is on. We were absolutely correct, but walked past it the first time so instead wandered around a little, finding the comedy street again, and the raccoon street, and a number of other spots our rickshaw driver had taken us. We finally decided to give up and go back to Starbucks for a coffee, coming across the store just before we reached Starbucks. It was the first store on Orange street, before we started looking for it. But we enjoyed our look around. The leather store has wonderful wallets, purses, etc. of really soft deer leather with lacquered designs. It is expensive, so I didn't buy any (yet).
After Starbucks we decided to take the free Skytree Shuttle. Unfortunately, we stood at the bus stop on the wrong side of the street. After we had seen two go by across the street, and none come our way, we crossed the street to catch it. It is a loop route, so only goes one way down the street. We got on, and it was the Skytree Shuttle, but wasn't free (220 yen each) and we had to sit through most of the route to get to the Skytree. By the time we arrived there we were starved for lunch, so went to the food fair and found an udon noodle place where we could pick up a bowl for lunch.
Then we stood in a long line to get tickets to go up the Skytree to the viewing deck. The photo is the view up the Skytree from level 5 of Skytree Town (the mall under it). Once again we wondered where the international tourists were, as everyone else in line was Japanese.
We went up and looked over Tokyo. We could spot our hotel, the Asahi beer buildings, the boat dock and the pagoda at the Asakusa temple grounds,  when we looked our direction. Looking out other directions we saw other rivers, in addition to the Sumida beside us, and the ocean, and smog in the distance. Most of the buildings seem to be about 3 or 4 stories, with a lot of 10 to 15 story buildings, and a few skyscrapers, most of them in distant clusters. After looking our fill every direction, we came down (ears popping all the way), caught the shuttle (this time we knew where) and came back to our hotel for a rest before supper with Sean.

Tokyo Cruise - Mar 2

Today Sean worked all day, and was having a mini reunion with some of his Melbourne classmates tonight (3 girls), so Dave and I had to totally look after ourselves.
We decided a simple way to do that was take the Tokyo cruise down the Sumida River. Apparently it's not big with tourists, as we were the only non-Japanese on the boat. We took the Asakusa - Odaiba direct line, which is on a really cool boat, the Himiko. I call it the bubble boat. Great views through the wrap-around windows, and keeps you warm on a chilly day. The cruise goes under something like 14 bridges, all of which are painted and pretty on the underside (a blue bridge has a blue underside, and so forth - and the bridges are various colours and styles). The sides of the river are lined with dense buildings all the way, some obviously residential while others are business towers or warehouses. There was a running commentary about the bridges and buildings, but unfortunately it was totally in Japanese, so Dave and I didn't learn much. It was obviously somewhat comic, as it was done in three voices - man, woman, and child - and I'm pretty sure the child was comic relief.
Odaiba Seaside Park is a huge shopping and entertainment district on a man -made island in Tokyo Bay. It includes a large sand beach (Tokyo Beach) - swimming is prohibited, but there were people both kayaking and paddle-boarding out on the water. I'm sure the beach is filled with sun worshipers in the summer. The waterfront boasts a Statue of Liberty, which was originally a temporary installation for the French Year of Japan 1998, but was so popular it has been back permanently since 2000. There are also lots of large shopping malls - and the DiverCity plaza has a 60 ft. "life-sized" Gundam statue outside. The island is connected to downtown by the Rainbow Bridge which is illuminated in multi-colours every night using solar power stored during the day.
We had fun wandering around for a few hours. We boated back again to Asakusa and went for a cheap ramen noodle supper across the street from our hotel.

our hotel

Dave and I love the hotel we are currently staying in: The Gate Hotel Asakusa, which is right by the Kaminarimon Gate to the Asakusa temple (ie. well located for tourists). It is also attractively designed and the staff is friendly and the service is great - Booking.com did us proud.
The hotel rules, set out in the guest guide book, are fairly strict and nothing I have noticed in a Western hotel: Any item with a strong, unpleasant odor is prohibited entry to the hotel, as are guns and swords. Using guest rooms or the lobby for business purposes is prohibited. Lodging of any individual incapacitated by alcohol without a responsible caretaker is prohibited.
I have put here a couple of photos of our bathroom. One is the shower room, which is outfitted so one may wash in the traditional style (note stool, rinsing bowl and low hand shower) before taking their bath (which is for relaxing, not cleansing). Dave and I use the North American style rain shower head and love the enormous shower room. The other photo is our toilet which includes a touch pad on the wall for it's bidet/ "buttock washing" purposes. Luckily it flushes itself so we've never had to figure out just what the other buttons do.

Ueno - Mar 1

Today we got up and breakfasted in our room again, and Sean came around 10 a.m. to guide us in the use of the subway (he didn't work until noon today). We took the train to Ueno Park, a large park, famous for it's long aisle of cherry trees in blossom time. It is early for cherry blossoms, but a couple of trees were putting on a brave try at it. Hopefully at the end of the month, just before we go home, we'll be able to see a more impressive showing.

We walked by Shinobazu Pond and out to the middle to see the little Bentodo temple there. The pond is a thing of beauty in late July when the lotus are blooming. Right now the lotus are a little sad looking - some dead sticks in the pond. I did read some Trip Adviser postings whining about not being able to see the water in the pond because the lotus were so abundant. I guess we'll never see that, because Sean says August is so hot and humid, it is unbearable here. So that's when he comes home for a visit.

Next stop was the Ueno Zoo so we could see the panda. We saw some hippos, elephants, a funny looking stork, flamingo, Jackass Penguins (the name obviously comes from their call, which is pretty much a bray) and various other animals along the way. We also a large number of pre-school or kindergarten children. Each class was wearing an ear-flap cap of a different colour (blue, pink, green, yellow, etc.) so there were little groups of bobbing heads all the same colour spread throughout the zoo. They have two giant panda. Shin Shin was quite photogenic, laying back and eating bamboo, but his friend was just an unmovable blob.

After the zoo we stopped at Starbucks in Ueno Park to pick up a quick sandwich so Sean could get off to work.

Then Dave and I went to Tokyo National Museum. We spent a few hours wandering through it's exhibits which showed the history of Japan via it's art throughout the ages, Besides things like scrolls, screens and statues it included military attire and weapons (think samuri),  kimono and kabuki costumes, lacquerware, and terra cotta tomb ornaments. We were exhausted by the end so patronized the museum cafe for tea and an ice cream sandwich (green tea ice cream stuffed with plum paste, I think, though it could have been red bean paste).
Then Dave and I put our training to use and took the subway back to our hotel. Time for another tea upstairs here before Sean came over after work. Dave and I were both pretty much worn out (we'd walked about 6 1/2 miles) so just went for dinner in our hotel.

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.