Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka Chiyoda

After 2 sleepless nights - one filled with anticipation and worries about missing the 3 alarms we'd set, and the other on the long flight - we landed in Tokyo at 9am. First stop, after immigration and customs, was the Japan Rail office to pick up our rail passes and tickets for the Narita Express to Tokyo, Tokyo (which is Tokyo station in the heart of Tokyo). We then hopped on the tube and (after I (emma) had a little grumble about the wheels on my backpack) we found the hotel. We were allowe...

We woke up early and had noodles for breakfast in our room, it was raining outside, but by the time we made it to the Imperial Palace the sun had come out again. We found a vending machine that sold hot milky tea - genius !! We wandered around the Palace gardens with an ice-cream. Some of the blossom is starting to emerge, and in a few weeks when the Sakura (blossom) festivals start it will be really stunning here (and busy). We then walked through the classy Ginza district and had lunch in a...

On Tuesday afternoon (9/19), we flew into Tokyo Narita Airport from Hong Kong. We took the train from the airport and it was very efficient and easy to navigate (the Japanese public transportation system is really state of the art - very clean, always on time, extensive, and you can even hear what the conductors are saying... amazing!). Got to the hotel and it was beautiful - we really lucked out with the internet specials! Thanks to hotels.com, we stayed at the Akasaka Prince Hotel in a very...

Got on the train back to Tokyo this morning... a moderately uneventful trip. Sat next to Amy. Truth be told, all we did was play Boggle for most of the 3 hours. Seriously... 17 rounds of Boggle! Word of the day, from our own little Tomoki: "D-O-M-I-N-A-T-E". And none of us saw it! You dominated us indeed, Tom! Well done, Tom, well done! Families are all arriving today and tomorrow... so I let the cast do their thing, and headed out to see some of my old college friends. What?!?! College frien...

Got to Tokyo city centre on Tuesday, early afternoon to be greeted by rain and many bowing people. The rain definitely stopped and the sun shone through, but the bowing continues... The panoramic view from the 38th floor of The Akasaka Prince hotel was immense. We could see for miles, and on a clear day we even got a glimpse of Mt. Fuji. All we could do was investigate the area as we were so overwhelmed with the lack of English language and edible food. The next day we went on a 4 mile hike t...