Andon Ryokan

... only carriages - apparently fondling on the subway in the rush hour is a big problem!!).  We are staying at the Andon Ryokan (a Ryokan is a Japanese guest-house) - http://www.andon.co.jp/ and, although it is definitely the smallest room we ...

Given that we were sleeping on the floor essentially, the Ryokan was amazing comfortable. The mattress layers really make it soft, soft, soft! We woke up the next morning and had a breakfast at the hotel, which has been recommended by Julie. Oh boy. Ben ...

... and sometimes lacking perforations, plus there are never any towels or dryers to dry your hands after you’ve washed them! The Ryokan required us to pay upon arrival which we could do on Credit card but they required a cash security deposit for the ...

... also pretty cool, and definitely had better conditions than the animals in the nearby zoo... By the time I made it back to the ryokan I needed to relax.  I hit the spa and did some laundry before heading out for the night.  I met up with ...

... I've ever seen so many main business and party districts in one city... not even NYC! From there we went back to the ryokan and picked up Diane before heading out for a big night on the town.  We hit up a nice traditional shabu shabu ...

... (lived next to me in NYC one summer with her twin sister Christine who I saw in South Africa and again in Xi'an) at her Ryokan (Japanese style house/hotel with Tatami straw mat rooms and beds on floors... has a spa and is more like a house than a hotel) ...

Today we did another walking tour of the city and it was the three of us in all of our towering glory.  We hit up the imperial palace where people were asking to take our picture left and right.  We ventured through ginza again and then made a ...

We got the shinkansen for the last time back to Tokyo on Friday evening.  On Saturday we had the full day to wander around any areas we had missed first time around and go back to any areas we liked so it was quite a relaxing day. We spent some ...

First impressions on arrival in Japan last Sunday evening couldn`t have been better! Everything just works so well, from the super efficient trains, the numerous vending machines everywhere that don`t even spit back out the notes you are trying to use ...