Thursday March 24th, 2016 Tokyo, Japan

Today we travelled from Kyoto to Tokyo for the final leg of our vacation. Still feeling very shaky, and unable to eat anything, I was nevertheless fit enough to pack up and take the long taxi ride to the airport. Kyoto is served by two airports in the neighboring city of Osaka; and our flight departed from Itami airport, the older of the two.

We have visited Tokyo several times before, in fact it’s one of our favorite cities; we’ve always arrived at Narita airport – but today we had chosen to fly into Haneda airport which is about an hour closer to the city. The JAL flight was smooth and efficient and Haneda airport was pretty easy to navigate. We followed the same routine we’ve used at Narita, buying bus tickets at the central counter and then finding the appropriate bus stop outside the terminal. I always get a kick out of watching the bus company employees line up and bow as the bus pulls away – it provides an insight into the formalism and protocol that dominates Japanese culture.

We have once again chosen to stay at the Hyatt Regency in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo however while planning the trip we were unable to procure a club level room. At check I decided it was worth a try to see if I could negotiate club level and was surprised at my success, with the imminent arrival of the cherry blossom season, the hotel was quite full.  Since our last visit the rooms in the hotel have been renovated and alas, what appears to be the Hyatt corporate standard interior design has been implemented in Japan – a pity since the previous design was distinctly Japanese. The one saving grace was the automated toilet with built in bidet – awesome!

Club level at the Hyatt Shinjuku used to be one of the very best – now its like all the others, very little food and limited selection. In fact in the evening the hot food is actually brought to the table (two selections) and this is supplemented by a meager buffet of cold items. Sandra picked one of the selections, fish I think – it was horrible (she said), I was still not able to face any food.