DAY 14: Tokyo. Saturday 8th April 2023

As I began to type this, we were sitting at Haneda airport, waiting to board our overnight flight back to Melbourne.

It was time to say goodbye to Japan, unfortunately, but not before another enjoyable day was had in Tokyo, which now rates as one of, if not the number 1 on my list of favourite world cities.

As I mentioned on Wednesday we moved hotels, because we had booked the last two nights when we were first planning our Japanese holiday, then decided we needed four nights in Tokyo. Our first two nights were in Toyosu, to the east of the centre of Tokyo and for the last two nights we were in Akasaka, only a few kilometres to the west, and quite near the popular spots of Shinjuku and Shibuya.

We had chosen the New Otani hotel for a couple of reasons, not least that it had featured in the 1967 James Bond Movie, ‘You Only Live Twice”. But more on that later.

The New Otani is a pretty fancy hotel and definitely rates in the ‘feast’ category of our ‘feast or famine’ hotel-choosing methodology. The hotel opened in 1964 and boasts nearly 1500 rooms and 38 restaurants across its three buildings, all surrounded by beautifully manicured gardens, including its own waterfall!

Breakfast was on offer in five of the hotel’s restaurants, but even the simplest option came in at 5000 Yen (A$60) per person and, after all our eating on yesterday’s foodie tour, we decided that even though we love a buffet breakfast, it wouldn’t be worth the money.

We wandered a short distance from the hotel and found a small, quite modern coffee shop and I enjoyed a rare coffee (one of about four this year) and Dave his Darjeeling tea, both served with a slice of very thickly cut toast slathered with butter. We have a bit of a joke in our family… I sometimes (!!!) get a little agitated when I’m not feeling well or need help with something, and no one offers to help me. After having spoken to Dave about this a number of times he knows it upsets me and, if I start getting agitated, in an attempt to lighten the mood, he asks: ” Can I get you a Band-Aid?” Mostly this has the desired effect, we both laugh, I tell him what I’d like him to do to help and we move on 🙂

While waiting for our breakfast to arrive at the table, I was showing Dave a bite mark on my leg, and we were discussing where it might have come from (as I didn’t remember being bitten). Next minute, the lovely waiter brings me over a Band-Aid… it took all my strength not to break down in fits of laughter. It really summarises though how lovely and thoughtful everyone here is. Polite in all circumstances!

A short walk to the shops then back to the hotel, with a pit stop at the carpark. Strange, you may think, that we would visit a hotel’s carpark, but there was a pre-meditated reason 😉

Hold on to you hats readers, Dave had a cunning plan!

He confidently approached the carpark supervisor with a request (with 1500 rooms and fully booked, the carpark was a busy place with about a half dozen employees directing traffic), while I stood back observing, a little hesitantly. “Could you help us with some filming please?” he asked, with a grin, explaining his interest in James Bond and that he wanted to undertake a little movie re-enactment. After some broken English translation, the supervisor got the picture and sent off one of the attendants to find an old-fashioned version of a taxi in the awaiting queue.

The taxi driver was in on the action in a flash, asking where he should go and how fast he should drive! While they practiced the scene, I prepared the camera, explaining to passers-by that it was not my idea 😉

Thankfully it only took one take, although the footage has a little vibration in it if you look closely, which was caused by me getting the giggles at him running across the car park to jump into the awaiting getaway car (taxi). I wish you could have all been there to see the look of satisfaction on his face when we got the scene filmed… and him puffing from the rapid run! It all looks so much easier when its Sean Connery!

I’ve got a bit of editing to do including dubbing the theme song over the top… but you get the picture 🙂

We had arranged a late checkout for 1pm, so we packed our bags and left them with the hotel’s concierge. The young lady seemed to smile at us a lot, I wonder if she had heard about the carpark scene 😉

We had four hours to fill in before we needed to go to the airport, so our last adventure was to a place called Kappabashi, recommended on our food tour as a great place to buy kitchen equipment. The whole area (four or five streets) was filled with commercial kitchen shops! I easily found the small wooden spoons I was searching for, so we then looked for somewhere to have lunch, choosing a ramen place in Asakusa, a large shopping area surrounding the Senso-Ji, the oldest temple in Tokyo. My Miso Ramen was fabulous, super flavoursome, with appropriately chewy noodles, a cloudy miso-based broth, shallots, bean sprouts and slices of roasted BBQ pork. Yummo!

As we took the train back to the hotel, then the taxi to the airport (both in the rain) I took a few minutes to reflect on this holiday. In short, it was absolutely fantastic. I would definitely come back here again. Pretty much everyone we met was helpful; the train travel was super easy to use; the scenery, especially in cherry blossom season was gorgeous; the history was fascinating and oh the food, the food was absolutely amazing!

I hope you have all enjoyed following along on our adventures… we are now back in Australia, and I am already re-reading some of the blog posts in an attempt to help extend my enjoyment of this holiday a little. My memory isn’t great, so while I’m glad friends and family have read along, the most important reason for blogging is to keep an account of what we did.

Until next time, Sayonara friends, and Happy Easter xx