Tokyoooooh!
 

Hello from Crowne Plaza Metropolitan in Tokyo. What a town this is!

Arrived after a fab flight on Qantas with 200 vacant seats we stretched out and I slept for 6 hours! What a start to our trip! Arrived Narita May 13 around 7am & validated our JR pass to commence from May 17, no problems. Caught the Keisei Limited Express for 1160 yen p.p. into Nippori station then changed for the JR line into Ikebukuro. Piece of cake, although we travel light with one small wheely each.

Checked in at 9.30 am-room was not ready so waited for 30 mins until we were shown our Priceline room. VERY small with a small double bed & not a place we wanted to stay in for 4 nights. We asked about better rooms with 2 beds and were shown 2 others-one on the 23rd floor which suited us just fine. It overlooks the city and at night is magic! All this for 3,500 yen Plus tax per night extra. Worth every cent!

The staff here are great and the beds are excellent. All up we're paying around US140 per night for a room worth a lot more!

Feeling no jet lag at all, we hopped a train for Meiji Shrine. Unmissable! The park surrounding the shrine is beautiful and on Friday afternoon, very few people were visiting so we had the place to ourselves. It is a place for reflection and we loved it.

The subway & train system is quite easy to navigate. We had a subway guide we bought in Sydney & it helped a lot. We also bought the Luxe guide but have not used it so far.

We are loving Tokyo and intend to hit the streets soon! Thanks again, to all who helped us plan this trip. What a way to go!

Lyndie, great to hear that you're enjoying Tokyo, it's a fantastic city, and you'll love the rest of Japan too. Have loads of fun!

Glad to hear that you made it ok and are enjoying yourself. Great that you could upgrade your room. Are y'all going to the grand sumo tournament? I recommend the coffee and bagel&egg sandwich at the Doutor restaurant. It is on the left as you head from the HI to Ike. eki. Hope to see you in Hakata!

Hi Lyndie were you able to do what I had said that we did on our flight or did you do something different? Which airline did you fly on?JR/Qantas or Qantas?

COOL! A traveling trip report!!!! I have my coffee in hand and am just drooling on the keyboard here. I also loved Tokyo. Glad you got the upgrade for good $. And you have no jet lag so far, which is just great.
Please write more as you move along. Some of us were able to take advantage of the low fares and are going soon, but the rest of us are stuck here, still planning those far-off next trips.

lyndie---wondering about the priceline buy....did you feel ripped off? did you feel they gave you a bad room because of priceline?? i have yet to have a bad deal from them, so am just wondering about the future....my bad deals have been the last room on the corridor, which is no problem...at heathrow that ment the furthest away from the airport runway so that was a blessing...

have a good trip
bob

Hi guys & gals!
So far have been hitting the shops so much! Tiffany at Ikebukuro (Atlas silver ncklace for my birthday), lots of lovely stuff for my niece, at Tobu at Ike & Seibu, Shinjuku, great sushi takeout at Tobu, lots of great Chilean wine for Yen630 at Tobu(bargain!) Took a train to Kamakura today-lovely town & magic sharines, shops & gardens. Off to Tsukiji fish mkt & sumo practice tomorrow then Shinkansen for Nagoya & train to Takayama. BIG DAY! Watching SUMO on TV-too expensive to go to game! Mrwunrfl will check out Doutour tomorrow morning-Thanks a lot!
albaaust-Flew Qantas-not sure I remember what you said to do-but it wored out so well. We could not believe hoe good we felt after 6 hrs sleep! The staff recommended rows 72 & 73 for us to sleep in and we hightailed it to those seats.
emd-Your trip reports were so helpful to us, but now I wonder how you managed to do so much as we are both knackered after 4 hours walking. We come back for a rest and go again. I will need a holiday after this trip! But Japan is numero uno, so far!
Bob-No I did not think we were given a bad room because of Priceline. I just think Priceline buys the budget rooms and it was not so bad. However the room we have is worth 1.5 times the priceline money. I don't blame HI for trying to sell us a better room. It is a good deal and I'm not complaining. If we can always upgrade, then I will continue to buy on Priceline.
Talk later all & stay safe. We are loving it here! Wish we'd come sooner!