The Best of 2017

Shinkansen disappointingly means ‘new trunk line’ and not ‘bullet train’ – just one of those words that sounds more exciting than it’s actual meaning. Bullet Train is actually a literal translation of the Japanese term ‘dangan ressha’ which was the original project nickname.

The first route built ‘Tōkaidō Shinkansen’, connects the largest cities of Tokyo and Osaka and is the world’s busiest high-speed rail line. At peak times, the line carries up to thirteen trains per hour in each direction with sixteen cars each (1,323-seat capacity and occasionally additional standing passengers) with a minimum headway of three minutes between trains.

Last October/November, we visited Tokyo for four days, staying at the Mercure Hotel. Then flew to Sydney (Hilton) for four days and back to Tokyo where we took the bullet train to Osaka (Hilton), then back four days later. We looked at the Japan Rail Pass and even though it is only sold as a seven- or fourteen-day ticket, it was still cheaper than a Tokyo-Osaka return. The pass also allows unlimited free seat reservations. Local routes, including Osaka-Kyoto are included. The JR Pass is only available to tourists and should be purchased before you visit Japan – although I’ve read that you can now purchase on arrival, it’s still easier to order and pay for before you go.

We ordered the pass online (currently £235 per person) from https://www.japan-rail-pass.com/ and everything arrived quickly, including a travel guide. On arrival in Tokyo Haneda, we took our vouchers to the JR office and exchanged them for actual tickets (with a start date for when we returned from Sydney). That office isn’t 24-hours so don’t rely on being able to change the vouchers there if you arrive early or late.

Back from Sydney, we should have taken the monorail into Tokyo using our JR Rail passes, but instead made the mistake of paying for the metro. At the Shinkansen station we went to a ticket office where they booked us on to the next train. The travel guides say you should book in advance, there were plenty of seats available, although they were in the rows with three seats and not two. The rows with two seats were also on the right side of the train – the Mount Fuji side. We took the three seat row.

The signs are also in English and it wasn’t difficult to work out what platform and where to stand for the number of our carriage. The staff are all polite and wave your JR Rail pass through without a second look. The bullet train arrived in spectacular fashion:

There was more space than we thought on board, but we were still glad that we’d sent our large case from the Mercure Hotel to the Hilton Osaka.

The train was away quickly and soon we were speeding through the countryside. Top speed is 200MPH but sadly there isn’t a readout to show how fast the train is going. Instead I downloaded an app on my iPhone and got this readout:

That was the fastest speed I saw during the journey – still pretty fast though!

A trolley service came along with a poor selection of sandwiches and snacks – no sushi!

There was a Chinese couple in the two seat row the man spent most of the time coughing and snorting mucus in the most disgusting way possible. I went for a walk.

I couldn’t find a dining car, although some Shinkansen have them. There were tiny smoking rooms in the same area as the toilets. Apart from that, the train looked the same in every carriage.

Within three hours we arrived to Osaka. Again, we made the mistake of taking the metro to the stop we needed for the Hilton Osaka, instead of using our JR Pass on a different, faster route for free.

Over the next four days, we wised up a bit and managed to use the JR Pass within Osaka and also to visit Kyoto.

We booked (two-row) seats for our return and managed to JR Pass all the way to Tokyo Haneda, where we stayed overnight at the Royal Park Haneda Hotel.

If your Japan plans include at least one return trip between Tokyo and Osaka/Kyoto, the JR Pass is worth buying. Travel further than that and you’ll be saving a fortune.

We ordered the pass online (currently £235 per person) from https://www.japan-rail-pass.com/

The New York Bar from Lost in Translation, Park Hyatt, Tokyo, Japan

28 Saturday Jan 2017

Posted by bugadvisor in Sightseeing, Travel News & Tips

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bill Murray, Bob Harris, Japan, Lost in Translation, New York Bar, Park Hyatt, Scarlett Johansson, Sofia Coppola, Tokyo

‘Lost in Translation’ is a Sofia Coppola movie starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. Bill Murray plays Bob Harris, an American actor having a mid-life crisis, who is in Japan to make a whiskey commercial. Scarlett Johansson plays Charlotte, who is bored while accompanying her husband on a business trip. If you ever stayed alone at a luxury hotel in a strange city, then you’ll love this movie.

Bob and Charlotte both stay at the Park Hyatt, Tokyo and first meet in the New York Bar on the hotel’s top floor. This is a classic picture of their first meeting:

While in Tokyo last year, our plan was to take the metro across town to the Park Hyatt and have a Suntory whisky in the New York Bar, sitting in the same seats as Bob and Charlotte. I rehearsed my “for relaxing times make it Santory time” line.

Here’s Bob making the Santory commercial:

The New York Bar is expensive and there is a cover charge after 8pm. We planned to be out before then. But I was fully prepared to splash out on a few drinks.

We exited the metro and crossed the street to the Hyatt. Into the elevator and press the button for the top floor – no bar in sight. Turns out it’s the Hyatt Regency. £6 taxi to the nearby Park Hyatt.

By 19:30, we find the New York bar and it’s busy. The spectacular view is missing – just grey clouds so the windows appear white.

Bob and Charlotte’s seats were occupied by a group of Americans sporting beatnik looks, one wearing a beanie hat indoors – they probably didn’t even know the significance of their seats.

The waitress offers us a table and we take that – she explains that there is an £18 per person cover charge and I can see that we’re getting too close to 8pm to avoid it. I’m wondering whether I can ask the beatniks to move for a few seconds while I get the picture.

Prices are expensive. There’s no view and it’s also pretty smoky, which is odd as you aren’t allowed to smoke in the street here but bars and restaurants are okay. We left.

Having spent nothing at the hotel, we cheekily took the free shuttle bus back to the station (Shinjuku L-Tower Building).

Metro back to near our hotel and we had pretty good food from a local place where you order food/beer and pay at a machine and they cook and bring it to you. Large beer £2.25. Half bottle of Suntory whisky £4 compared to the Hyatt £9.40 beer and £14 a measure.

If you are a fan of the movie, I’d recommend you visit when the bar isn’t open, or maybe just after opening time – otherwise you’ll be stuck in what is a pretty soulless hotel bar, paying too much for your drinks.

https://tokyo.park.hyatt.com/en/hotel/dining/NewYorkBar.html

Park Hyatt
3-7-1-2 Nishi Shinjuku, Shinjuku-Ku, Tokyo, Japan, 163-1055
Tel: +81 3 5322 1234

Here’s the full scene from the movie:

The Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo, Japan

23 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by bugadvisor in Sightseeing, Travel News & Tips

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Fish, Japan, Market, The Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo, Tsukiji

Tsukiji Market (築地市場, Tsukiji Shijō) is a large wholesale market for fish, fruits and vegetables in central Tokyo. It is the most famous of over ten wholesale markets that handle the distribution of food and flowers in Tokyo. Tsukiji Market is best known as one of the world’s largest fish markets, handling over 2,000 tons of marine products per day.

There a nice 24-hour timeline of the market activities here:
http://www.tsukiji-market.or.jp/youkoso/24hour_e/24hours.htm

The market has become a tourist attraction and rules have been put into place so that tourists don’t interfere with the day-to-day operation. Those who want to see the tuna auction have to apply at the Osakana Fukyu Center (Fish Information Centre) starting from 5:00am on a first-come, first-serve basis. Only 120 are allowed in and apparently many are turned away.

The idea of getting up so early to queue to watch a tuna auction really didn’t appeal. The next option is to visit the wholesale area after 10am – this is where fish bought in the auction is sold to, what I’d guess are shops and restaurant buyers.

I can imagine the people who work there are thoroughly fed up with tourists getting in the way while they try and make a living.

We visited just before lunchtime, when the wholesalers had sold their fish. The streets around the market were still pretty crowded, mainly because the area is surrounded by restaurants, street food stalls and shops selling sushi, sashimi and everything fish related:

We headed into the wholesale area:

I also took a couple of videos – even at this time, there’s plenty of activity, with mini-trucks rushing around:

If you want to see lots of fish then visit just after 10am!

We found a great little restaurant with a point to order menu:

The sushi was probably the best I’ve ever tasted – not surprising really as it was fresh that morning and didn’t have far to travel. I don’t know the name of the place, but it looks like this inside (minus my girlfriend!) – you can see some sushi and my beer waiting:

If you are in Tokyo, then I’d definitely recommend a visit, although for me the highlight was the food rather than wandering around the wholesale market itself.

The Tsukiji Fish Market

5 Chome-2-1 Tsukiji, Chuo, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan

http://www.tsukiji-market.or.jp/tukiji_e.htm

Alice in a Labyrinth Restaurant, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan

19 Saturday Nov 2016

Posted by bugadvisor in Restaurants and Bars

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Tags

Alice, Alice in a Labyrinth, Alice in Wonderland, Ginza, Japan, Labyrinth, Restaurant, Tokyo, Wonderland

There are thousands of good restaurants in Tokyo ranging from small street-food to Michelin stars. I suppose in one way they are all very similar; miso soup, sushi, sashimi, tempura, noodles, table BBQ and perhaps that’s why the Japanese love weirdly-themed restaurants.

One popular theme seems to be Alice in Wonderland, with one chain offering at least half a dozen Alice-themed restaurants throughout the city. One was near our Mercure Hotel in Ginza and so we decided to try it out.

It was actually quite hard to find, as the restaurant is on the fifth floor of a non-descript building, with only a small sign outside. I had to rely on my phone’s GPS to tell us we were there.

You take the elevator to the fifth floor and are immediately facing a large storybook which is also a door to the restaurant:

A girl, who I think was dressed as The Mad Hatter, appeared, advised us that there was a ‘cover charge of 600 Yen (about US$5 each)’ and took us to our table. The restaurant was quite small, made larger by mirrors and not surprisingly had an Alice theme:

Alice (well one of the several Alice’s) arrived with a box:

The box opened up to become a menu and a small room – part of the ‘drink/eat me shrink thing’.

The drink menu had a pop-up hat and playing cards:

Both menus had seen better days, but it was still quite nice to see the theme had been followed through – the menu choices were also themed versions of pizza/pasta type dishes, with a few half-Italian, half-Japanese options.

An afternoon-tea style plate arrived, which was apparently the ‘cover charge’:

The themed food wasn’t that great, but in places like this the food is secondary to the experience:

It looked like it was someone’s birthday on a nearby table and the waitresses came to sing them a song:

Our waitress was happy to pose for a picture with me:

and take our picture:

It looked like the restaurant was closing and Alice said “Time to go now”. The bill was 6400 Yen.

On the way out I asked the Mad Hatter if I could take her picture but she said “I do not allow photos”, which was pretty strange coming from someone dressed up in a themed restaurant – maybe her family doesn’t know about her secret life down the rabbit hole?

If you are looking for that weirdness of Japan, then you’ll find it here – but don’t come for the food.

Alice in a Labyrinth
Taiyo Bldg, 5F,
8-8-5 Ginza,
Chou-ku,
Tokyo 104-0061;

+81 3 3574 6980

http://www.alice-restaurant.com/meikyu/

Mercure Tokyo Ginza, Japan

13 Sunday Nov 2016

Posted by bugadvisor in Hotels

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Accor, Ginza, Japan, Mercure, Tokyo

We stayed three nights and a full day here at the end of October 2016. We actually booked four nights so we could stay in our room until early evening – then take a 22:00 flight to Sydney.

I only have basic loyalty status with Accor Hotels and so didn’t expect any special treatment. As it was we had a decent room (although not upgraded) and enjoyed our stay in what proved to be a good location.

The hotel doesn’t have a reception at ground level, you need to take the elevator one floor up. One floor below is a metro line, but that line didn’t seem to be useful for getting anywhere and we usually walked to a nearby metro station on a different line.

The entrance is down the side street to the right of hotel as seen in the picture below.

The reception desk were helpful and spoke English. As we’d arrived late afternoon, our room was ready.

As you can see it wasn’t anything special, but it was more than we expected after reading about small rooms in Japan. We were completely spoiled by our next room in the Hilton Osaka and so I’m glad we did this first.

There was a safe, tea/coffee, kettle, really small tea cups and a mini bar, although I could see a miniature Jack Daniels whisky was 1200 Yen – the local convenience store was selling half bottles of Suntory whisky for 500 Yen so better to walk around the corner and pick one up from there.

The bathroom was a decent size, shower over a bath, heated mirror and a Japanese electronic toilet. The shower feed was from two separate taps and not a mixer tap or shower control, something I thought was peculiar to England, so it was difficult to get the shower at the right temperature.

The towels were always smelly after use and so we were always leaving them on the floor for replacement each day.

The free Wi-Fi worked well as did the room air con.

Breakfast was included in our rate. The small breakfast room is on the same floor as reception. We never had a problem getting a table and the staff were friendly. There was a good selection of both Western and Japanese food, plus some weird mixtures such as scrambled eggs next to spaghetti bolognaise.

One reason for choosing this hotel was the location. It was great to be able to walk around the local area, luxury shopping streets, not far from the famous fish market and easy to pick up a metro and go sightseeing.

While we were staying, there was something going on at the nearby junction. This didn’t disturb us but I thought it funny how many people they had managing the traffic at what is a reasonably quiet street. Here’s a video:

Checkout was smooth and the receptionist was also able to arrange for our large suitcase to be delivered to the Hilton Osaka for the equivalent of $60 which I think was pretty good value. I think most hotels in Japan will arrange this service for you, but you must have a reservation at your destination hotel in order to send.

I’d certainly recommend this hotel if you are looking for a base for sightseeing in Tokyo.

Mercure Tokyo Ginza
2-9-4 Ginza – Chuo ku
1040061 TOKYO – JAPAN

Tel : (+81)3/43351111 – Fax : (+81)3/43351222

Mail : H5701-RE1@accor.com

http://www.mercure.com/gb/hotel-5701-mercure-tokyo-ginza/index.shtml

Royal Park Hotel The Haneda, Tokyo, Japan

12 Saturday Nov 2016

Posted by bugadvisor in Hotels

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Airport, Haneda, hotel, International, Japan, Royal Park Hotel, Terminal, The Haneda, Tokyo

The Royal Park Hotel is part of the new Haneda International Airport complex. Unlike many airport hotels, the Royal Park is only steps away from the departures hall. The monorail (you can use your JR Railways pass) stops at the International Terminal and is also just a short walk away.

Apparently there is another entrance to the hotel airside – so connecting passengers don’t even need to clear customs and immigration. Both sides are obviously kept separate.

We stayed one night in the landside half of the hotel as we were flying out of Haneda the next morning.

To be honest I wasn’t expecting much, perhaps a small basic room with a small bed. And that was fine for the price – just somewhere to sleep before our flight. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the hotel was actually pretty good.

Check in was smooth and the man on the desk said he’d given us a larger room. We took the elevator to our floor and realised that our room was at the end of a long corridor.

When we arrived the room had a large bed and a small separate lounge area.

Pyjamas were laid out nicely on the bed (better than the picture above).

The bathroom had a typical electronic toilet, shower and washbasin with multiple amenities, including toothbrushes, razors etc.

We went for a walk around the terminal as I’d heard there were some good restaurants there – in fact there was an entire Japanese-themed walk, with plenty of great restaurants.

We ate in Yaki Niku Champion 焼肉チャンピオン羽田店 which was excellent.

Back in our room, the pillows were a little strange – they felt like they’d been stuffed with small rocks. The bed was maybe too hard for some. But we had a good night’s sleep and were ready for our flight the next morning.

We didn’t have breakfast in the hotel as we were expecting to eat this in the ANA Lounge – sadly that was a mistake and the ANA lounge had the same food as in the evening.

I’d definitely recommend booking a night at the Royal Park if you are flying out of Haneda early – or even arriving late and want to rest before starting your Japanese journey.

http://www.rph-the.co.jp/haneda/en/

Places that I want to visit – Hashima (Gunkanjima/Battleship) Island, Japan

05 Wednesday Aug 2015

Posted by bugadvisor in Sightseeing, Travel News & Tips

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Battleship, Bond, Gunkanjima, Hashima, Island, Japan, Skyfall

I don’t really like the term ‘Bucket List’ as there seems to be some finality to the whole thing. What happens when you’ve completed your bucket list – are you allowed to add more? There are also places that I didn’t even know existed until yesterday. That’s why I called this article ‘Places that I want to visit – ‘ – and yes I realise that title won’t win any travel awards.

I’ll add a different place for each ‘Places that I want to visit -‘ article. They aren’t in any particular order. If you feel that I’ve missed somewhere amazing, it may be that I already visited. Or it may be that I’m not that interested – Rio de Janeiro, Machu Picchu, in fact anywhere in South America, are way down my list. I have a feeling that Rio de Janeiro and the Copacabana are all about the sexiness of the name and the reality would be a disappointment.

I really like abandoned places and really enjoyed our trip to Alcatraz Island. I did have a plan to visit Chernobyl, Ukraine, until the conflict made this impractical. Hashima Island is another abandoned place – now more famous for featuring in the James Bond movie – Skyfall. However, I believe that Pinewood Studios re-created part of the island in England, rather than the actual place being used as a location.

From Wikipedia:

Hashima Island (端島 or Hashima — -shima is a Japanese suffix for island^?), commonly called Gunkanjima (軍艦島; meaning Battleship Island), is an abandoned island lying about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the city of Nagasaki, in southern Japan. It is one of 505 uninhabited islands in Nagasaki Prefecture. The island’s most notable features are the abandoned and undisturbed concrete apartment buildings and the surrounding sea wall.

The island was known for its undersea coal mines, established in 1887, which operated during the industrialization of Japan. In 1959, the 6.3-hectare (16-acre) island’s population reached its peak of 5,259. The mine was closed in 1974, and all of the residents left the island soon after. Due to lack of maintenance several buildings have collapsed since, and other buildings are subject to breakage. However, certain collapsed exterior walls have been restored.

I’ve linked to pictures taken by Mark C O’Flaherty who wrote an Article about the island for the UK Independent newspaper.

‘Battleship Island’ (Mark C O’Flaherty)

Water feature: corridors are half flooded (Mark C O’Flaherty)

A decades-old television (Mark C O’Flaherty)

Haunted ruins: derelict apartments still display some of their original features (Mark C O’Flaherty)

A sea of ruins (Mark C O’Flaherty)

There are also some great pictures on http://www.hashima-island.com/

~ Travel News & Advice, Restaurant & Hotel Reviews, Sightseeing & Bug sightings – by Paul Feagan

Tag Archives: Japan

The Best of 2017

Shinkansen – the Japanese Bullet Train using the Japan Rail Pass

The New York Bar from Lost in Translation, Park Hyatt, Tokyo, Japan

The Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo, Japan

Alice in a Labyrinth Restaurant, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan

Mercure Tokyo Ginza, Japan

Royal Park Hotel The Haneda, Tokyo, Japan

Places that I want to visit – Hashima (Gunkanjima/Battleship) Island, Japan

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