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:

ANA, All Nippon Airways, London Heathrow – Tokyo – Sydney Return Business Class

14 Wednesday Dec 2016

Posted by bugadvisor in Air Travel

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

All Nippon Airways, ANA, Business Class, Haneda, HND, LHR, London Heathrow, SYD, Sydney, Tokyo

ANA was designated a 5-star airline by Skytrax along with Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Asiana Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, EVA Air and Etihad Airways. I was looking forward to see what the difference was, having enjoyed my Upper Class flight between London and Los Angeles on Virgin Atlantic.

Our itinerary was:

London Heathrow LHR T2 – Tokyo Haneda
Dep. 19:00 Arr. 15:50 the following day
ANA 212 · Boeing 777
11h 50m

Stay three nights at the Mercure Hotel Ginza, Tokyo.

Send one large suitcase to the Hilton Osaka so we could travel to Sydney with just hand luggage.

Tokyo Haneda – Sydney
Dep. 22:10 Arr. 09:45 the following day
Tokyo (HND) – Sydney (SYD)
ANA 879 · Boeing 787
9h 35m

Stay three nights at the Hilton Sydney.

Sydney to Tokyo Haneda
Dep. 21:30 Arr. 05:05 the following day
ANA 880 · Business Class · Boeing 787
9h 35m

Take the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) to Osaka and stay four nights at the Hilton Osaka.

Take the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) to Tokyo and stay one night at the Royal Park Hotel at Haneda airport.

Tokyo Haneda to London Heathrow
Dep. 11:40 Arr. 15:25
ANA 211 · Business Class · Boeing 777
12h 45m

The best part was that three of the four flights were overnight and we hoped to be able to sleep through those journeys – all the flights included lie-flat seats.

All flights were on time.

London – Tokyo

We arrived at London Heathrow Terminal 2. Check-in was smooth and we were, as you would expect, able to use the fast track security. We were given a map on check-in that showed the locations of the Star Alliance lounges. I’d already chosen the Singapore Airlines lounge as most likely to be best – other choices were United and Air Canada.

It’s a really long way and easily takes 20 minutes, even with the moving walkways, escalators and elevators. If you have any trouble walking long distances, I’d book special assistance and have them drive you on one of those electric carts. I was really disappointed that Terminal 2, as the newest terminal, had such poor arrangements for getting passengers from security to the gate.

The Singapore Airlines lounge was pretty good, with plenty of space, a good bar with champagne and some reasonable food choices. It wasn’t amazing, but we enjoyed our time there.

The line for boarding was quite long – ANA have a large Business Class, plus a small First Class. Once onboard, the cabin felt spacious and each seat had slippers, amenity kit, seat mattress, duvet and headphones. This picture may have been from the Sydney flight, but there was hardly any difference between the 777 and 787 seats.

There was plenty of overhead locker space, plus space in the footwell where you could store shoes.

The flight attendant arrived with plastic glasses of orange or sparkling wine – it may have been champagne but who can tell when it’s in a plastic cup?

After take off we were given menus. I think this one was from the Sydney flight, but they were all pretty similar; choice of a Japanese or International menu.

There was also a selection of on-demand dishes.

We both went for the Japanese menu and it was served really nicely, mostly course by course. The wine selection was limited but good quality. In fact, all the service was very good – what you’d expect from a Japanese airline.

I decided to complete the landing cards. The amenity kit had the usual lip balm, those eye shade things, earplugs, toothbrush but no pen – which I found a ridiculous omission.

The in-flight entertainment had several new releases, but the overall selection was limited. I could connect to the internet on my phone for $20 for the full flight, but didn’t bother

I’d researched online as to whether ANA offered pyjamas or sleeper suits and found they did – although oddly they insist on these being returned after use. It’s always a hassle to change into and out of these in the small aircraft bathrooms, but makes sleeping more comfortable and preserves your regular clothes for when you land. I asked for some pyjamas and changed – I noticed that pyjamas weren’t being actively offered and wonder how many sets they carry.

The seat did indeed lie flat, but I was disappointed in the mattress/seat cover. It was only a half-fit, running to about knee level and wasn’t that comfortable – contrast that with the lovely white mattress cover that is tailored to exactly fit the Virgin Upper Class seat.

Tokyo – Sydney

Check in was smooth, except that I asked about fast track and they advised that only First Class passengers can use fast track – what a stupid rule that is. As it was the regular security was very quick.

The lounge was spacious but had very limited food and drink choices – it was actually really disappointing considering this was ANA’s lounge in their own hub airport.

The flight to Sydney was similar food and service as the flight to Tokyo.

Sydney – Tokyo

I’m pretty sure there wasn’t fast-track in Sydney but can’t quite remember. The Star Alliance lounge was much better, although still not as good as the London Singapore lounge.

The flight again was similar, but at least on time.

Tokyo – London

Again no fast track and again the ANA lounge was disappointing. Despite being early morning, there wasn’t anything that resembled a Western breakfast option.

The flight was similar, except as this was a day flight, I spent most of the time watching in-flight movies and not sleeping. Nonetheless I still wore the pyjamas in order to preserve my regular clothes.

Overall

I was pretty disappointed. The long walk in Heathrow T2, the plastic cups for welcome drink, the poor seat cover, lack of pen in the amenity kit, lack of fast track and really poor ANA lounges in Tokyo were not what I expected from a 5-star airline.

I realise that these are First-World problems and of course we benefitted from lie-flat bed seats and slept quite well. However, I’d definitely choose Virgin Atlantic over ANA.

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/

When should a hotel charge you for your booking?

15 Thursday Sep 2016

Posted by bugadvisor in Travel News & Tips

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Accor, Mercure, Tokyo

Back on the 15th June this year, I made a reservation, via the Accor Hotels website, for the Mercure Hotel in Tokyo. The booking was non-refundable and for October this year.

There were a couple of reasons for making this early booking:

My first choice, Hilton (where I have Diamond status), was too expensive.
Accor had a sale and a deal that included breakfast.
I was pretty sure that the UK would vote to leave the EU (Brexit) and that the British Pound would fall against other currencies.

Brexit happened and the Pound fell – I was happy that I’d locked in the price of my hotel. Well I was happy until my card was debited on the 23rd July (over a month later) at that day’s exchange rate. That left me almost £50 worse off – in fact I miscalculated and thought I was over £100 worse off.

Had I booked a cancellable reservation, I wouldn’t expected the amount to be charged until I arrived/departed. With this reservation, I might have accepted a charge made on departure but not at possibly the worst time – advance payment but at a bad exchange rate. I booked a non-refundable stay at the Sydney Hilton on the 23rd May – they haven’t charged me yet and although I would have preferred to lock in the rate, if they don’t charge me until I depart in November then I’ll probably be okay with that.

19th September update: Hilton just charged my card and I’m £68 worse off because of the change in exchange rates. I’ve written to them and let’s see what they do.

18th October update: The Sydney Hilton wrote:
I sincerely apologise that your initial email was not responded to and hope that we are able to offer a solution. As this reservation is a fully-pre-paid reservation, unfortunately we are unable to refund this amount to you. However we do understand your frustration and so as a gesture of good will to a valued Diamond HHonors member, we will allow this amount (in the dollar value) to be used towards incidentals during your stay.
And I think that’s a reasonable gesture.

I wrote to Club Accor (where sadly I have basic status). Club Accor used to give Platinum status away like sweets until about a year ago when they decided to stop status matching.

Club Accor said they’d pass on my complaint to the hotel. I waited a few weeks and chased. After another week I received an email from the hotel where they looked at the exchange rate:

Theoretical difference based on this analysis is 622.99-576.77= 46.23 British Pounds.

We shall proceed to the reimbursement of 46.23 British Pounds that will be converted into Japanese yen according to the most favorable for you rate, that of June 15th , as soon as you accuse the reception of this explanatory e-mail.

We wish to reiterate our sincere apology for the delay in charging your card for a prepaid reservation.

I’d already decided that they weren’t going to refund me anything. I was planning to ask for a full refund based on the that fact. So I’d re-checked the rates for the Hilton and found they had become less expensive. I booked the Hilton (on a cancellable rate). Plus I also altered my flights to arrive one day later.

But actually the hotel were pretty nice about it all. I decided to ask for a full refund anyway. Their next reply wasn’t so friendly:

I regret to point out, but your reservation tariff is a prepaid one and thus it cannot be a subject to any change or cancelation according to the sales conditions.

However, taken into account the situation, I can offer you to move your booking for another period and leave the choice of dates up to you.

Please be kindly informed that should the room price be lower than your original booking, the difference will not be reimbursed and should the room rate for the dates you will choose be higher, we shall charge you the difference after comparison with the room rate for your initial stay. Please kindly advise me of your decision.

Finally, may I also inform you that there is no legal obligation for the hotel to process the prepaid booking on the very booking date. We shall not take any responsibility for exchange rate fluctuation with regard to your future bookings. Thank you very much for your kind understanding and cooperation.

So I decided to accept the offer of a change of booking date. I asked for my reservation to be moved forward for one day. That fitted my new arrival date and although I am flying to Sydney on my departure date, that isn’t until 22:00 and so having a room right up until we needed to go to the airport would be handy.

They replied:

Thank you for your kind response. Your request for booking change has been well noted and is now processed.

We will soon send you a new reservation confirmation e-mail.

The refund of 46.23 pounds (6951 JPY) has been ordered and will be processed shortly.

I thank you for your kind understanding and cooperation.

We all look forward to welcoming you at Mercure Tokyo Ginza in October.

So back to being nice and everything looked good.

Unfortunately today I received an ‘updated’ booking – when I checked the dates were exactly the same and there was no mention of breakfast.

The hotel have since sent an updated confirmation and my dates have been updated and breakfast is still included. So I cancelled my Hilton reservation and I’m looking forward to staying (and reviewing) the Mercure Tokyo.

But what do you think? Should a hotel debit your card immediately for a pre-paid reservation at the prevailing rate? Would you prefer that they debited your card at the end of your stay and take a chance on exchange rates?

~ Travel News, Reviews, Bug sightings and bug free zones – by Paul Feagan

Tag Archives: Tokyo

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

ANA, All Nippon Airways, London Heathrow – Tokyo – Sydney Return Business Class

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

When should a hotel charge you for your booking?

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