In Tokyo and excited about upcoming cruise.

[mj_holiday]

Don’t know if I will be able to post daily but will try. 
After our nonstop flight from DFW, we arrived at Narita airport. I had requested a wheelchair for DH since he had recent back surgery and were met at the end of the ramp as we got off the plane. T thank you. The wheelchair attendant helped us get through immigration and customs and I’m very glad I had the QR codes completed. 
They did have dogs in the luggage area  and the customs area and that’s probably their way to find narcotics and other illegal drugs but I don’t think my blood pressure medicine caused the dog to even look at it a second time. 
We were met by Regents representatives and we had a 15 minute walk to where the bus would pick us up. Had to leave the wheelchair in the airport. It was a 2 1/2 hour bus ride to the Tokyo, Hilton, lots of traffic, but a couple people think the bus driver went around in a circle a couple times, I just slept.  
Check in at the Tokyo Hilton was very efficient and they had people ready to take our luggage up to our room. 
There is lots of information about restaurant reservations in the hotel, we weren’t ready for a big meal, and we went to St. George’s bar and had a cheese plate and drinks and listen to a small band. 
Our hotel room is very nice and very comfortable. No in suite coffee maker, there is a teapot and cups and tea, but I haven’t found the hot water yet.

Breakfast is provided and the tour doesn’t leave until 10 AM so it looks like we will have plenty of time to get settled and have some breakfast. 
That’s all for now. 

[frantic36]

2 hours ago, mj_holiday said:

No in suite coffee maker, there is a teapot and cups and tea, but I haven’t found the hot water yet.

Could you please let me know if there is hot water available for tea/coffee when you have time, thanks.

[rcandkc]

How about ice?  

[labonnevie]

Your cabin attendant will fill your ice bucket daily if you ask for it. 

[mrlevin]

2 hours ago, labonnevie said:

Your cabin attendant will fill your ice bucket daily if you ask for it. 

mj was talking about her room at Hilton not ship.  🙂

[labonnevie]

10 hours ago, mrlevin said:

mj was talking about her room at Hilton not ship.  🙂

Oh! 😳

[mj_holiday]

The kettle was in a cabinet under the teapot way in the back. 

[GMIAC]

14 hours ago, mrlevin said:

mj was talking about her room at Hilton not ship.  🙂

I’d find it hard to believe that there wouldn’t be ice machines on every floor of a major hotel. 

Edited March 30 by GMIAC

[mj_holiday]

Saturday morning found us up at 4am. We were down at breakfast shortly after it opened. It is a very large buffet. There was lots of variety of fruit, cereal, eggs, an omelette station, not much meat, juice,  beans,  just about anything you might want for breakfast. 
As we were leaving breakfast, we could see a very long line waiting to get in. Glad we started early.

We were to gather for our tour at 10 am and headed down about 20 minutes early. As has been reported several times, the elevators just don’t support the numbers heading out at the same time. 
When we got to the meeting area we were given bus numbers and went to wait to be called. There was a man with the tour company giving bits and pieces of etiquette in Japan. He informed us that Japan was the last to open after Covid and many establishments just didn’t get the employees back.  For example, some hotels won’t rent out all their rooms because they don’t have the staff to support that. 
It was not a long wait. Our bus was called and we headed out. DH and I were bringing up the rear. 
We got on the bus and several people told DH to take the front seat. That was nice. There were about 25 on the bus. 

[mj_holiday]

The tour was a half day tour that would take us to two places. We had a guide that was a certified guide, her English was good with a heavy accent, and she is a schoolteacher during the year.  She did not have a lot of extra informative information for us like I like to hear from guides, but she had the facts about the places we were heading per the write up. The description of this tour basically said we would be taken to the site and then be on our own with free time and that’s what happened. Some on the bus wanted more information and to be taken around the sites.
 
The first place we went was Odbaiba, which is a man-made island that was made to protect Tokyo from Admiral Perry. My history is rusty on the exact history and I will be checking it out when I get home.  There is a copy of the Statue of Liberty on this island, much smaller, and it looks like some beautiful gardens to go through.

The next place we went to was an area called Ginza, This is a shopping district with lots of restaurants, kabuki theater, galleries, anything you could want.  Our guide explained where we were to meet and we had about an hour and a half.  DH and I walked through  one large shopping center, which had very high end clothes. We wanted a place to have a drink and ask someone who told us B2 take the elevator, which we did.  As soon as we got off of the elevator we found a very nice wine bar and had a glass of wine.  After the refreshment we walked around the entire B2 and the whole floor is filled with small bars,  bourbon shop, candy shops, cookie shops, lots of stuff to eat. The bourbon store had bottles of bourbon priced at 300000 yen. Guess we’ll look someplace else for a bottle of Japanese bourbon. DH and I decided this would be a nice area to come to the next day.   
 

After we got back to the hotel, we decided we needed to have some lunch, this was to be a late lunch. There was only one of the restaurants opened for lunch at 3 PM. The Chinese restaurant. The other restaurants were being set up for afternoon tea. The food was very good and we had a very nice lunch.
 

After lunch while DH was resting I went off to see if I could find the train station that the guide kept pointing to. It wasn’t where I thought she was pointing to, but I eventually found it. Usually train stations are nice places to buy every day needs and they also have many restaurants. Since this was a Saturday, not much was open but I did find a Family Mart and was able to get some things we had forgotten and a delightful of array of Japanese beer.  
I really didn’t see any restaurants within walking distance of the Tokyo Hilton, and so that evening we went to have a light dinner in the hotel. I then remembered all the warnings given about needing reservations. Even the bar that we wanted to go back to was booked up. We found another bar on second floor and they had a table that was not reserved so we could sit and have some appetizers and drinks which is really all we needed since we had a late lunch.  
 

We made it an early evening, since we’re still adjusting to the travel and time distance. 

Edited March 30 by mj_holiday
Clarification

[Kane]

We were on the Tokyo prelim at the Hilton last year.  There are LOTS of restaurants in the immediate area located in the basements of the high-rises around the hotel.

[mrlevin]

We are at Aoyama Cemetery, our favorite cherry blossom viewing location in Tokyo and we are still too early; lots of buds but few blooms. Kyoto is supposed to peak when we are there on 3 April but it is a bummer missing them here. 

[2012_Alaska_bound]

Family Mart for the win! The hot and cold foods there are very good if you just want a very light meal.

[mrlevin]

Just saw from our hotel room through the rain and fog Explorer sail into port; just a few more hours.

[mj_holiday]

Our Easter Sunday was quiet while we decided to re-sync our inner clocks with the time in Japan. After breakfast, we went shopping in the arcade attached to the hotel. There were lots of interesting stores, quite a few were closed for the day. We were able to find the toiletries we needed. There was a store that looked like it sold custom made kimonos. Lots of beautiful silk on display. We also saw several women in the shopping arcade in kimonos that weren’t connected with the shop.

 

After shopping, we went back to the hotel, and wanted some refreshments. Most of the restaurants were completely full with people doing afternoon tea. We found a table in the Zatta bar. It was interesting how full the restaurants were with people partaking in afternoon tea. The set up for the tea was very interesting, and none of my pictures came out. 
I did find out what looked like cloth magazine racks that were next to tables and barstools were used for. They are used to store packages and your purse while you’re at the table. I hope my pictures make it through.
 

 

 

[mj_holiday]

Later on in the afternoon, those partaking and T took on a different air. More people were dressed up and several young women were with their parents. It was a nice enough event that many people were taking pictures.
 

For dinner we had reservations at St. George in our hotel. DH wanted and got a flight of three Japanese whiskeys. The flight was elegantly served on a wooden tray which each whiskey identified by its genre. We had a nice small dinner afterwards and the food was excellent.

[mj_holiday]

Do not know why the previous photo is upside down, I added it the same way I added the first two.

 

We are now getting ready to head to the ship. I will start a new thread just for the cruise. Watch for it in a couple days.