We had our final skinkansen trip from Kyoto to Tokyo, appreciating for the last time how quick these things go and fearing for my life, arriving in Tokyo before lunchtime. We were staying at the APA Hotel Ginza Kyobashi in Ginza which was … small, but conveniently located so marks in the wins and losses columns.
After dropping off our bags we went to explore an area we’d missed in our first Tokyo stay of the trip – the Imperial Palace and East Gardens. Turns out they’re a non-event, like Buckingham Palace but with no changing of the guard to spice things up (as much as blokes in funny hats marching spices things up). We spent about an hour walking around the gardens, which in fairness were very nice. In terms of the palace though we could only see the walls – they were made of stone.
From here we walked back to Ginza where, in a search for wifi to check the progress of my Supercoach, we found a Starbucks. We couldn’t work out why the line was out the door but desperate times call for desperate measures and we joined the queue. When we eventually reached the front of the queue we discovered we’d wandered into Japan’s first Starbucks. Seriously, the line was out the door. It opened in 1996 – fun fact. I was winning Supercoach.
We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around, taking in Ginza. I did happen upon a Tokyo 2020 store and am now the proud owner of a Tokyo 2020 t-shirt, a lazy 4 years before the event. Annabel dragged me to Muji, which is a little like a Japanese H&M but with homewares, I’m told there is one in Melbourne – not sure I’ll be rushing to it.
We finished up eating at a grill which served Australian beef, which would make Dad very happy.
The next morning, we awoke to a text from our friends at Jetstar telling us we’d be flying out 3 hours earlier than our scheduled time because they wanted to avoid a typhoon – valid reason. After rushing to the airport and boarding the plane Jetstar told us we’d missed the boat and the typhoon had beaten us (is that a mixed metaphor?). The pouring rain and roaring wind hadn’t given it away.
Before abandoning our attempt to fly, Jetstar had succeeded in loading our luggage onto the plane, which was in the middle of the tarmac. In a typhoon. This happy event meant we were going to be at the airport for the next 6 hours. We did get to see a typhoon though, so it wasn’t all for nought!
We arrived back at the APA in Ginza (we’d gotten the last room) at 8 p.m. and set about finding food. In an amazing way to end a typhoony day we landed on a ramen place that was incredible. Smoke hung over the entire place as the other patrons joyfully embraced lung cancer, the beer was cheap and the ramen delicious – as was the gyoza. After getting into a strange conversation with some Japanese businessmen about the Wallabies (Australian rugby union team not the fauna) we called it a night.
The next day we got a plane out of Tokyo, with no hassle whatsoever. It had been a great two weeks and Annabel hadn’t killed me – go me!
In a semi-interesting postscript Annabel made a new friend in Narita Airport – a German who’s on exchange in Melbourne, her and Annabel seem to catch up every week now! So there’s a win for typhoons.
Tasmanian On Tour 