Friday started for us in Tokyo when we woke up at 8:30 am local time. Due to time zone changes, it was an almost 40 hour day for us! We had to check-out of our hotel at 12 noon so after getting ready, we spent the morning packing our suitcases to make sure the weight was distributed evenly and that valuables were in our carry-on bag.
We checked-out and stored our bags with the hotel and left for our last day of sightseeing in this trip. We had a very late breakfast at the French bakery chain Paul at the Shinagawa station. We had a chicken croissant, chicken and avocado bread and chocolate croissant with coffee.
Then we took the train to our first stop of the day, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in the Shinjuku area. We were given a free tour of the building by a volunteer lady who gave us a very informative tour that included showing us the Assembly hall of the government of the Tokyo Prefecture/Province where all sessions are attended by 127 members of the Tokyo assembly and is headed by the governor/mayor of Tokyo. Then she took us to the 45th floor of the building where we could see the bird's eye view of Tokyo and it's various areas. She had been to Canada so we had a great time chatting with her about the similarities and differences between Japan and Canada with respect to taxes and health care etc.
After that, our next stop was the Harajuku area that has a tree-lined avenue called Omatesando similar to the Champs Élysées of Paris with high-end Western stores on both sides of the road. We went inside a mall and were surprised to see that there was a Max Brenner's Chocolate Bar there! We've been to the Max Brenner's in New York City and Las Vegas but didn't know that there was one in Tokyo too. There was a huge lineup so we just got a chocolate hazelnut crepe packed. We also got a few macaroons packed from the next door French bakery that flies in fresh macaroons from Paris every day. Then getting directions from the very helpful mall concierge (yes, all malls in Tokyo have a concierge desk on every floor), we found a place to sit and savored the delicious crepe and the macaroons. Then we walked to the only Japanese-looking building on the avenue, the Oriental Bazaar.
The Oriental Bazaar is a three-floor building solely selling traditional Japanese items and souvenirs. We bought some Japanese tea cups and plates there. Whenever we come back to Tokyo again, this is one place we will definitely be visiting again because of the sheer quality and variety of the items being sold.
By the time we were done with shopping, we were hungry for something substantial since the Max Brenner's crepe and the macaroons were not that filling. We stopped at a McDonald's which is one of the largest and busiest we've ever seen. There were throngs of school going teenagers who seemed to have come there directly after school and were putting on makeup and changing their clothes to get into their Goth mode. Harajuku is a famous gathering spot for all such Goth enthusiasts, most of whom are school children which seemed a bit odd. Perhaps that's one way workaholism of absentee Japanese parents is manifesting itself.
We would've gone to the Meiji Shrine or Meiji-jingu which was about a km walk away but our volunteer guide at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building had warned us that it might be closed because of its proximity to the Yoyogi park which has a Dengue fever threat alert issued. We did manage to confirm that Meiji-jingu was open but we didn't want to take a chance on our last day in Japan, specially because we didn't have our bug repellent spray with us and because I had decided to wear shorts. Ah well, maybe visiting Meiji Shrine can be another excuse for coming back to Tokyo, in addition to excellent shopping options and a chance to come back to possibly the best mega city in the world.
The Meiji Shrine is a Shinto shrine that was built in honor of the Japanese emperor Meiji who is famous in history for the Meiji Restoration of 1868 which transferred back the political rule of Japan from the Shogun to the Emperor. You might be wondering why a religious shrine was built for an Emperor. Well, I didn't get a chance to mention this before but in Shinto religion, the Imperial Emperor is considered the living embodiment of the divine and is considered a god!
After Harajuku, we took the train to the Ginza area. Before exiting, we stored our shopping in a coin locker for safekeeping. The Ginza area is like the 5th Avenue of New York City or the Rodeo Drive of Los Angeles - it is THE area if you want to buy super expensive high-end brand items. The whole area gives off an elite vibe with window after window showcasing all the various ways you can quickly rack up your credit card bill. The neon lighting, the tall buildings and the Western brands can easily fool you into thinking that you're in North America or Western Europe.
After strolling around in Ginza, we took the train back to our hotel and collected our suitcases from storage. Then we changed into comfortable travel clothes and freshened up. We took a cab to the Haneda Airport which is just about a 20 minute ride away from our hotel. We were at the airport at 9:45 pm.
After checking-in, we quickly bought some chocolates and then dropped off our bags with the airlines and explored the airport. It looks like a new airport and like everything else in Tokyo, it's super clean. In fact, everywhere you go in Tokyo, it seems like you're walking in a large hospital, that's how clean this city is! At Haneda airport, there is even a smaller version of the Nihombashi bridge from the Edo period whose replica we saw at the Edo-Tokyo Museum earlier on this trip. The Japanese sure do know how to market their history.
We wanted to try some more authentic Japanese food before leaving so after passing through security, we stopped to have Ramen noodles before rushing to our gate since I had been asked to report five minutes earlier than the boarding time because as always, I had been "randomly" selected for extra screening, thank to my Pakistani passport. The silver lining to this discrimination is that we were the first people to board the plane and settling down in our seats took no time.
Since it was daytime in Calgary, it would've been nice if we could've stayed up during the 9 hour flight but we were so tired after another day of walking over 10 km in the humid weather that we fell asleep and slept on and off for pretty much 7 hours!
The flight landed in Seattle at 7 pm local time on Friday. I could've used my NEXUS card for immigration but when I was given the card, I was told that if I was traveling with someone who didn't have NEXUS, I shouldn't use the NEXUS lane. Technically, we could've done immigration separately but I didn't want to take a chance and that resulted in the mandatory secondary inspection. Too bad that the volume of passengers requiring secondary inspection is not too high at the Seattle airport so the officers were slow in conducting the processing. It also didn't help that the officer undertaking my processing was being trained so he had to keep consulting his supervisor which made the process even slower. All said and done, the processing took an hour and then we were on our way. Lesson learnt that the next time we're going to or passing through the US, I should use my NEXUS card.
Due to this delay, the connecting flight desk staff had left by the time we reached there so the person assigned by Delta to make sure that we made our connection had to take us to the main terminal to drop off our bags with the airlines before proceeding through security to our gate. Thankfully we had a decent buffer before our next flight to Seattle so we easily made it on board.
The flight left on time at 9 pm local time and we reached Calgary just before midnight local time on Friday after a short two hour flight. Friday started in Tokyo and ended almost 40 hours later in Calgary.
Our friends Fouad and Faryal gave us a ride home. Since we slept through our flight to Seattle, looks like we'll be up for a few more hours so we will unpack and unwind. We hope you enjoyed details of our Japan trip. Like Samia said on Facebook, we came to Japan with high expectations as a developed nation with a rich history but Japan managed to even exceed them. We would definitely want to come back some day.
Till our next vacation, it's Sayonara from us. Take care!
We checked-out and stored our bags with the hotel and left for our last day of sightseeing in this trip. We had a very late breakfast at the French bakery chain Paul at the Shinagawa station. We had a chicken croissant, chicken and avocado bread and chocolate croissant with coffee.
Then we took the train to our first stop of the day, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in the Shinjuku area. We were given a free tour of the building by a volunteer lady who gave us a very informative tour that included showing us the Assembly hall of the government of the Tokyo Prefecture/Province where all sessions are attended by 127 members of the Tokyo assembly and is headed by the governor/mayor of Tokyo. Then she took us to the 45th floor of the building where we could see the bird's eye view of Tokyo and it's various areas. She had been to Canada so we had a great time chatting with her about the similarities and differences between Japan and Canada with respect to taxes and health care etc.
After that, our next stop was the Harajuku area that has a tree-lined avenue called Omatesando similar to the Champs Élysées of Paris with high-end Western stores on both sides of the road. We went inside a mall and were surprised to see that there was a Max Brenner's Chocolate Bar there! We've been to the Max Brenner's in New York City and Las Vegas but didn't know that there was one in Tokyo too. There was a huge lineup so we just got a chocolate hazelnut crepe packed. We also got a few macaroons packed from the next door French bakery that flies in fresh macaroons from Paris every day. Then getting directions from the very helpful mall concierge (yes, all malls in Tokyo have a concierge desk on every floor), we found a place to sit and savored the delicious crepe and the macaroons. Then we walked to the only Japanese-looking building on the avenue, the Oriental Bazaar.
The Oriental Bazaar is a three-floor building solely selling traditional Japanese items and souvenirs. We bought some Japanese tea cups and plates there. Whenever we come back to Tokyo again, this is one place we will definitely be visiting again because of the sheer quality and variety of the items being sold.
By the time we were done with shopping, we were hungry for something substantial since the Max Brenner's crepe and the macaroons were not that filling. We stopped at a McDonald's which is one of the largest and busiest we've ever seen. There were throngs of school going teenagers who seemed to have come there directly after school and were putting on makeup and changing their clothes to get into their Goth mode. Harajuku is a famous gathering spot for all such Goth enthusiasts, most of whom are school children which seemed a bit odd. Perhaps that's one way workaholism of absentee Japanese parents is manifesting itself.
We would've gone to the Meiji Shrine or Meiji-jingu which was about a km walk away but our volunteer guide at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building had warned us that it might be closed because of its proximity to the Yoyogi park which has a Dengue fever threat alert issued. We did manage to confirm that Meiji-jingu was open but we didn't want to take a chance on our last day in Japan, specially because we didn't have our bug repellent spray with us and because I had decided to wear shorts. Ah well, maybe visiting Meiji Shrine can be another excuse for coming back to Tokyo, in addition to excellent shopping options and a chance to come back to possibly the best mega city in the world.
The Meiji Shrine is a Shinto shrine that was built in honor of the Japanese emperor Meiji who is famous in history for the Meiji Restoration of 1868 which transferred back the political rule of Japan from the Shogun to the Emperor. You might be wondering why a religious shrine was built for an Emperor. Well, I didn't get a chance to mention this before but in Shinto religion, the Imperial Emperor is considered the living embodiment of the divine and is considered a god!
After Harajuku, we took the train to the Ginza area. Before exiting, we stored our shopping in a coin locker for safekeeping. The Ginza area is like the 5th Avenue of New York City or the Rodeo Drive of Los Angeles - it is THE area if you want to buy super expensive high-end brand items. The whole area gives off an elite vibe with window after window showcasing all the various ways you can quickly rack up your credit card bill. The neon lighting, the tall buildings and the Western brands can easily fool you into thinking that you're in North America or Western Europe.
After strolling around in Ginza, we took the train back to our hotel and collected our suitcases from storage. Then we changed into comfortable travel clothes and freshened up. We took a cab to the Haneda Airport which is just about a 20 minute ride away from our hotel. We were at the airport at 9:45 pm.
After checking-in, we quickly bought some chocolates and then dropped off our bags with the airlines and explored the airport. It looks like a new airport and like everything else in Tokyo, it's super clean. In fact, everywhere you go in Tokyo, it seems like you're walking in a large hospital, that's how clean this city is! At Haneda airport, there is even a smaller version of the Nihombashi bridge from the Edo period whose replica we saw at the Edo-Tokyo Museum earlier on this trip. The Japanese sure do know how to market their history.
We wanted to try some more authentic Japanese food before leaving so after passing through security, we stopped to have Ramen noodles before rushing to our gate since I had been asked to report five minutes earlier than the boarding time because as always, I had been "randomly" selected for extra screening, thank to my Pakistani passport. The silver lining to this discrimination is that we were the first people to board the plane and settling down in our seats took no time.
Since it was daytime in Calgary, it would've been nice if we could've stayed up during the 9 hour flight but we were so tired after another day of walking over 10 km in the humid weather that we fell asleep and slept on and off for pretty much 7 hours!
The flight landed in Seattle at 7 pm local time on Friday. I could've used my NEXUS card for immigration but when I was given the card, I was told that if I was traveling with someone who didn't have NEXUS, I shouldn't use the NEXUS lane. Technically, we could've done immigration separately but I didn't want to take a chance and that resulted in the mandatory secondary inspection. Too bad that the volume of passengers requiring secondary inspection is not too high at the Seattle airport so the officers were slow in conducting the processing. It also didn't help that the officer undertaking my processing was being trained so he had to keep consulting his supervisor which made the process even slower. All said and done, the processing took an hour and then we were on our way. Lesson learnt that the next time we're going to or passing through the US, I should use my NEXUS card.
Due to this delay, the connecting flight desk staff had left by the time we reached there so the person assigned by Delta to make sure that we made our connection had to take us to the main terminal to drop off our bags with the airlines before proceeding through security to our gate. Thankfully we had a decent buffer before our next flight to Seattle so we easily made it on board.
The flight left on time at 9 pm local time and we reached Calgary just before midnight local time on Friday after a short two hour flight. Friday started in Tokyo and ended almost 40 hours later in Calgary.
Our friends Fouad and Faryal gave us a ride home. Since we slept through our flight to Seattle, looks like we'll be up for a few more hours so we will unpack and unwind. We hope you enjoyed details of our Japan trip. Like Samia said on Facebook, we came to Japan with high expectations as a developed nation with a rich history but Japan managed to even exceed them. We would definitely want to come back some day.
Till our next vacation, it's Sayonara from us. Take care!
No comments:
Post a Comment