Tokyo bound!

We started our 3 week vacation to Japan this morning. Our neighbor gave us a ride to the New Carrollton station where we took the metro train for the Washington Dulles Airport (IAD). The ride took less than an hour, with a transfer in East Falls Church. With just a carry on suitcase each, it was easy to take public transportation to IAD. We had a direct flight from IAD to Haneda Airport.

Upon arrival in Haneda the next day, we made our way to the 7-Eleven ATMs. Having watched numerous videos, we easily located the ATMs and withdrew yen notes to buy prepaid Suica cards, which we needed for public transportation throughout Japan. We could only get the Welcome Suica card that was meant for short term visitors; the regular green Suica cards were not sold at the airport. The kiosks took credit cards and there was an English speaking customer service rep who helped me buy two Welcome Suica cards with 5,000 yen loaded on each.

We had downloaded a couple of apps, NAVITIME and Japan Transit Planner, to help us navigate the Tokyo transit system. Later, we found that Google Maps actually worked much better than either of these apps, giving us more accurate data on trains, transit time, departure bays, and transfer stations. We had to make two transfers from Haneda to get to our hotel in Ryogoku. By the time we got there, it was dark. The Ryogoku View Hotel was just across the Ryogoku station; check in was self-service on a kiosk, with support from the very polite staff at the reception. The area around the hotel had a lot of little restaurants and a few convenience stores. This hotel would be our base for exploring Tokyo over the next 6 days. The Sumo stadium is located in this area which has a lot of Chanko restaurants, catering to sumo wrestlers and their fans. And, the last photo above is that of a sumo wrestler outside of our hotel, with MacDonald's in the background (we had breakfast there the 3rd day of our stay).

The hotel was very nice, modern and surprisingly spacious. After looking at a lot of videos, I had expected tiny rooms, but our room on the 11th floor had enough space to put our luggage. There was no closet nor wardrobe, just a rod with a few hangers. That was the pattern in most of the hotels we stayed in. But the bathrooms were something else. State of the art toilets, with heated seats, bidets, and a lot of buttons that I was afraid to press! They provided disposable hair brushes, single use toothbrush with toothpaste, shampoo, soap, etc. Wish I had taken more photos of our room.