Tokyo was a cool 13 degrees and we had to get out jeans, jumpers and even rain coats the first evening we arrived.
We loved the familiar feel, the clean and plentiful toilets and convenience stores and the politeness. It was nice to be back!
We travelled about 1.5 hours from Narita airport to the central area of Roppongi to our hotel arriving at 10pm. The next day Janet did some work and then we went out with Andy and Jane (our Furano next door neighbour ski instructors) for lunch. We stumbled across a sakura festival at the nearby shopping area so sat outside and ate our lunch. That evening we met up with them, plus a canadian instructor Shea, and my neice, Morgan, for a few drinks. Then we had amazing ramen and then more drinks where we worked through the cocktail lists analysing their ratings for “manliness”, “geekiness”, “coolness” etc.
The next morning the sun was out and we met Andy and Jane for breakfast and to give them last minute tips for Sabah (they were heading there the next day). Then we went to a digital museum, Team Lab Borderless, with Morgan. After 2 hours, we “think” we’d seen all the installations and taken heaps of photos.
Morgan and I then went to Inokashira Park to see the cherry blossom that had just flowered.
Then Pete, and a fellow snowboard instructor, Gideon, and his brother Josh, joined us for a great Izikawa dinner and “Mega” drinks!. We had a great evening with lots of strange bits on sticks (sometimes best not to know which bit of the animal you are eating), a rice pot we didn’t know how to operate, lots of laughs and a few beers.
The next morning was time to say farewell to Japan. But, all things being well, we will be back in eight months for another ski season. Au revoir!
Next we headed to Shanghia. With a nine hour stopover we figured it would be worth a trip into the city for the afternoon/evening. Immigration seemed quite incredulous that we wanted a transit visa to leave the airport but we are really glad we did. We popped our hand luggage in a luggage storage and tried to work out how to get a ticket for the metro as we had no digital payment options. We found a machine that would take notes and for only just over £1 for the two of us one way, but it did take about an hour (would have been faster on their bullet train Megelev, if we’dfound it). With no Internet ( China is funny about what people can see on the Web 🙄🙄 ) we had limited info but headed to Yuyuan Gardens that Pete had seen when researchingthe day before. Unfortunately it had closed for the day but the surrounding area (Yuyuan Old Street) was amazing. A mix of old traditional buildings, modern designer shops and food stalls and tourist tat.
But lovely streets and walkways and photo opportunities. We tried a lovely bread thing with spring onions and an omelette pancake with leeks.
Next we walked to the Riverside of the River Bund. What a stunning skyline!!!! All the modern buildings on one side and all the old sandstone colonial buildings (like the stock exchange, Jardine Matheisons and a Fairmont Hotel) on the opposite bank. Very impressive and worth a one hour metro journey back to the airport at 9pm.
Our Air China flight at 01.35AM had some strange food offerings but some decent films (unlike the flight out) and we have just landed in London at 06.40 and its raining and only 9 degrees!!!! Ooh this may be a shock to the system. Only 12 hours to wait for our IOM flight – yippee!
