As we were taking our cases on the Shinkansen and we had previously got lost in Namba train station (which is next to our hotel and had to use to get to Shin-Osaka) we spent a little time the previous day working out the route to get to the elevator that would take us to the subway line we needed.
This was a worthwhile investment, as on the day of departure, we transferred smoothly onto the correct subway line and arrived in good time at Shin-Osaka to catch the Shinkansen back to Tokyo.
Reading about trying to see Mount Fuji from the train, we had to book the correct seats on the right side (which is the left side going to Tokyo!).
We had bought the tickets when we arrived in Osaka 4 days earlier and it's amazing how quickly this side of the train fills up!
We managed to book a pair of seats through and as we travelled to Tokyo, Mt Fuji came into view (or rather the cloud surrounding it did).
There's only a 25% ish chance of seeing it cloudless and that usually happens in the winter, when it has it's famous snow cap on.
However, we did grab a pic of the summit, poking out above the cloud.
Arriving at Tokyo, we jumped off at the station before Tokyo main station at Shinagawa and transferred by subway to Yoyogi station (thus avoiding Shinjuku!) which meant a short stroll along the road back to our hotel, the Sunroute Plaza, where our hols began almost 3 weeks earlier.
We had decided to return to the Sunroute as we would be familiar with the locale and the airport Limo bus picks you up from outside, making things really easy on our last day.
After checking in we headed off to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. It was about a 15 minute walk away and we wanted to visit it but had run out of time when we were last in the area.
We arrived a couple of hours before it was due to close and as it was a Saturday and a lovely day it was packed.
Big queues still to get in, but oddly all for the card payment machines, so we walked past these lines, paid by cash and got in easily.
It was a nice area to walk around and certainly big enough to handle the crowds. Nice as it was, we did feel though that the gardens in Kanazawa were better.
After a visit to the garden we went to see Godzilla.
He pokes his head out next to the Hotel Gracery in Shinjuku.
The area was busy and bonkers - reminding us of Osaka, great fun though.
To escape the bedlam, we dived into a small quick serve restaurant and had a couple of trays of something (I can never be quite sure what it was) and a few beers.
The next (last & full day of our hols) we got the subway over to the Imperial Palace to see Emperor Naruhito.
It was a scorching day and after we walked past the Science & Technology Museum and the National Museum of Modern Art, we arrived at the Imperial Palace and gardens.
Sadly, Emp. Naruhito wasn't available so we had to contend ourselves with walking through the ruins of old Edo castles and then around the perimeter of the Imperial Palace, which has high fortress walls, moated and little to see (I think the only way to get a better view was on a tour which we hadn't booked).
Once we'd walked around half of the perimeter, trying to avoid the millions of runners coming the other way (they run anti clockwise) we got near to Tokyo station . But before I could head off to see it, Claire decided that she wanted to walk around the entire Palace perimeter. Hmmmm - I agreed, but it was a long rather uninteresting slog in the heat, all the way back round and the through the Edo ruins again, before we got back to the Tokyo station area.
The station still looks very grand, large for it's day, but now towered over by huge skyscrapers, we were in the business district, rather like the City of London, so as it was a weekend, it was pretty quiet.
We had a bite to eat in a nice cafe they did crepes, folded inwards containing melted cheese, ham and an egg, before getting back on the subway to Shinjuku, got lost again, eventually exiting and found our way back to the hotel to recover from a rather tiring 8 mile walk.
That evening, we walked to a Thai restaurant and had a delicious meal, our last in Tokyo.
The following day we packed up, checked out and went back to the Metropolitan Building, just around the corner, to have another view from the top and maybe pick up some additional souvenirs.
Getting back to the hotel we picked up our bags and boarded the Limo bus for Haneda Airport.
We'd booked a room at the airport for the night as we had to be checking in early for our flight at around 8.50am.
After a bit of hassle at the hotel (they'd given us a double bedded room which was up against the wall, meaning (Claire) would have had to slide down the end of the bed to get out, not really acceptable.
Eventually, we were given a king size room and it was lovely - with an exit from the bed on both sides.
(If ever you go to Japan, you must check very carefully the bedrooms you're booking, they can be very small, with beds against walls.
At the hotel/airport area, Claire was in her element, there were masses of gifty shops to wander around - and restaurants to eat in
Japan did have one final thing to surprise us.
Whilst we sat in bed at the hotel, suddenly the bed jolted and jumped for a couple of seconds.
We didn’t know it at the time, but there’d been a small earthquake, the epicentre just across the bay from where we were.
So, on this occasion the earth did move!
All too soon though, we were up and out of the hotel and a 5 minute walk later, dropping off our bags and heading for Departures.
After yet more last minute gifty purchases (they are cheaper airside, no tax levied) we boarded our plane for the 14.5 hour flight home.
As we took off, we had some great views of Tokyo - and Mount Fuji
We landed at 15:15 Heathrow T5, got the 16:20 Elizabeth Line to Liverpool St, arriving at 17:05, boarded to 17:30 train to Diss arriving at 19:05. My brother Colin picked us up and dropped us off home at 19:30 - not a bad transfer at all.
2 hours later having unpacked, showered and had a bite to eat I was asleep, dead to the world.
A wonderful holiday in a fabulous country with charming people.
Hope you enjoyed our travel tales - if you are thinking of going to Japan, we'd be happy to give you our views and some travelling tips, which we learnt along the way.
さようなら
(Sayonara)
This featured blog entry was written by Norfolk Boy from the blog Japan.
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