It’s time for Tokyo.
Today, we begin the second week of our trip to Japan. This will be Part 2, following up on what we’ve just discussed in Osaka.
Maybe something new for you.
I hope to share some things about Japan that you may not know. I hope you will find our experiences entertaining. If so, perhaps what we do will spark your own adventures. Remember, we’re not trying to cure cancer here. Plus, this message is only 4,000 words long!
Japan is downright cheap!
Japan used to be almost prohibitively expensive. Twenty years ago, one U.S. dollar would buy only 80 Japanese yen. Ten years ago, that one dollar would buy 100 Japanese yen. Today, a dollar will get you about 150 yen! I listen to hours and hours of “points and miles” podcasts. Their consensus is that Japan is on more people’s travel wish lists than any other country.
Don’t go here.
As we left the Osaka airport, we stopped at a Priority Pass restaurant called the Osaka Airport Winery. This was a strange place.
Yes, they offered free food, but it was a minimal selection, essentially just a meat dish or a fish dish. They also advertised their in-house-brewed wine with an offer that allowed you to have all you could drink for 60 minutes. The wine wasn’t very good. I want to see the airline passenger who can drink “as much as possible” in just one hour!
I had been in the Osaka airport during my Japanese baseball adventures. That was a vital airport to use during my quest to see a baseball game at each of the 12 Japanese Major League ballparks.
Do go here.
The airport has one of those special cheesecake places, Rikuro’s, where they make it all in front of you. This cheesecake is made from cream cheese imported from Denmark. I couldn’t pass up something like this. I convinced Carol we needed to get a full-sized cheesecake.
This was a very nice surprise.
Soon, we are off on our flight from Osaka to Tokyo. The highlight of that flight was getting an outstanding view of Mount Fuji. Just a couple of months ago, I had been in Japan. I took an all-day tour of Mount Fuji, but I didn’t get near the view we saw from the airplane today.
This one was puzzling.
Carol met a Japanese woman on the plane. They talked and struck up a friendship. The woman seemed like a nice person. As a woman of about fifty, she looked normal. Later on, some of her behavior started to weird us out.
When we got off the plane, we exchanged email addresses per her request. I thought that would be the end of it. We would never see her again.
Then we started getting messages from “RIE” asking if we might like to get together. We didn’t reply to those emails. Later, we got a message asking when we might be leaving the airport to return home. We didn’t respond. Afterward, Rie told us she had gone to the airport with a gift to give us, but “with all the people, I couldn’t find you”. I have absolutely no idea what this was all about.
Standard hotel room vs. suite?
We would be staying in the Hyatt Regency – Tokyo Bay, located outside the center of Tokyo. Hyatt hotels frequently upgrade me to a suite, and they provided us with a nice one at the Hyatt Regency Tokyo Bay. When your hotel room has multiple bathrooms, multiple TVs, and multiple phones, you know you’re doing pretty well.
I have now stayed at the Hyatt Regency Tokyo Bay on four different occasions. I get to Japan pretty often.
The Regency Club.
This Hyatt features a friendly Regency Club that serves food and alcohol, as well as a tremendous buffet breakfast. All of this is complimentary for people with the status I have with Hyatt. Others pay about 40 bucks.
The buffet breakfast at the Hyatt Regency Tokyo Bay is outstanding. They even have a pancake machine, similar to those found in Alaska Airlines’ clubs. That’s just cool.
Carol and I went for a walk along Tokyo Bay in the evening. That was a relaxing way to end what had been a long travel day.
The Hyatt Regency Tokyo Bay is a little out of the way, but I like it a lot.
Sumo!
A couple of years ago, Carol and I went to a sumo wrestling tournament in Tokyo. There are six of these tournaments held in Japan each year. Three of them happen in Tokyo. Sumo wrestling tournaments last for 15 days. Tickets are tough to get.
GetYoutGuide gets it done all over the world.
I have discovered that “GetYourGuide” is a nice way to get sumo wrestling tickets…and lots of other stuff as well. GYG is an online travel agency of sorts. It’s not easy to get these sumo tickets, and it’s a bit expensive. Sumo wrestling tickets are highly sought after by locals and visitors alike. I picked up a couple of tickets for us.
Managing the learning curve.
This morning, we hopped on a train headed to the sumo wrestling location. Since we had done this one other time, there was a slightly less steep learning curve. Things were a lot easier to navigate.
Give me a hole-in-the-wall eatery anytime.
We stopped in a Japanese hole-in-the-wall type restaurant for lunch before the big wrestling event. Several sumo wrestlers were actually having their lunch right next to us.
As we wandered around with a bit of time to spare, we stumbled upon a Japanese cemetery. There were numerous narrow but tall granite monuments marking the graves.
Sumo details.
Each sumo wrestler wrestles just once per day. That’s fifteen bouts during the entire tournament. Based on the points they accrue by winning, their status is elevated to bigger and bigger matches in future tournaments…or not. If you’ve never seen a sumo wrestler up close, their appearance is a little bit unusual.
They will be wearing a kimono of sorts, accompanied by flip-flops. Their hair will be slicked back into a ponytail. There will be a man who is typically about 6’4″ tall and weighs in at more than 300 pounds. Yes, women do this too, but I’ve never seen it.
No smoking.
There is very little smoking in Japan. Occasionally, you will see an outdoor smoking area. These special locations have tall glass walls with no roof. I believe smoking is a very nasty habit. I have never smoked a cigarette in my life. I cringe at the smoking lounges I see at airports that cram about 25 people into a small space with everyone smoking. That’s got to ruin your clothes for a lifetime.
What’s the plan with sumo?
Sumo wrestling is done in a relatively small ring, measuring fifteen feet across. The two wrestlers go through a large number of gyrations, all of which mean something to them, and then go at each other.
The first person to get knocked to the ground or out of the ring is the loser. Sometimes these matches last only five or six seconds. It is rare for a sumo match to last more than 30 seconds. Again, these individuals undergo all their training and get to wrestle only once a day, and that match can be very brief.
Tickets for these matches often sell out in advance. The arena is beautiful. Much of the local crowd knows exactly who each wrestler is, their background, and the fans keep a scorecard to record the results. Even if you don’t think you would be a sumo wrestling fan, I highly recommend this outing.
My sumo buddy.
When the matches were over, we hopped on the train. Another sumo wrestler was right behind us. He seemed like a friendly guy and didn’t mind my taking his picture. What was unusual was his breathing rate. He was taking a breath about every second. I thought he was going to collapse from all of the effort.
This is most helpful.
Japanese restaurants will display their entrées in their store windows. I don’t know how they manage to make the food look so realistic. Nevertheless, it really helps an American consumer decide exactly what they want to have for their meal.
I like to buy stuff more than Carol likes to buy stuff, but she will buy stuff if I make her.
Carol and I rode the train over to the Yodobashi Camera – Akiba electronic store. Don’t let the word “camera” in their name fool you. This is not a “camera” store. To the best of my knowledge, this is the largest electronic store in the world. Electronics by themselves are a tiny part of the store’s business. They have literally everything from cosmetics to golf clubs to luggage to grocery store food to restaurants, like I say, everything.
We were in the market for a new piece of luggage. Yodabashi has a wide assortment of luggage. We had one huge rolling piece of luggage on this trip that we’ve had for at least 10 years. It’s held up well, but we knew that its future lifespan had to be limited.
We ended up replacing our old “blue bag” with a new hard-shell “silver bag.” We’d never had a hard shell piece of luggage, and we weren’t sure that was a good idea. But, you have to live on the wild side, right?
One of the drawbacks to visiting the Yodobashi Akiba store is that, although they have literally hundreds of sales personnel, they all speak very little English. Most Japanese speak very little English. I purchased a top-of-the-line Bose headset during my last visit here, which I absolutely love.
Yes, comical when you think about it.
Communicating with the luggage salesman was a challenge. It was just fun because it was so comically difficult. Anyway, we bought a nice piece of luggage at a good price. We will end up donating the old, loyal “Blue bag” before we return home.
Screenshot
Don’t leave home without it.
I am reminded that we continue to use the SUICA card. If you visit Japan, you must obtain and use this card. It’s pretty much the same as Apple Pay. You can add money from your Suica card in a matter of seconds. It works virtually everywhere.
We come here to see the sights.
Each day when we travel, especially abroad, we try to have at least one touring attraction to keep us entertained. Sometimes we have two or three.
Highly recommended.
For today, we relaxed until the evening. Using Get Your Guide, I signed us up for a boat cruise down the Samaira River. It was officially called the “Tokyo Dinner Cruise & Traditional Performance & Tokyo Tower”. Our cruise would depart just before sunset, which is an ideal time to take in the beautiful skyline of Tokyo.
This boat cruise also included dinner for the 20 people on board. Each person had their own hot plate at their table. The boat staff had specially prepared iron skillets filled with meat and vegetables. Each person got to cook their own meal.
They also had live music from native artists on board. After dinner and the music was finished, we all went to the top deck of the ship to observe the skyline.
After taking the boat ride, which I highly recommend, we headed to the Tokyo Tower. This is a very popular tourist attraction. If you’re going to do it, I think doing it after dark is a good idea. We had some outstanding views of the skyscrapers that dominate Tokyo’s cityscape.
When’s the trackchasing? It’s today!
This morning, we rode the Tokyo train system over to the location of today’s Formula E auto race in Tokyo. It was raining!
Coming into this trip, I have seen racing at 3,074 tracks in 89 countries. This was the sixth track I’ve seen all over Japan.
Fun to have such great friends in Japan.
We will be joining up with our two young Japanese friends, Gakuto and Megumi, to watch the race. They had never ever been to an auto race. I was excited to show them how things worked.
Lockers can be your friends.
We also had some gifts that we brought back from the United States for these two. We ended up storing those gifts in a locker near the race track. After finishing the racing and heading for dinner, we retrieved those gifts. There are lots of lockers in Japan. If you don’t want to drag something along, the lockers are easy and inexpensive to use.
The weather this morning was a little bit iffy. It was raining lightly. Rain would not affect the racing. This type of street course racing happens rain or shine.
It all came from a bullet train.
Soon, we met up with Gakuto and Megumi and went about exploring. I first met Gakuto on a bullet train. He befriended a somewhat “lost” American. Since then, I’ve had dinner with him and his wife in Tokyo. They have even visited us at our home in San Clemente. Amazingly, our friendship came from one chance encounter on a Japanese bullet train!
Formula E racing, our way.
One of the best things to do at one of these big races is just to explore. Arrive early and take it all in. Just try to see as much as you can see, whether or not you are a racing fan or not.
With the rain, they were using a huge indoor convention center-type building. Inside were hundreds, if not thousands, of people grabbing a quick snack or lunch at a series of picnic tables. It was hard to find a seat.
I had purchased our tickets months ago. The tickets we had included the opportunity to meet the drivers, talk to them, get an autograph if you wanted, and take a photo. That was fun.
Me? An opportunist?
One of the Formula E TV announcers was interviewing the drivers. You could call me an opportunist. Carol does. I slipped the interviewer my business card and made a quick comment. Soon, he was interviewing me for Formula E TV as the World’s #1 Trackchaser.
The surprises just kept coming. Next up was a short concert by the leading Japanese music group, Bakufu-Slump. Although I had never heard of them or knew anything about their music, they were enjoyable to listen to. By the way, there were almost no non-Japanese people at the track today.
The building was so huge that they even had a temporary track where kids could race go-karts. They also had another display of cars that young engineering students built. The vehicles were electric powered.
By the time the race began in late afternoon, most of the rain, but not all, had stopped. We had great seats overlooking the starting grid. By the time the race began at 4:05 p.m., the stands were packed. These were not the best weather conditions, but we had to work with them.
These Formula E electric car races are short. Usually only about fifty (50) minutes, depending upon whether or not there have been any significant yellow or red flag periods.
Not my favorite.
Watching racing on a street course is my least preferred type of track to visit. However, if I were going to see my sixth different track in Japan, it was going to be on a street course here in the middle of Tokyo.
When the races were finished, we headed over to the lockers where we had stored our gifts. We picked them up and went to dinner.
Food is essential on these trips!
Megumi and Gakuto were treating us to dinner at a very nice Japanese restaurant. It was helpful to have their expert advice on what might be the best option to order. The entire meal was capped off with a delicious dessert of crème brûlée.
If you plan to spend a lot of time using the trains in Japan, as you likely will, you’ll need a reliable smartphone. You’ll be able to use Google Maps to tell you what train to get, how long to ride the train, and all of the other essential details. One of the trains we used after dinner was also heading to the airport. It was interesting to see all of these people on board the train with their large pieces of luggage.
There were still more unusual things to experience in Tokyo.
We were meeting up with our Japanese friends again today. The meeting point would be at a train station. We arrived early to see several young men offering rickshaw rides to tourists. Carol and I have done that in the past. Taking a rickshaw ride should be on everyone’s bucket list.
After our meet-up, and just by random luck, a series of massive parades appeared. We spent a considerable amount of time watching these people, who numbered in the thousands, participate in the parades. We had no idea what they were celebrating, but they were celebrating.
Carol and I had a Japanese dance attraction, scheduled by Get Your Guide, for later in the evening. If you plan to do this, the attraction is officially called the “Tokyo: Japanese Dance Cabaret Theatre Awakusa Kaguwa Ticket.” No, I don’t expect you to remember that.
Enjoying the company of Megumi and Gakuto.
We had just enough time to grab a drink and a snack with Megumi and Gakuto. However, finding a good place to sit down wasn’t easy. You might never guess where we ended up.
McDonald’s! I don’t know that Carol, Megumi, or Gakuto had ever walked into a McDonald’s on their own in the past. That might explain their slight physiques. I don’t have a slight physique, but I visit McDonald’s more often than almost anyone in America. What can we learn from this?
Both Gakuto and Megumi are young enough to be our children. What do we have in common? I think we all enjoy the opportunity to hang out with people from a different culture. The cultures of Japan and the United States are very different. It’s fun to learn about what makes us different and, at the same time, what makes us so similar. We will very much look forward to the next time we get to see Gakuto and Megumi!
See you next time!
When we parted ways with our friends, we all agreed we had had a great time getting together for the past couple of days. We’ve been able to do that several times with Gakuto and Megumi, both in Japan and at our home in San Clemente, California.
All you can drink!
Our next stop was a nightclub of sorts, where we would see a series of Japanese dramatic dances. I always buy the upgraded tickets that include special items, and tonight that included an all-you-can-drink package. Why not? I was riding a train and not driving.
I dined on rich plum liquor, a lemon sour, and a fuzzy navel. After drinking all of that, I can’t recall what Carol drank. We’re not huge drinkers, but when you’re in Tokyo, and you’ve got the all-you-can-drink package, why not?
Rules. I’m not good with rules.
The dancing was exotic, entertaining, and unusual. At the start of the show, an announcement was made stating that no video recording was allowed by audience members. Photos were OK. I take announcements like that as simply “recommendations”. I figure I can videotape until someone tells me not to. Eventually, someone did tell me not to, so that slowed me down just a little bit.
All over town.
You may have heard of Shohei Ohtani, the Major League Baseball pitcher. Shohei is from Japan. He used to play for my Los Angeles Angels and now has switched over to J.J.’s Los Angeles Dodgers. Everywhere you go in Japan, and I’m talking about ads for as many as 10 different brands, you will see Shohei Ohtani in the photo.
Yodobashi? Again?
Believe it or not, we made a third stop at the Yodobashi Akiba electronics store. Why? We had already purchased all the goods we expected to transport back to the United States.
Dinner! Just eating on the top floor at Yodobashi is a real treat. They have nearly 20 restaurants representing a wide range of cuisines. Trust me, these restaurants are all unique and outstanding.
Next up, we went back to the trains to get ourselves home to the Hyatt Regency Tokyo Bay. There’s one thing that’s very important to understand when riding Japanese trains. You’re going to walk a lot. You’re going to walk a lot up and down stairs. If you don’t walk at least 5 miles during a day, and maybe closer to ten, that would surprise me.
I never like the last day of the trip.
Today was getaway day. Time to pack everything up and head on down the road, so to speak. We bought a few things that added to our already stuffed checked bags, and to make matters worse, we had purchased a new checked bag! I can’t say that very often. We were leaving from Narita airport. We had arrived at Haneda Airport.
Good choice.
We stopped in one of Narita’s Priority Pass lounges. This one was outstanding. Priority Pass is an excellent value. It comes as a benefit with several different credit cards, many of which have very low annual fees.
First time ever. Zip Air.
We would be flying home on Zip Air. Zip Air is a discount airline. We paid approximately $450 per person for the one-way flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles. That’s a steal.
The trip of a lifetime.
The flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles, with the prevailing winds, was less than 10 hours long. Less than ten hours to go to Japan? With just a 10-12-hour flight each way, Carol and I could go to Tokyo for a long weekend! Don’t laugh. I once left Los Angeles late on Thursday night for Sydney, Australia, and returned home on Monday. I usually ask myself just one question when planning a trip like that. Why not? Remember, my objective is to embark on a journey of a lifetime every month, and I do.
I hope you enjoyed reading about our tour around Osaka and Tokyo. We did a lot. Some experiences were better than expected, while others fell short, notably the Osaka Expo.
I’ve visited Japan five times in the past couple of years. I may slow down with Japan a bit. Maybe only one visit next year. Other locations are calling. When other locations call, I try to answer.
さようなら.
Randy and his attractive young sidekick, Carol.