Tokyo - June 12-14

We flew ANA from Seattle to Tokyo Haneda and can highly recommend that airline. Service was wonderful and everything ran to schedule. In Tokyo we took a transfer to our hotel in Roppongi. The hotel was fine, but we were less than impressed by Roppongi. While it bustled and was safe enough to explore in the evening, it was hard to find Japanese restaurants at street level - most restaurants were several floors up which makes it hard to window shop for where to eat. We ended up eating Chinese food the first night and of all place we ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe the second night. Ouch! We did much better through the rest of the trip.

For our whole day in Tokyo on June 13, our guide was Yumiko and she did a great job showing us around her city through a mix of subway rides and a lot of walking. We took in the Sensoji Temple, Namakise area, Meiji Jingu Shrine and (our favorite) the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. For a late lunch, Yumiko took us to a great sushi bar with a pub-like atmosphere and we ate and drank very well.