Tokyo 2010 - Day 1 - Shinjuku

Our overnight flight to Tokyo on JAL was smooth and uneventful. Taking an overnight flight is really really tiring especially to Tokyo which is only around 6.5 hours from Singapore. Which means you're only likely to get a max of 4 hours of sleep if any at all. Then when you arrive you still need to take a 1.5 hour express train ride to the city center. When you're on the train you probably don't want to sleep either if it's your first trip to Tokyo cos you'll be afraid you miss out some sights. Then when you get to the city center you're probably not allowed to check in until 2pm. So you'll be walking around like a zombie unless you're shot up on Caffeine.

Our flight departed at 10.40pm. We had expected a late dinner or supper on the plane. But no, there was only a packet of shortbread biscuits and drinks!! Lucky we ate already. Weird thing was they gave the kids a cheese and tuna sandwich. And what was even more surprising was there were no kids' activity packs! Major disappointment since Cathay Pacific one was so great. The only 'toys' they had was a sticker, pack of origami paper or deck of cards!

Then when morning came, breakfast was okay-ish. Adults' one was Chinese style porridge and side dish of tamago (sweet egg omelet) and pickles, cold soba noodles, and fruits. Kids one was great! Had a cmuffin, tub of yogurt, omelet with hash browns and peas and gravy. As well as fruits and salad and granola bar and chocolate milk!!

Upon arriving at Narita Airport we went to take the Narita Express Train to Shinjuku. Our initial plan had been to take the airport limo bus direct to our hotel in Shinjuku but luckily I double checked before we left and found out that there is no bus there till 2pm. And we arrived at like 7am. When you get out to the arrival Hall there are helpdesks that sell tickets for the limo bus or the NEX (Narita Express). If you plan on getting on the NEX tho, don't buy your ticket there, go down to the station and buy from the JR East ticket counter because for 3500Yen you can get a  one way ticket on the NEX & Suica card with a value of 1500Yen (500Yen deposit). The Suica is like Singapore's Ezlink card and HK's Octopus Card. Can be used on vending machines an for travel on the trains. It is much more convenient than buying individual tickets all the time and you can easily top it up and get the refund and deposit back (minus 250Yen) at the end of your trip. Children under 6 are free and it is numbered seating.

The Express train ride took about 1.5 hours to reach Shinjuku. The ride was interesting, looking out the window you can see the scenery change from rice paddies to Japanese houses, to apartment blocks. Once we arrived at Shinjuku, we were a little lost. Should we turn left or should we turn right? Eventually we made it to Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku. We left our luggages there and went to explore Takashimaya Times Square. Went crazy at the Food Hall in the basement. Only down side is there is no place to sit down at the Food Hall to eat the food you/ve just bought, Just as we were about to give up hope we luckily went to Level 12 and found a place we could sit down and eat our food.

Our friend also gave us a great tip about buying our Disney tickets in advance from the Disney Store at Level 9 of Takashimaya Square so we can avoid the snaking queues at the ticket booths at the park. Although our Disney partner hotel also has ticket sales we didn't want to risk it till we went there on the day because after having experienced a ticket sell out at Universal Studios Singapore we were also worried that we'd also experience the same for Tokyo Disney. Imagine coming all this way only to be told that tickets had been sold out for the day.

After lunch we went back to our hotel to rest. The hotel room is small but cosy as to be expected for Tokyo. The interesting thing was we had to take our own toothbrush, razors, shower caps, etc from the baskets at the lobby. They must really not care about how many people would take. Nearby the hotel there are also lots of shops and eateries.

After we had our naps we then spent the rest of the evening exploring Shinjuku and even managed to somehow end up at the infamous Kabukicho. We almost went down the alley without knowing where we were heading, but realised quickly enough that this was no place to bring a child to and quickly made a u-turn out.

NEXT - Tokyo 2010 Day 2 - Asakusa & Odaiba