Family trip to Japan - Tokyo and ski adventure

[elanshin]

Suica (or any other IC card) works for all train companies in all the major cities. (Not for long distance trains like Shinkansen though)
Not to mention shops and restaurants, lockers, vending machines.... no need to bother with tickets!

My Suica eats all my spare cash at the end of every trip. saves me the hassle of recharging when I land at the airport usually.

 

[rbjhan]

My Suica eats all my spare cash at the end of every trip. saves me the hassle of recharging when I land at the airport usually.

Yes! No need to have all the coins with an IC card.

But I find the machines in 711 better as they take 1 Yen coins too

 

[QF WP]

So it was time to head to our evening destination, but first we found what looked like Smokey the Bear nearby:



A nice light show as a precursor for tonight:



So now back to Tokyo Station for the train ride to Shibuya for the night time lights:



Arrived to a crush of people and work going on around the station, so had to find the best exit.



First stop when we got there was the SkyDeck, to see if we could get up there. Unfortunately, no:





We made sure we crossed over at the busy crossing and then to take photos of the buildings:









Loved the 109 building. Went up all the levels to look at all the female fashion (for my wife and daughter) .



A bit busy tonight on the road:

 

[QF WP]

It was definitely time for dinner. We walked the back alleys to try and find a place that we could find food that we all ate. Went into a couple and checked the ordering machines at the front, but ended up at this restaurant



Ordering was via an iPad and had English subtitles. Thoroughly loved this place and would recommend it. Hope to go back but probably not on this trip.

Fried chicken with rice and a side of fried chicken (my sons favorites);



Udon Noodles with chicken


Curry with rice:



Tempura (seafood and vegetables):



Udon with fried chicken pieces



Then it was time to head back to Shibuya station to connect through Tokyo Station and back to Maihama and connect finally with the Sheraton Shuttle.

At Tokyo Station, follow the JE road:

 

[Captain Halliday]

If you’re still around Shibuya, or returning later, the third floor of Starbucks is a good free alternative to the sky deck for watching the scramble crossing.

 

[markis10]

The tempura vegetables has a tail!

 

[Captain Halliday]

You may have your Tokyo plans locked in @QF WP but my TR from a few years back might give you some ideas.

Thread 'A milestone birthday OW award'

Sep 10, 2018

As some of you may know, Mrs H is celebrating a milestone birthday this year. She’s just turned 21 (+228 months).

But not satisfied to celebrate on the day, Mrs H likes to spread the festivities out over an entire month. This year the celebration will last around seven weeks.

Among her requests to mark the occasion: trips to Japan, Hawaii and for me to do my first TR. Okay, one of those is a fib, but a milestone should be recorded right?

So, following are some mostly true tales about our trip as we celebrate the Festival of Mrs H!

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[QF WP]

Final item in my list for the night was changing some AUD for JPY, as we had a day of travelling ahead tomorrow and needed cash.

The Sheraton has a Foreign Exchange ATM. Perfect







Well that was a busy day walking:

 

[trendwhore]

Trip looks great. You may not care but that exchange rate is pretty bad and you can get cash out from regular ATMs for cheaper. I use bankwest card specifically for doing that as it cancels the exchange rate fee.

Also @rbjhan (or anyone else that may benefit from the info) it is possible to use Suica on some of the shinkansen via smart-EX app, which you can use in english. Then you don't have to deal with losing tickets or whatever (this sucks).