Today is my last day in Tokyo and today it really is a sticky, muggy and very wet day.
I thought I would relax; leave the guide book and maps in the hotel room and just go with the flow - so with Umbrella in one hand and my iphone in the other I stepped out and into several puddles - so by the time I was about 20 yards away from the hotel - my suade slip ons were wet and so were my tootsies - and I wasn't wearing socks - so I gave it an hour or so before I got a blister.
First things first - I needed to do a recce for the Narita express train to the airport tomorrow - I leave Tokyo at 11.30am and land back in the UK on Tuesday at 3.30pm with Virgin Atlantic - so by all account I need to leave the hotel early- I can catch the Narita Express from the South terminal which is a 2 min walk from my hotel - perfect...so with that sorted...I needed food.
I had a great sleep last night - I snoozed on the bed around 6.30pm and didn't wake up until 10.30am this morning - so I had missed dinner and my stomach was doing its own little rendition of Beethoven's 8th...so I started circumnavigating the subway and quickly realised that I should not have left the hotel without my subway map - what an idiot - I started going in circles - and sure enough my feet were starting to complain bitterly along with my calf muscles which have ached for 2 days..I eventually got on the Hibya line and went to the district of Roppongi - it is TV and Embassy land...and a number of expensive hotels tower over you...there are loads of embassies and I think within 10 minutes I saw more Europeans in Roppongi than I have seen all week...The Coffee morning cliques were out in force with their expensive perambulators and chique european look....no doubt talking utter crap - but doing so with earnest intent.
Roppongi is a nice part of town and I quickly found a great little place to eat in the Roppongi Hills complex which was a new development finished in 2003.....The sushi restaurant was a bit like itsu back at home but more refined....except you get a different welcome when you arrive - all the chefs shout at you to welcome you to their restaurant which caught me off guard and I thought I had done something to insult them...I meekly sat down.....they'd obviously been tuning in to "Kitchen Nightmares" with Gordon Ramsey on cable! It was well appointed - almost posh even - so I sat down -clarified with the waiter where my green tea was - and off I went devouring various mouth watering delicacies off the moving conveyer belt...god it was good - there was a menu in front of me but I didn't care about studying that or having something special made...after several plates I thanked the chefs and moved off to pay - which encouraged a further wave of gratitute and shouting from the chefs...a great little place on B2 level.
I then went to the mori art museum and observation deck high up in the sky overlooking Tokyo - but given the awful weather although it was a spectacular view it would have been better on a clearer day...I came down and went through the mori gardens and gave up fighting the weather...so I headed back to Shinjuku - and I will spend the rest of te afternoon packing before I go and grab some dinner....
My next blog will be from London before I excitedly head off to New York on Thursday and join Alex for a tour around the United States and Canada for the next 3 weeks. Weird - thinking about it...In tokyo today, in London tomorrow, and by the weekend I will be in Toronto getting wet under Niagra Falls! Can't wait!
