G’day!
We departed Shanghai today at midday and flew into Narita International Airport, landing at around 3:30pm local time.
A brief note: we decided to change plans, and now we will be joining Will and Paul in Sapporo on the northern island of Hokkaido from January 21st to 26th. Flights and accommodation were confirmed after we landed in Tokyo. We’ll go snowboarding!
After heading through customs and immigration, we hit the ATM for some local Yen, also grabbing some adapters and then took the airport express (after a half hour wait) and rode it right into Shinjuku district.
From landing until we stepped out to the road near our hotel, it took about three hours – and with the exception of about 45 minutes or so at the airport, the rest was all on the go. Shows you how big the distance is between Tokyo and Narita!
Capsule Hotel
We met up with Paul and checked into the capsule hotel. Toni is staying in the separate woman’s dorm on level 7, and the guys (Paul, Will and I) are on level 8. We each have a capsule(very large), a locker, and some personal space. It’s quite comfy and quite inexpensive!
After dumping our stuff we, hit the subway and headed back to Shinjuku station – apparently the largest subway station on the world. We got a bit lost trying to find the right exit, and then finding the restaurant nearby. We ended up an hour late for our 7pm reservation.
Dan, myself, Paul and Toni
Dan Crowley Wilson (former Readify colleague, current Tokyo resident) joined us for a very interesting meal. Paul had researched and found a restaurant which is renown for cooking seafood. Very particular seafood. Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of moral issues with this, but we ate whale. Not the endangered version, but whale nonetheless.
The particular whale we ate / parts of the whale which are consumed
It was served as bite sized pieces and I was surprised to say I found it very nice. Certainly a very Japan-centric dish, and worth trying once. We also ate puffer fish – the second most poisonous vertebrae on Earth – and also a popular Japanese delicacy. We also had whale sashimi hot pot where you swirled the raw meat in the hot pot (cooking it) and then eating called shabu-shabu. Later, udon noodles were poured into the hot pot to finish up the meal. We also had a very nice dessert (a yoghurt and sugar dish).
Whale shabu-shabu (hot pot) / puffer fish (fu gu) sashimi
After dinner, Dan headed out, and we walked through the red light district before finding a place which sold crepes. We consumed them and then pretty much retired to the hotel.
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