Tokyo story

I love travelling, and many years ago I made up my mind that, one day, I would visit Japan. Since I only get a certain number of Annual Leave days each year, unfortunately I cannot do as much travelling as I would like to! Though for financial reasons, that is probably a good thing!

So it was on a sunny Friday morning in September that I flew out from Dublin Airport via BMI to Heathrow then Virgin Atlantic to Narita Airport, which is actually about 60 kilometres from Tokyo city centre. To compare, imagine if Dublin Airport was actually located at Dunleer in County Louth.

Heathrow to Narita is about twelve hours; beforehand I was definitely looking forward to the in-flight entertainment, with so many hours of audio and TV/movies to pass the time, but even about half way through the flight, I started to get tired of all this.

Tired was the appropriate word, and I landed in Tokyo about 0800 local time. Then you have several train options into town. I chose the Keisei Skyliner train which would have left me about a ten minute walk from my chosen hotel, the Sutton Place Ueno Hotel.

I have no problem recommending this place to anybody, but a word of warning. Tokyo is huge, loud and noisy. Despite the Sutton Place having double-glazed windows, my room was on the street side, and I admit I could not sleep properly for either Saturday or Sunday night. Perhaps the jet-lag was also a factor, but one did not help the other. So my advice if you ever go to Tokyo is bring a pair of earplugs. They made a huge difference, and I was able to get some good sleep with them.

So here is actually the first photo I took in Tokyo: the pavement quite close to the hotel.



And here is the second:



More to follow!