Arriving at Narita Airport and Enjoying Yakiniku - Day 1 Tokyo Japan Trip

A look at our first day - evening in Tokyo, Japan back in November. We landed at Narita Airport on a late Friday afternoon, and I had a few errands to run prior to being able to leave the airport.

ARRIVING IN JAPAN

We first stopped by the Japan Post office within the airport to pick up a pocket wifi pocket device, once we activated the wifi we met up with friends that came through another international terminal. Although they didn't need a JR rail pass, they still needed an express train ticket to leave the airport to get into the the city. We were greeted by a rep to stand in the JR Rail ticket office line (and fill out paperwork dependent on how we were purchasing our pass - we have JR Rail pass ticket vouchers to redeem). We were in the queue for about 20 minutes before seeing a clerk. It was nice that we could all navigate public transit together - we took the Narita Express "N'EX" to get to Tokyo Station, and once we got off at Tokyo Station....it was a MADHOUSE. I had never experienced anything like it with my experiences with the metro in Seoul, Shanghai, Hong Kong and New York. The mass amounts of people moving around Tokyo Station was like organized chaos. I got overwhelmed since I had a larger bag that I was rolling around and felt like I was getting in the way of commuters, whilst trying to figure out how to get to our connecting line towards our hotel (because there were multiple levels to this station). We finally found the suica card machine so that our friends could get metro passes since they did not have JR rail passes.

CHECKING IN HOTEL

We stayed in Kanda, and our hotel, formerly ICI Hotel Kanda and now known as Hotel Sui Kanda by Abest was about a 5 minute walk from the Kanda station (and close to a 7 Eleven!). We booked a single room, but it featured a double bed. Room space was VERY limited, but both Scott and I have stayed in tiny hotel rooms before where the bed took up most of the square footage. What we liked about our room was the way space was utilized for storage - the bed itself had drawers under the mattress, and the bathroom was actually quite spacious with a tub.

DINNER NIGHT ONE

Checking in was swift, we got settled quickly then decided to walk a couple buildings over to Sho Taian, a yakiniku restaurant. We were a later walk in and so thankful they could accommodate us. I was excited to try everything and anything, for drinks we had a mix of wine, hot sake, and bubbly chuhais/highballs - then had a variety of meat of different beef cuts, (including A5 wagyu beef) seafood and and I even tried raw beef. Everything was SO TASTY! We ended our dinner with melon slices (which were $6 a pop - can you BELIEVE THAT, fruit is a hot commodity over there).