Day 2: 12/25/13 Tsukiji fish market, Roppongi, Park Hyatt Tokyo, Kichijoji

Getting to Japan: Bos-yyz-bru: curse you mother nature
Getting to Japan: Munich -Tokyo (airlines & lounges)
Day 1: 12/24/13 Hyatt Regency Tokyo, N'ex & suica cards, Shinjuku
Day 2: 12/25/13 Tsukiji fish market, Park Hyatt Tokyo,  Roppongi, Kichijoji
Day 3: 12/26/13 Room Service,  Club on the Park, Akihabara
Day 4: 12/27/2013 Girondole buffet, Yokohama Ramen museum Meiji Shrine, Shibuya, Gold Rush
Day 5: 12/28.2013 Biking through Yoyogi Park, Harajuku, Shibuya, New York Bar
Day 6: 12/29/2013 Harajuku & Shibuya Shopping, Ramen alley, Hyatt Regency Kyoto
Day 7: 12/30/2013 Kyoto, Good Samaritan Tours
Day 8: 12/31/2013 New Years Eve, Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kaiten Sushi NYE Traditions
Day 9: 1/1/2014 New Years = Black Friday Maddness, No place to eat!
European stopover: Zurich, Park Hyatt Zurich, Brussels, Delays

Jet lag plagued our trip. That's why we woke up around 4am on Christmas morning. We actually didn't get over the jet lag until close to the end of the trip (annoying). Knowing we would be victims of jet lag, we decided to use that to our advantage and check out Tsukiji Fish Market. Tsukiji is known for it's famous tuna auction which you generally need to get to before 5am to attend. Unfortunately, the few weeks in December leading up to the New Year holiday is insanely busy for Tsukiji, so foreigners are not allowed to even attend.  That's okay, we weren't interested in the auction anyway.  No, what drove us to leave our beds at 4am was the tales of the freshest sushi you'll ever have.

The concierge desk was not surprised at all to hear that we were heading to Tsukiji at that hour. He was so kind as to print out information on the market for us and hail us a taxi.

All taxis had doors that automatically opened or closed at the drivers control

Note that the trains don't run until around 5-6 o clock. We wanted to get there early to get acclimated with the market and and beat any lines we were heard that form for the sushi restaurants. The taxi fair was not cheap even with hardly any traffic on the road! 4500yen=$45 ouch.  But that was our second day in Tokyo, we hadn't even attempted to look at how to use the train yet. We sure as heck weren't going to start at 4am.  Whatever time we thought we would save by taking the taxi, was probably lost because we were so turned around inside the market.  It's REALLY difficult to find the good sushi restaurants if you don't know where you're going! I can't even describe how confusing it was. The best advice I can give you is to pull up a picture of the restaurant's Japanese characters and ask someone if they know where it is.  That's exactly what we did.  People are so kind! We should have done that in the beginning! We lost probably 45 mins - 1 hour wandering in circles. D'oh!

Let me explain that the two best sushi restaurants at Tsukiji are Sushi Dai and Daiwa Sushi. Arguably, Sushi Dai is more popular and thus ALWAYS has a longer line. We thought Sushi Dai was closed Wednesday (darn you internet!), so our goal was to eat at Daiwa that first day.  We quickly realized that by 5:45, the line to get to Sushi Dai was already 100+ ppl deep. Luckily, the line at Daiwa was considerably shorter.

We waited maybe 45 mins.  You get a choice of two set meals. You've waited that long, get the pricier set! The meals give you 5 pieces of nigiri sushi (predetermined by the chef), miso soup and hot green tea. A wonderful way to start off Christmas!

Uni, egg and salmon roll

Fatty tuna *drool* oh yeahhhhh

Can't remember what this was but it was yummy!

Chef bar, the restaurant was literally that small

After stuffing our face with delectable sushi, we were ready to explore other parts of the city.  It was around 7:30am when we finished.  We trained it over to Roppongi.

Spider statue

Being the true American Tourist that I am, I was so impressed with some of the architecture. Look at this awesome house!
What is it you ask?

A dental office. LOL Such a noob.

We had a nice break at a coffee shop where I called my family back home to wish them a Merry Christmas. It was still x-mas eve at home, but it was xmas where I was.

We headed back to the hotel, picked up some awesome Japanese breads and cakes in the station.  We hit up the Regency Club with amazing views of Mt. Fuji and tea.

Little did I know my views would only be getting better. Next, it was off to transfer/check-in to the best hotel I've ever stayed at, Park Hyatt Tokyo (PHT). We probably could have walked it from the Regency to PHT, but we had a lot of luggage and kinda wanted to arrive in style. lol.

The check-in process is one of the coolest I've ever experienced. Stepping out of the cab, we were greeted by a welcoming staff who asked for the last name of the reservation. The staff took our bags and we were escorted upstairs - PHT starts at the 41st level of the building - to what I perceived was the lobby area. At the lobby area, we were met by an older staff member who quickly welcomed us and brought us to another elevator bank. While in the elevator, he went over the details of our stay (# of nights, hyatt status, # ppl staying in the room, etc). We got off the elevator, taking out keys, he opened the door TO OUR ROOM! That's right, the check in process was done in our hotel room. No lobby counter to stand in front of.  No lines to wait behind. Personal check in service directly to your room.  Apparently, when we gave the reservation name at the taxi area, they called up to the lobby to have someone waiting for us. Wow. Smooth. Without further ado, here is our amazing suite room including amazing panoramic views of Mt. Fuji.

At this point, all I wanted to do was take a nice long cat nap - we were at by 3am! But no, D wasn't satisfied taking it easy. Too much to do! We decided to visit Kichijoji which is a little town just outside of the Tokyo center area.

It was highly recommended to us by D's sister who had previously studying abroad and taught English for a year in Japan.  Of all the restaurants D's sister recommended to us, we were most excited about eat at Satou Steakhouse which serves matsuzaka wagyu, considered one of the best steak in the world. Kichijoji was very cute with all of it's streets and shops crowded together.

We found the Satou steakhouse about 10 minutes before it re-opened for dinner at 5pm. We were the first in line, patiently waiting.  Normally, you can get a set of strip steak for 10000 yen = $100, which includes the steak (120 grams? I forget the exact amount), mixed grilled veggies, miso soup, salad, all you can eat rice.  However, because it was Christmas, they were offering the set for a discounted price of 7000 yen = $70  including a glass of sparkling wine (yay!).  The waitress brought the raw meat for me specifically to photograph. Look at how pretty!

Just look at that amazing marbling yummmm

And here, the deliciousness ready for me to feast on. People, this was the best steak I've ever had in my life. There's nothing else to say except that. This steak has ruined me for any future steak I'll eat.

After finishing our delicious dinner, we walked around Kichijoji a bit.  I wish I wasn't so full because there were such cute shops and restaurants.  We walked around and did a bit of shopping. We ended our exploration with a nice 30 minute shiatsu massage, which totally made me fall asleep lol.  After that, I knew it was time to go back to PHT and get some shut eye.

Day 1: 12/24/13 Hyatt Regency Tokyo, N'ex & suica cards, Shinjuku

Getting to Japan: Bos-yyz-bru: curse you mother nature
Getting to Japan: Munich -Tokyo (airlines & lounges)
Day 1: 12/24/13 Hyatt Regency Tokyo, N'ex & suica cards, Shinjuku
Day 2: 12/25/13 Park Hyatt Tokyo, Tsukiji fish market, Roppongi, Kichijoji
Day 3: 12/26/13 Room Service,  Club on the Park, Akihabara
Day 4: 12/27/2013 Girondole buffet, Yokohama Ramen museum Meiji Shrine, Shibuya, Gold Rush
Day 5: 12/28.2013 Biking through Yoyogi Park, Harajuku, Shibuya, New York Bar
Day 6: 12/29/2013 Harajuku & Shibuya Shopping, Ramen alley, Hyatt Regency Kyoto
Day 7: 12/30/2013 Kyoto, Good Samaritan Tours
Day 8: 12/31/2013 New Years Eve, Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kaiten Sushi NYE Traditions
Day 9: 1/1/2014 New Years = Black Friday Maddness, No place to eat!
European stopover: Zurich, Park Hyatt Zurich, Brussels, Delays

After our crazy journey, I could not wait to start my journey in Japan. We arrived around 3:30 in the afternoon. Our first stop was at the Airport Post Office.  No, we were not mailing anything home.  We were picking up one of the best travel resource in Japan, a pocket portable wi-fi device (see more).  I don't know how people navigate the urban jungle which is Tokyo without it. We had the pocket wifi with us and sometimes we would still walk around in circles. Next, we changed dollars to yen at the currency exchange, which had a pretty good exchange rate.

Finally, on our way to the big city buying a ticket on the narita express train and a suica card. The suica cards are equivalent to "charlie cards" in Boston. Basically, load money on it and hop on any of the trains in Tokyo.  What's neat is that it also doubles as a debit card of sorts.

All vending machines and some merchants in the stations can deduct money from suica cards. Speaking of vending machines, here's my first encounter with the awesome vending machines in Japan. Plus a look at how clean and modern the trains are in Tokyo.

It took us about 1 hour to get from the airport to the center of Tokyo.  We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Tokyo which is located in the Shinjuku Area - which is basically in the heart of Tokyo. It's like staying in mid-town New York, but I swear so much more people! Shinjuku station is so vast.

You can walk literally city blocks from one exit to another. Great advice we received was to always look up what exit is closest to you preferred destination. Of course our first time trying to navigate through Shinjuku, we were totally turned around!  We were trying to find the stop where the Hyatt Regency shuttle picks us up from Shinjuku station. It must have taken us at least half an hour to find even the right direction! I can't stress how much of an urban jungle Tokyo's neighborhoods are. My feet and legs were muy tired by the time we finally got to the shuttle bus stop.  Thankful, that we didn't have to walk the rest of the way to the hotel lugging our bags.  It may have been another 20 minute walk, but I was done.

Lobby performance while we were checking in on xmas eve

I feel bad, I didn't take many pictures of the Hyatt Regency. I have a few excuses (fatigue, camera battery ran out of power, forgetfulness), but it still stinks.  We were only staying one night, thinking we would return later on in our trip.  But alas, openings for our dates at the Park Hyatt Tokyo robbed me of an extra change to photograph more Regency pics. (Sorry!)  They have a really beautiful chandelier in the lobby area.   Check in was quick (arrival around (6:00PM). We were escorted up to our room by an attendant who brought our luggage up. He did a nice introduction of the room and how to use some of the electronics (electronic shades, lighting, etc). The rooms were stocked with great amenities: 2 robes, 2 pairs of slippers, toothbrush&paste, compact hairbrush, razor &cream, etc.  Suffice to say, I was very happy with my room.

We were famished by the time we finished check-in. I think because I was so well fed on my way to Tokyo (lounges, in-fight meals etc), my metabolic system was in high gear. I was downright hangry (hungry + angry).  The downside of the Regency's location is that it's not directly in the heart of the Shinjuku area -which is good for noise level, but less so for wanting a quick bite to eat in front of the hotel. We walked around but that evening was particularly cold, around low 30s with wind. So we quickly hurried to the closest mall/dining area we saw. We wanted something quick because we were pretty jet lagged at this point. We found an udon noodle shop - everything was in Japanse, but with pictures and prices! I basically pointed to a picture with udon soup and beef. The chef behind the counter pointed to a picture of an egg and asked, "half cooked"? "YES!!!" We slid our trays along the counter and there was a variety of tempura pieces available to add to our udon. D got shrimp tempura and I picked up what I thought was chicken tempura. It turned out to be some sort of potato... blah not what I was expecting.  The whole meal was less than 1300yen = $13. So cheap! The udon was so tender.  Once we broke the runny egg yolk and mixed it in with various other free toppings (scallions, ginger, tempura bits), it was sooooo delicious.

Udon with beef, deep fried potato and half boiled egg

Udon with egg and shrimp tempura 

We finished dinner and basically ran back to the hotel.  The temperature dropped and the wind really picked up. We couldn't keep our eyes open any longer and hit the sack around 8ish - dreams of sushi in the morning floating through my mind.

Bos- Montreal-Brussels (curse you mother nature)

This is a multi-part trip review of our trip to Japan using miles & points to fund our trip.  The main purpose of these posts is reflection.  But, it's also a way to share with my family and friends all the minute details we enjoyed along the way. As much as I love re-telling the trip face-to-face, it would be way too long! Plus memory is failing me already.  Hope you enjoy this recount while it's still fresh in my mind.

Getting to Japan: Bos-yyz-bru: curse you mother nature
Getting to Japan: Munich -Tokyo (airlines & lounges)
Day 1: 12/24/13 Hyatt Regency Tokyo, N'ex & suica cards, Japan Rail Pass, Shinjuku
Day 2: 12/25/13 Park Hyatt Tokyo, Tsukiji fish market, Roppongi, Kichijoji
Day 3: 12/26/13 Room Service,  Club on the Park, Akihabara
Day 4: 12/27/2013 Girondole buffet, Yokohama Ramen museum Meiji Shrine, Shibuya, Gold Rush
Day 5: 12/28.2013 Biking through Yoyogi Park, Harajuku, Shibuya, New York Bar
Day 6: 12/29/2013 Harajuku & Shibuya Shopping, Ramen alley, Hyatt Regency Kyoto
Day 7: 12/30/2013 Kyoto, Good Samaritan Tours
Day 8: 12/31/2013 New Years Eve, Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kaiten Sushi NYE Traditions
Day 9: 1/1/2014 New Years = Black Friday Maddness, No place to eat!
European stopover: Zurich, Park Hyatt Zurich, Brussels, Delays

I'll admit it. I'm an airline snob. You might have gleamed that from my previous post when I mentioned we wanted to try as many business class flights and lounges as possible. For expedience sake, I'm going to use airport acronyms for short. Boston (bos), Montreal (yyz), Brussels (bru), Zurich (zrh), Tokyo (nrt), Munich (muc).

The problem when we booked our flights was that we were looking for flights during the holiday season. EVERYONE is traveling during the holidays. Hence, availability is already limited. Add on top of that that we booked less than 1.5 months from our anticipated departure date of 12/22. This resulted in the crazy routing our initial trip itinerary booked as follows:

bos - yyz via United depart 7:00am; arrive 8:30am
yyz - bru  via Brussels airline depart 7:40pm; arrive 8:45am
bru-zrh via Swiss airline depart 9:55am; arrive 11:10am
zrh - nrt via Swiss depart 1:05pm; arrive 8:55am (+1)

We were set to depart on 12/22 and arrive 12/24.  If you notice, we had a whole chunk of time in Montreal.  It was basically a whole day, but that was the only option available, so we took it. We thought we would pass the time by visiting downtown Montreal or maybe visit some friends?

WRONG!! Mother nature said, "I don't think so, b***es!" This sight welcomed us as we arrived in yyz.

For my Bostonians, this may not look like much, but if you notice in the last photo, the only airplane you see, is grounded. That's right all flights are either severely delayed or outright canceled. We kept our fingers crossed. Hoping that our late departure time would spare us from any cancellations since the weather conditions were suppose to ease as the day wore on.  

We actually trekked out to Downtown Montreal as originally planned. We thought it couldn't be that bad. Big mistake. We were dressed for the balmy 40-50 degree weather in Tokyo, not the frigid cold of 20-30 degree with crazy wind chill. Only later did D and I realize that neither of us actually wanted to venture into Downtown, both preferring to stay in the warmth of the airport lounge.  Too bad we were walking through 2 feet of snow outside looking for a way to get into McGill station when this revelation came to light. D'oh! We spent the remainder of the time sitting in the Air Canada lounge, slurping soup and sipping hot tea and coffee. 

Unfortunately, more bad news of delays came our way. Our aircraft, coming from Toronto (which had worse weather than Montreal) was delayed arriving. Once it parked, more delays ensued as there were mechanical issues with the craft. What irked me the most, was that Air Canada would not properly update it's information.  They delayed the flight using unrealistic times.  The gate display would show "boarding: 9:00PM, departure 9:30PM" while we stood physically in front of the gate at 9:45pm. What? How does that work?

 Here's the problem that had me wracking my hands in worry.  If you notice on the itinerary, we had a very short connection time to catch our flight from bru - zrh. If we missed our flight to zrh, we would miss our long haul flight from zrh to nrt. A quick search on the interwebs showed no Swiss flights leaving for nrt until the next day, meaning we'd have to stay the night in Zurich. Crap.  We needed to make our flight from zrh - nrt!  On the delays went for hours.  Air Canada did announce that the ground crew in Brussels would try to re-route any passengers that might miss connecting flights. Did I believe them? Nope. At some point, we were resigned to the fact that we were spending the next day in Zurich.  Which wouldn't be terrible except for the fact that Zurich is crazy expensive! What can you do?

We finally made it onto the aircraft at 12AM. Waited another 30 minutes to de-ice the plane. Another 20 minutes waiting in the take-off queue. Finally around 12:50AM we were airborne!!

Air Canada's 767-300 v2 seats are fully lie flat seats, meaning they recline to 180 degrees, like your bed. Here's what it looks like on the air canada website, under classic pods. The pods are very private, but the sad part is you can't easily communicate with your traveling companion. G'ah we were too tired to be very chatty anyway.

Dinner was served not long after we were airborne. Here's what I had.

Appetizer: lobster and shrimp with mustard sauce, garden salad with balsamic vinaigrette and hot roll 

Main: Salmon with tarragon sauce, haricot verts, carrots and rice

The app was good. Salmon was a little dry but okay with the sauce. I skipped the cheese and dessert plates because I could barely keep my eyes open. Most of you know I would forego the cheese plate anyway. :) It was literally lights out for me. Next thing I knew we were making our descent to Brussels (finally!) I had one of the  best sleeps ever on Air Canada. But that might be combination of fatigue and jet lag?

Bleary eyed, we made our way to the arrival gate. Standing at the end of the walkway, an air canada attendant was holding a sign with our last names! Excitedly, I wheeled our carry on quickly to her. 

"That's us!" She asked if we had any bags checked in. NOPE! 

She replies, "Great! This only works if you don't have bags checked in.  Your connection was difficult to route! You're going to Narita, Tokyo!" Yes, we know!

"We booked you two seats on All Nippon Airways (ANA) from Munich to Tokyo. But the only flight available to Munich gives you only an hour before your ANA departure. That should be enough time though." 

Ever the logical one, D asks her gently, "Is the ANA flight business class?" 

"Yes, of course!" Priorities, people. lol. 

We arrived in Brussels around 1pm. We had another 4-5 hours to kill. No problemo, off to the lounge it is! Air Canada also gave us each a 25euro voucher for food. Sweet.

The moral of this story is business class is awesome! JK. No really it is. We saw a very long line of people queuing to get their flights re-routed to catch their connections. I don't know if we received preferential treatment because our routing was so crazy or we were business class. My hunch is probably both but more of the later.

Not having checked bags in was key. Our bags would have made it through to the Swiss flight that we never had a chance of boarding. If you're going trying to make a lot of connecting flights, as annoying as it is, carry on when possible. You never know when things might go wrong.

Finally, if you're booking award tickets or even revenue tickets, and you are traveling with a companion, make sure to call each airline and kink your tickets. This way if you do get delayed and rerouted, the airlines will keep your tickets together. Nothing is worse than being separated on a long haul trip.

Munich -Tokyo

Getting to Japan:Bos-yyz-bru: curse you mother nature

Getting to Japan: Munich -Tokyo
Day 1: 12/24/13 Hyatt Regency Tokyo, N'ex & suica cards, Japan Rail Pass, Shinjuku
Day 2: 12/25/13 Park Hyatt Tokyo, Tsukiji fish market, Roppongi, Kichijoji
Day 3: 12/26/13 Room Service,  Club on the Park, Akihabara
Day 4: 12/27/2013 Girondole buffet, Yokohama Ramen museum Meiji Shrine, Shibuya, Gold Rush
Day 5: 12/28.2013 Biking through Yoyogi Park, Harajuku, Shibuya, New York Bar
Day 6: 12/29/2013 Harajuku & Shibuya Shopping, Ramen alley, Hyatt Regency Kyoto
Day 7: 12/30/2013 Kyoto, Good Samaritan Tours
Day 8: 12/31/2013 New Years Eve, Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kaiten Sushi NYE Traditions
Day 9: 1/1/2014 New Years = Black Friday Maddness, No place to eat!
European stopover: Zurich, Park Hyatt Zurich, Brussels, Delays

I was ecstatic about trying ANA's business class flight.  I have heard great things about the service and have never experienced an Asian Airline. But before that, we were able to experience Lufthansa's intra-European service.  After putzing around the lounge for a few hours, it was time to board our Lufthansa flight to Munich.

Brussels airport is really small making connection times very easy.  I should note that Brussels downtown is extremely convenient and accessible to the airport. We probably could have gone into the city and walked around. But after our winter wonderland adventure in Montreal, we were loathe to venture out of the airport. Once we arrived at the gate, we saw a very cool feature of how green Europe is - bicycling stations to charge your electronics!

After working up a bit of a sweat, I made D cycle to charge the rest of his electronics (novelty over). Moving on, found a few features of intra-Europe flights in business class I was pleasantly surprised about. The business class cabin had 2 columns of three seaters but they leave the middle seat open so that only two seats are occupied in the row. More space between each passenger. The flight attendant (FA)chuckled when she saw that I sat directly next to D. She probably thought "these lovey-dovey Americans are such noobs".  What makes intra-Europe flights demonstratively better than intra-US flights is that European airlines serve a full meal no matter how short the flight is. Hour flight was literally not even an hour from bru-muc and I was served this.

Upon landing in we breezed through customs, got another stamp in the passport (yay!) and ran to our gate. At first, we had a bit of an problem getting the gate attendants print our tickets - something about Air Canada not fully issuing the ticket.  But it was quickly resolved (thank goodness).  They put us in the middle aisle since the business cabin had a 1-2-1 seating configuration. They let us know we had a big divider separating us, but those seats were at least together. Before long, we were lined up and boarded.

Contrary to the Air Canada flight, I was awake and was able to enjoy the boarding process. Once I got to my seat, the FA quickly stored away my winter jacket. Another offered us a pre-departure drink of either champagne, orange juice or water. I took water since we were running around earlier. On the seat, we found new slippers to use onboard, blanket, pillow, noise cancelling headphones (awesome!) and best of all an amenity bag. I forgot to take a picture of it, but inside the bag were socks, toothbrush &paste, ear plugs, eye mask and L'Occtaine en Provence lip balm and lotion (score!). I used everything except the socks.

The aircraft was extremely quiet. So quiet that D didn't even realize we were in the air!  He put on his noise cancelling headphones and napped a little during take off - missed the whole process.

Now let's move on to one of my favorite parts of the flight: FOOD! You had a choice of a Western dinner or Japanese dinner. D got the Western which consisted of duck confit and salad for app and salmon for main. Voila.

My Japanese dinner felt extensive! I had three beautifully plated dishes for apps. Don't remember what they were, but you can view them below. And for the main I had herring with rice and miso soup. Yum! I skipped the cheese course as usual and dessert, opting to get some sleep. 

The sleep was really comfortable because the seats are awesome. Like ACanada, they're fully lie flat but with so many control options on how you can adjust your seat. The seats are amazing (look at them here). After a few hours of sleep, I woke up feeling a bit peckish. What can I snack on? Ippudo ramen, of course! Dude, I love 

I passed the time watching a few movies and episodes of the big bang theory on the huge screen. 

I got a little more sleep and before I knew it we were about an hour outside of Tokyo. The 12+ hours literally flew by.  Prior to landing, we were served an arrival meal. 

 All the food was just delicious. But what really set ANA apart from any other airline and taking its place as my favorite airline (so far) was the service. The FAs were so attentive to the more than 70% full cabin. They were just so genuine! One saw me with my big ass camera and asked if we wanted our picture taken together. How thoughtful! All their questions started with, "May I". "May I serve you? May I throw this trash away for you? May I offer this?" Just so refreshing. They were also so impeccably dressed. I loved their scarves tied into fashionable bows that never seemed to look disarrayed after 12 hours of working. Not one hair was out of placed ever. Smiles were genuinely given. Gosh, I'm in love the FAs. It was a great way to start our adventure in Japan.