We needed to go somewhere, and not having a lot of time I looked at the options for flights/timezones/touchdown times/ease of commuting - and Tokyo won this round. Flying out Friday and coming back Tuesday doesn't give us much time, so we didn't want to stress about having to see everything. Just a few places at a comfortable pace was all we needed to do, and walking around the streets of Tokyo and tasting all the wonderful food on offer was enough.
We were fortunate to get on the flight. It was absolutely full leaving AKL. Luckily we were at the top of the priority list for onloading, and it was a surprise to find we were upgraded to premium. It was a very comfortable flight, and I drank sparkling wine the entire way up to Narita.
We got to our hotel pretty late in the afternoon/early evening. Rest was what we needed if we were to tackle the following days effectively. But first, Jef was frustrated that our hotel room had a balcony, yet they only allow you to open the window a tiny bit so you can't actually get outside. No, he wasn't having a bar of that!
We all conked out that night on the double bed, which was a tight squeeze for the three of us. Then in the morning I sent Jef down to explore the local Family Mart. It's like a dairy on steroids. He came back with our yummy pre breakfast snack - steamed pork bun. We ended up consuming a fair few of these whilst in Japan.
They make for inexpensive snacks whilst on the go at 122 yen, or $1.57NZD.
Ueno Park
Blossoms. You'd think I planned it - to be here at the height of blossom season when there's a window of 2 weeks. The Blossom Festival is crazy! People everywhere checking out these blooms.
They were beautiful though, undoubtedly. We've heard so much about the Cherry Blossom Festival, so it was a nice surprise to accidentally show up and see it for ourselves.
It was tiring jostling through the crowd, but totally worth the visit.
