Tue Aug 8

Arrival at Haneda

Our Air Canada flight to Haneda was marginally delayed because the plane was late flying in from Frankfurt.   We landed at around 4 PM tokyo time, went thru immigration, retrieved baggage and finally customs all within 30 mins.

Once you exit into the Haneda airport arrival floor, the tourist information booth is just off to the right hand side.   Looking up at the ceiling, there are signs directing you to local transportation, the Tokyo monorail and the Keikyu train line.

Before getting on the train, we purchased PASMO cashless cards from the bank of machines.  All the machines have English language menus, so it's superfast to get a card.  Just select English, number of people (one), type of card (blank), initial denomination (2000 yen), insert 2000 yen cash, press the receipt button.  In less than a minute you have your PASMO card.

Now we proceeded thru the Keikyu station gates with PASMO, and took the escalators down to the train platform.   We were lucky because there was already a train at the platform and it was an Express train, which meant it would bypass a number of stations before heading to Shinagawa.

I would say we boarded the Keikyu train at around 5 PM, and we got to Shinagawa in about 15 to 20 minutes.   At Shinagawa, it's a bit of a challenge negotiating all the stairs and escalators to get to the train platform. We caught the Yamanote train from Shinagawa to Shinjuku and the train was packed. We actually had to wait for the next train.

Weather conditions

When we arrived at Haneda it was sunny and humid.  By the time we got out at Shinjuku station, it was starting to get a bit dark and we made our way to Century Southern hotel where we checked in.
We took the south exit from Shinjuku station and walked towards Shinjuku terrace.
It took a bit longer because the room we were assigned 3549 was on the top floor with north views but it had a smoky smell to it, so we ended changing rooms to 2769.

Now we had to go to the Tokyu Stay hotel in Nishi-Shinjuku.  As we came out of the Century Southern hotel it was raining lightly and we saw a rainbow over the NTT Docomo building.  Initially we were going to walk 20 minutes to the Tokyu stay hotel, but because of the heat, humidity and rain, we went to the metro station next to the Sunroute Plaza hotel and from there it was a quick 3 minute ride to Nishi-Shinjuku Gochome station on the Oedo line (2 stops, 180 yen).  We got out at the A1 exit.

It was a very short walk from Gochome station to the Tokyu Stay hotel, maybe a few minutes, would have been faster except, this was our first time in this neighbourhood so we had to get our bearings. Also it was dark now and it was only 7 pm.  After check-in, we walked to a nearby Sukiya and reviewed the menu in great detail.  Lots of unagi choices on the menu due to it being unagi season.

Everything meal we ordered was between 350 to 980 yen at Sukiya.  After dinner we walked to the Shinjuku Pepe mall.  We took our time and it was about 15 to 20 minutes and got there around 8:45 PM.  Made our way to the 8th floor and spent the evening shopping at Cando 100 yen shop.  It was still hot and humid by the time we walked back to Century Southern around 10 pm.

Locations

Haneda Airport
Shinagawa Station (transfer to Yamanote line)
Shinjuku Station
Century Southern Hotel
Tokyu Stay hotel Nishi-Shinjuku
Pepe Mall

Meals

Dinner at Sukiya, gyudon and unagi don.

Steps / Flights of stairs

9,674 / 4

Pics