A British vacation (but I'm also going to Japan)

[rbjhan]

The elevated walkway leads directly to Barbican estate.


Brutalist architecture might not be everyone's cup of tea...


But I find it fascinating...(does not mean I want to live here )

 

[rbjhan]

St Giles Cripplegate


More ruins!

 

[rbjhan]

As I was leaving Barbican it started raining...I had a waterproof jacket but forgot to put on my hiking boots!

So I gave up exploring some places nearby, went straight to London Mithraeum.




Mithras


The actual ruins....here is when you really need some imagination!

 

[rbjhan]

Next door was Bank Station, so I quickly dived in....shoes were very wet by that stage and I didn't want to walk in the rain anymore, even though Elizabeth line via Liverpool St would be a much better ride.

Back to hotel, checked out. I thought we could do a leisurely stroll in Little Venice and stop in some place nearby for lunch.
Ah but no. Mother wanted to go to Buckingham Palace!
During the planning stage I asked her maybe 100 times if there's anything in particular she wanted to see, the answer was always "nope I'll just follow you". And now at the last possible minute she wanted to see something

I don't think she's doing it to annoy me ofc. That's the problem with people who don't plan though, they had no idea! Then last minute they were like "Oh isn't there something famous like xx_x we haven't seen?" But honestly it's equally infuriating....

Anyways we were off to see Buckingham Palace.....yeah I don't see the appeal, like AT ALL.
So I had one picture.


Oh there's another one from St James' Park.

 

[rbjhan]

Back to Paddington, looked like there might be some time left....so I went to Little Venice myself - mother was not interested, you might have guessed....

I thought this was very much more Amsterdam than Venice though!

 

[rbjhan]

Going towards LHR..




There are quite a few Star Alliance lounges in T2, if it's just me I'd probably visit them all (okay maybe 2 or 3).....but with mother that's obviously not a good idea....decided on Silver Kris.

Many different types of seating but this was by far my favourite.


Loved the laksa!

 

[rbjhan]

Seats were obviously the same...Damn I love it so much.
Apparently they have a different version of The Room planned for 789s, can't wait....
Edit: found it!

All Nippon Airways Takes Business Class to New Heights with "THE Room FX" Supersized Seats | Press Release | ANA Group Corp.'s Information

【ANA Group Corp.'s Information】he ANA Group's CSR activities that help to maintain the trust of society.

www.anahd.co.jp

I got to the seats earlier than people in row 5 so took this one.
Idk, in theory it's probably the same especially for the centre ones. But I just don't like the idea of facing backwards!


Even the toilet was Japanese!
Honestly, we should all have bidgets at home. I will die on this hill!

 

[rbjhan]

Menu


Amuse


Please refer to the menu


Main was grilled fish and pork belly.


Dessert

 

[rbjhan]

Slept for some solid hours, woke up and we were above China already.
Oh and you can have the flight map on the small controller screen while watching movies on the big one, very handy.


Ordered ramen and salad.


Final service before landing.


Haneda here we come!!

 

[rbjhan]

Day 16

Landed at Haneda about 6.30pm local time.
Immigration was super fast! I guess being in T2 helped, a lot.
**There are some new machines where you scan the QR code from Visit Japan Web, scan fingerprints etc...it will then give you a group code (mine was A mother was D), no idea what these do since staff said we can go to counter together....then at the counter you still get the sticker on your passport - very important for tax free shopping

The next day we were going to Izu Peninsula, so just needed one night somewhere close to Haneda....originally I booked in Yokohama, but hotels there didn't really have the "feel".... So when I saw La Vista Tokyo Bay doing a promo on IKYU, didn't hesitate at all.

La Vista Tokyo Bay, part of the same group as Dormy Inn (yes yes my favourite), the "La Vista" brand is more high end than Dormy Inns though. I've been to La Vista Kusatsu Hills before.....
So I'm really happy I got this for 20K Yen per room per night, pad self on the back!

In theory it should be a quick taxi ride from Haneda....oh boy......we were in the middle of a gigantic traffic jam all the way took over one hour to get there I don't remember being in such bad traffic, like ever....

Sadly had to cancel the plan to go to Ariake Garden for dinner and glasses shopping that night.

 

[rbjhan]

La Vista Tokyo Bay, best way to get to the entrance was a walkway connected to Yurikamome line Shijomae Station.


Lobby




Our rooms were on the 10th floor.


Entrance


It was spacious by Tokyo standards.


View's very nice, you could even see Skytree!

 

[rbjhan]

My dinner plan for Rikyu Ariake Garden had failed....so we had 711 instead
Together with hotel's free ramen


View from restaurant was even better.


Coming back from Europe the jet lag was a killer!
I woke up at 3.30am....what to do? Onsen of course!

Amazingly I was not the only person awake at such ungodly hour eventually she left so I was able to take the picture.


The public bath was top notch! Apart from the indoor bath pictured above, there's also an outdoor bath, steam sauna, dry sauna (saunas closed at 1am but baths open throughout the night).

Rest area outside the public bath.


Toyosu was not a convenient location but damn the view was to die for.

 

[rbjhan]

Since I booked the hotel in Toyosu, going to the tuna auction seemed like a no brainer...

So I put in my application for the lottery. Ah yes you need to win the lottery to be able to watch the auctions from their special viewing deck. But not to worry, even if you don't, there are other places...

Lottery open once a month for the following month's places. Only the winners will be notified.
In typical Japanese fashion the email was so vague...I had to read it twice to make sure I actually won it

So I left the hotel a little past 5am...(in case you were wondering about those empty lobby pictures...)

Toyosu Market was right there


From our hotel to the station and onwards to Toyosu, it's all connected via walkway.


This is however before the first train of the day, so if you are not staying nearby taxi would be the only way to go.
Ariake is probably within walking distance but the most convenient would be La Vista and Manyo Club.

 

[rbjhan]

We were asked to be at the 3rd floor office of Management Facilities Building before 5.30am.
It was all clearly marked so don't worry, you won't get lost!

Edit, I just noticed the "gallely".
In case you don't know, in Japanese the R and L sound the same.


Inside the office staff checked my ID against their list, and then a ticket was given.


At 5.30 we were led to the observation deck, via the 3rd floor walkway gallery, which was quite full already.
Picture was taken on my way back.


From the gallery you can see the viewing deck below.

 

[rbjhan]

At the entrance to the viewing deck there's a guard checking everyone's ticket.


See the glass doesn't go all the way to the top, so we could hear the sounds of the auction, and smell the fish

Fresh tuna


Frozen tuna.


The Auction.
Yeah did not understand a thing!

 

[rbjhan]

Notice the floor colour here, this was general seafood area.


The auction went really fast! By 6.10am they were cleaning.


Some interesting reading materials on the wall.


All the different Kanjis for fish!
Hey I actually know a lot of them