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

[rbjhan]

Is that the customs exit codes? (Kind of like the go to lane 1/2 etc here in Australia).

Also I've dine TPP shopping without the QR code. You just have to tell them a few times that it's not in your passport anymore which is confusing on my passport as at any given time i should have "an active" JP immigration QR sticker.

Immigration, not customs. This was before we even got to the immigration counters.
But no idea really since they never came up again! And mother and I were allowed to go as a group even though we had different codes.

Edit, to add a bit more info. So after getting off the plane we used these new machines first. Seemed to me like they were handling the VisitJapanWeb info (and fingerprints), which previously was done by staff at counters.

Oh I know it can be done with JTPP card, I did it quite a few times last trip. Some sales persons in Tokyo actually knew them!
But most had no idea and it cost me quite some time....My Japanese were also not good enough to explain this thingy clearly....

 

[rbjhan]

I knew the jetlag would be bad...so decided to take it easy the first two days in Japan...

Booked a fancy ryokan in Izu Inatori

We got off the Saphir Odoriko at Izu Inatori Station, ryokan was maybe 20 mins walk away. But not to worry - there's a shuttle bus, in fact you wouldn't expect anything less!
We were offered a hot face towel on the bus, nice.

Lobby


It's quite a large ryokan, but we were looking for a two bedroom suite and this was the best I could find within budget...

Layout
Public bath on Level 2, Lounge and Main Dining Room on Level 6.
Additional dining places on level 8.


Half of level 6 was the lounge/dining, another half were 7 suites, ours was one of them.


** We paid 92K Yen for the suite, dinner and breakfast included.
After London and Edinburgh, oh my this was a total bargin!

 

[rbjhan]

Floorplan, 92 m2.


Entrance was massive, with two toilets.

And first bedroom

Living area and outdoor onsen





2nd bedroom


This was a large suite.


Dressing area


Later I saw in the shops the hairdryer retails for 40K Yen.

 

[rbjhan]

The lounge opened 24 hours.
Between 2-5pm they served welcome drinks, fruits, snacks etc.


Okay this I copied from their website
5-7pm: beer, coughtail, wine, snacks etc.
7-9.30pm dessert time, we'll get to it later.
10pm - 12am: some alcoholic drinks, soft drinks, snacks
12am - 5am: tea and water only.
5-8am: soft drinks, coffe, tea.
8-11am: juice, coffee, tea, etc.
11am - 2pm: onigiri, salad, drinks (this is for guests staying more than one night)

 

[rbjhan]

Dinner time was allocated at check in. Amazingly, even though we arrived before 2pm, was told the 7pm dinner were full already!
Reluctantly we accepted the 6pm time slot...

Dining room pic from hotel website:


We had a table by the window but it was already dark outside....

Entree, very much Autumn themed.


Soup


Sashimi. The famous Ise-ebi 伊勢海老 on the left.


Next, another famous local delicacy Kinmedai 金目鯛 made a dramatic entrance


A close up.


Notice the chopsticks above, this would be a gift to the guests( wipes were provided).

 

[rbjhan]

Wagyu steak




Abalone and other things.


These were side dishes for your rice.


And dinner concluded here!

 

[rbjhan]

Then we moved to the lounge.
Desserts!!






As the dessert time finished 9.30pm, we actually went for a walk down to the lobby, admired the gold fish there, played some table tennis.....And went back for round 2!

The gold fish were so well fed, once they say people coming, instantly all gathered together expecting food!

 

[rbjhan]

Ordered in-room massage that night.
Then had another soak in the private onsen.

***was planning to visit the public bath but didn't feel like walking down after massage Plus it was on level 2 so ours should have a better view, right?!

Picture from hotel website.

 

[rbjhan]

The next morning

Ah it was so nice!


Breakfast was buffet style.


Obviously I need to soak some more


I still prefer Bousui in Izu Atagawa (difficult to see in photos but their service and food was superior).
But Ginsuiso was a good ryokan.

 

[rbjhan]

This day I had wanted to take mother to Kawaguchiko initially, but my god that place had gone up significantly in the popularity scale....(yes I remember the days when people said going to Mt Fuji they were referring to Hakone!)

Anyways, I couldn't find a ryokan suite with the lake+Fujisan view within our budget Not to mention the whole booking process was similar to me stalking airline websites for awards! WTF

Ryokans to the south of Kawaguchiko were much easier to book, however without the lake the view is not much different than other places....Gotemba, for example!

Ah yes that's where we ended up, Gotemba. Hotel Clad was also popular but not ridiculously so. I managed to grab the last available double room with Fuji view, plus a twin room (also Fuji view) for mother.

So we took the shuttle bus back to Izu Inatori Station, from there a number of local trains to Atami, then Numazu, then Gotemba Finally caught another shuttle bus to Gotemba Premium Outlets.

Hotel Clad was right next to the outlets, on top of a hill.


You need to get to the top floor of the car park(!) then there's a walkway connected to the hotel.
In typical Japanese fashion they also tell you where's the best photo spot （in English even!）

 

[rbjhan]

They were sold out that day so we ended up on different floors again.

Entrance

Bathroom


My Double room


And the View!!!


Oh we were so lucky

 

[VPS]

They were sold out that day so we ended up on different floors again.

Entrance View attachment 484326

Bathroom
View attachment 484328

My Double room
View attachment 484325

And the View!!!
View attachment 484327

Oh we were so lucky

Perfect - well done

 

[rbjhan]

Perfect - well done

Yeah Fujisan is famously temperamental so I had been warning mother the view was in no ways guaranteed! So gald we got to see it

 

[rbjhan]

Noticed there were something on the bed in the picture above?


On the right were loungewear (you can wear it throughout the hotel including restaurants)
And the left?
The bag is for you to take towels from your room to the super sento next door!

So, the super sento Konohananoyu was a separate entity, entrance fee was around 2000 Yen iirc.
Hotel Clad guests can use it for free.

There's a cafe inside.


Dining area


Lots of books


I like the design


This place was very busy in the afternoon and evening! Photos were all taken next morning when it was hotel guests only.

And the most important outdoor bath! Picture from their website.
So you can soak and enjoy the view!

 

[rbjhan]

Spent the rest of the day in the outlets shopping.
We had unagi for lunch


And Gyukatsu for dinner ( deep fried beef cutlets).


Mother was very taken by the Gyukatsu

 

[rbjhan]

Day 19

Morning!
First snow of the year reported when we were in London, so very lucky...


First thing to do was ofc another soak! Sadly mother doesn't like onsen as much as I do.....

Breakfast with a side of Fujisan.


The shops open at 10am so we went for some more (window)shopping. Sigh, mother really hates shopping in general

This was taken on one of the connecting bridges inside the outlet.

 

[rbjhan]

I did mention Fuji was temperamental right?
Completely disappeared around 11am!


Lobby


Now mother felt like extra-special

 

[rbjhan]

Took the shuttle bus back to Gotemba Station, just in time for the Romancecar Limited Express to Shinjuku! ( There were only 3 Ltd Exp from Gotemba per day, and I didn't actually plan it)


There are also direct buses to Shinjuku and Tokyo, but apparently often delayed due to traffic. This being a Sunday, I didn't want to risk it.

Shinjuku Station was one major construction site, as long as I can remember....I was trying to go to the other side of tracks from where we got off, no luck! Had to walk out and went all the way around
Honestly do not see the appeal of this place....and that's without mentioning all the dodge things around Kabukicho....

We had gyutan for lunch.

 

[rbjhan]

Tokyo hotel prices had been steadly rising since 2024 (thankfully rest of the country were not).....For the past 10 years or so I had been doing fine with a budget of 15K Yen per night in Ginza, not any more! My beloved Dormy Inn is now asking for something around the 25-30K range

Reluctantly I booked us into Via Inn Akasaka, at about 14K per night per room ( this was booked in Dec 2024, I'm not sure about prices now!)

There's a 711 near the entrance.


Nowadays most of the business hotels use kiosks for check in/out. Not good in our cases since the machine didn't know or care we were together and assigned two random rooms. Then we had to asked staff to re-assign the rooms - what a waste of time! Only La Vista Tokyo Bay had a sign saying if you book more than one room please go to front desk for check in.

Anyways, rant over.
Double room, normal business hotel style.


What's different, was that we've just been to London and stayed in Hub by Premier Inn
Oh look, there's a table, and sofa! And you don't need to put the case under your bed!


Clever design, mother and I could sit face to face....


Not much of a view....will be worse when a new building is up....

 

[rbjhan]

Downstairs there's a lounge area for all hotel guests.


At the far end of the lounge behind glass doors was a business meeting/working area


There were also some self serve luggage lockers, very handy.


I chose this hotel out of the many in Akasaka, because there's also public bath!
Pic from hotel website.


This was not onsen though, just hot water.
We've been going to some really nice onsen in this trip.....maybe too nice....mother was totally not impressed with the hot water bath, oh what horror! Didn't go for a 2nd time.

As with most new hotels with public bath, you can check the status on tv.


Edit, only con of this hotel, was that lifts seemed to be very slow during peak hours.