Mar 15 - Ito to Tokyo and Hawaii

Woke up and packed up for today's trip from Ito to Tokyo and, eventually, my flight back to Hawaii.

Will be taking a 10:05AM express train to Akami and then transferring to a Shinkansen bullet train which will take me to Tokyo Station.   My plan is to locker my bags there and

have a late lunch/snack around Tokyo station, possibly walking around a bit.   Then I'll take a subway line to a station closer to the airport and check in to another "Hotel MyStays" 

that I was able to book using the 'earned' credits from my hotels.com bookings for this trip plus paying about $11 US in 'taxes'.   Will hang out there until around 8pm or so and then

head over to the airport to get my boarding pass (as I cannot get it prior to showing up with my passport at the counter) and clear customs/immigration to wait for my 11:55PM flight to

Honolulu and the connecting flight back to Kona.

Breakfast showed up around 7:10am.

Of course there was also white rice and tea, which I had a little of.   But mostly the above filled me up quite nicely.    I have an hour to go before needing to

checkout, so I have used some of it to enter this onto the web and will sit and read for the rest.

I finished getting ready and went down to the front desk to check out.   The GM drove me to the train station and I locked my stuff up for an hour before my

train was going to leave and walked around the downtown area a little.     Bought some more cookies "for the road".  Also a glazed croissant and a piece of lemon "pound" cake.

I also tried what appeared to be a chocolate bun filled with azuki beans.   Pretty sure that is what it was, so I bought another for the road.   Also bought a strawberry mochi dessert food

that seemed to be popular (people were always lining up at this place) -- had a real strawberry in it.

I walked around the corner, under the train tracks, to a local park to kill a little more time.    There were some nice trees and a pond feature.

Got back to the station and within about 10 minutes of entering my train arrived.   This was a "non-reserved" seat "express" train, but I noticed that it kept

stopping (I guess so that other "more important" trains could get past us).   Eh... still made it in about 35 minutes to Atami station (only 5 minutes 'late').

Transferred there to a Shinkansen going to Tokyo Station with a reserved seat.    It was about a 25 minute wait and, once again, I almost got stuck on the wrong

train because the one right before mine was also labeled "Tokyo".   I did a quick "hop-on-hop-off" realizing my 'almost oops'.   Oh well.

Anyway, made it to Tokyo Station, which was (as expected) very very crowded and busy.    TMP (Too Many People).   Ugh.    Had to walk a long way with my bags

to find an available storage locker, but did find one after about 10 minutes of hunting.   It was just after noon, so my plan to "grab lunch" somewhere at Tokyo Station

was a good one!

As with many stations there was a basement level with lots of food choices.   This one also had food choices on the main level and a smaller selection of larger

restaurants on a second floor level.     I took my time walking around and picking what I wanted to eat, but here were some of the choices.   One good thing if I ever got

"stuck" at Tokyo Station -- I'd never starve!

Finally decided that I wanted Sushi, so found a sushi bar and sat down.    Started with 4 pieces of nigiri and hot tea.   From right to left

I had sea scallop, then three different "progressive" ahi's with more and more fat content -- the one of the far left was the fattiest and was around 700 JPY,

the middle on was the "middle fat level" at 500 JPY, and the right most one was "mere" Maguro at 300 JPY.    I definitely liked the expensive one the most!

It was like eating butter!

Well, that was great but I needed dessert too.    Spent about 20 minutes walking around looking for something that appealed and finally came across

a sign in the basement of a big department store (where they had lots of manju, mochi and the like) for a "fruit dessert" place on the 3rd floor.

I went upstairs and found somewhere to get an amazing strawberry sundae/parfait.    The thing was as expensive as my sushi lunch, but really good!

They had some other desserts too, which I took a picture of,  but what I got was the right choice.

Headed back to my luggage and then to the correct ticket window to begin my next train trip towards a hotel MyStay's I'd booked nearer to Haneda airport.   It was about 2pm and checkin time was 3pm.

This involved three different train lines, but I managed to "get it right" by asking a lot and having "done the research" in advance to have a list of which stations I'd be passing to get to my destination(s)

on each line (to make sure i was going the right way!)

Made it to "Amamori-Inari" station after about 40 minutes of commute time and walked a few short blocks to Hotel MyStay's Haneda.    Got in just before 3pm and my room was already paid for and ready

for me to take a very nice hot shower and a long nap!   I was SO GLAD that I booked this -- no way I could make it until midnight without this R&R.   

After the nap I took some pictures of the hotel room.   It was a very thin but LONG rectangle -- actually quite large for a japanese hotel room.    It was also much nicer than I expected -- private toilet room,

walk in shower/bath stall, mini-fridge, microwave oven, hot water/tea maker, TV, stereo (weird that they'd have a stereo -- but whatever), a desk, some seats near the TV (mini-couch) and a bed

(that barely left any room on either side to get to, but it worked fine for me).    Here are some pictures for anyone who might need an overnight near Haneda:

Final dinner -- walked a few block to a small local restaurant that the hotel said did good Eel--- They were right!