Dec 26 - The Scramble - Hirosaki-Tokyo

I woke just before 4am, checked the JR service schedule and saw that our plan B train was still running as the plan A Resort Shirakami was cancelled leading us to cancel the Akita/Niigata leg of the trip and replace with a Tokyo option. We were up and out by 5am. Sitting on the local train ready for a 5:26am departure back to Shin-Aomori.

Arriving at 6:02am we went to a ticket machine and bought tickets for the 6:49am Shinkansen to Tokyo, rather than the 6:18am one, so we could slow down and grab some breakfast. We departed Shin-Aomori at 6:49am bound for Tokyo.

Arriving at 10:33am to a sunny Tokyo we went to the ticket office and got refunds for the 2 journeys we could not take. We did purchase tickets to Nagano, however every reserved seat is booked out for the say we want to travel, so we will join the throng at the station for non-reserved seats. We also grabbed a 72hr metro card as I have found them to be great value.

With the business taken care of the kids wanted to go to character street, so we did that and managed to kill some time. I must say Tokyo station was packed, the platform and shinkansen area, plus the other areas as well. We then headed for a 7-11 as we needed a hit of food. After this we walked towards ginza to see some shops. By 3pm we headed out to the suburb where our bnb style accommodation is. As we could not check in until 4pm, we walked the neighbourhood and checked out the local supermarkets.

Tokyo has had some mega gusty winds and been cool with the wind roaring through. We could only imagine what the wind was like at the coast. At 4pm we checked-in and rested up for about an hour when the hunger took over. Luckily for us, just across the road is a local bento shop selling delicious pork cutlet bentos for 600yen! So dinner was sorted, the local supermarket took care of dessert purchases. We retired to our Tokyo studio apartment for a well deserved rest. Its been a big day.Read more