Sky Views of Tokyo

I was pretty impressed with our G Adventures tour and quality of accomodation, but lets just say our transfer to Century Southern Towers was a step up or two.

We woke this morning at Candeo Hotel and had said goodbye to Mari (our guide) at breakfast. Then we made a half hour train ride on the JR Line to our hotel for our last three nights, halfway between Shinjuku and Yoyogi stations. We had a few hours wait to checkin so we dropped our bags at the 20th floor reception and went accross the road to explore a 14 story department store. We tried our 'once off in a different country McDonalds' routine, which wasn't particularly different, noteworthy or satisfying. About the same price as back home and always crowded in Tokyo. We managed to find a Pandora shop which Nat was certainly happy about.

Check in time! Wow. We'd booked a panoramic room @ Hotel Century Southern Tower (got a good deal) but didnt expect this. In a city famed for its 'cosy' rooms where space comes at a premium, this was absolutely huge. On the 3rd top floor at level 33, it offered two giant windows facing two directions, around a King Size bed that offered spectacular views of the city. Its the best view from a room Ive ever had anywhere in the world.

We unpacked and jumped on the JR for half hour east to meet Matthais and Sabrina (from our tour) at the Tokyo Skytree, the second tallest building in the world behind the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It was a good 25 minute walk from the nearest JR station, and we were unable to find our tour friends at the "suggested meeting spot" by our guide. In fact we couldn't even find a fountain. We headed up solo (4000¥ each) to catch the fading light from sunset by 5pm. It offered two viewing decks offering great views of the city, and a couple of glass panel floors. It was extremely crowded though and with the glass windows extended away from viewing platforms, crowds and reflection prevented photos doing the view any justice.

We decended, had a quick dinner with Matthias and Sabrina, said our goodbyes, grabbed a quick custard filled, pastry thing and made haste back to the JR station to travel to Harajaku to meet Ben for drinks at a little craft brewery. Ah, Japan train efficiency, I'll miss you. Getting to Harajaku was delightfully efficient. Walking onto one train, getting off and walking onto another arriving perfectly on time. I thought we'd be 10-15 minutes late but we ended up at Harajaku 10 minutes early.

We spent a couple hours with Ben at the Baird tap house enjoying a few very tasty craft beers. It was just one train stop back to our hotel to enjoy the night skyline views from our room before turning in.Read more