Osaka to Tokyo
I had arranged to meet with Andrew, a doctoral student I am working with, at the nearby Tully’s coffee shop before our planned departure for Tokyo. By 7 am I was packed and ready apart from the few last items. I went downstairs, ate breakfast, and returned with coffee for Majella and sushi for Lucas. Majella had cake Eriko had given her for breakfast.
A little before my 7:45 am meeting time I headed out, leaving Majella and Lucas to eat breakfast, prepare for the day, check out, and meet me at Tully’s. Andrew and I had coffee and talked about his progress and writing until Majella and Lucas arrived a little before 8:30 am.
We headed to the metro and rode to Shin-Osaka. There we found our way to the Shinkansen platforms. We were a little earlier than I had anticipated and caught the 8:50 instead of the 9:18. There were plenty of seats available in the non-reserved cars so we easily found a set of three and relaxed.
The journey of about 400 km to Tokyo took a little more than two and a half hours. The weather in Osaka this morning had been partly cloudy and we saw some sunshine. The front we had in Osaka yesterday must have moved east and the weather was overcast though not raining along our route. We passed through a mix of urban areas, rural towns, farmland, and forested hills. In better weather we might have caught a glimpse of Fuji but not today.
We arrived at Tokyo station around 11:30 am and cleared the Shinkansen area easily but had more trouble finding the local line that we needed. I had it recorded as platform 4 on the Sobu line. We walked in what seemed the right direction and found platform 4 but the listed stations did not include ours. We walked on further and down multiple sets of escalators and eventually found another platform 4 in what may have been an older section of the station. It had the right stations listed and we were soon on our way to Shin-Nihombashi and Hotel Kazasayu, just a short walk from the station once we found the exit.
Our hotel room was not available until 3 pm but they happily checked our booking and took our bags for storage. We walked back to the station and rode back to Tokyo Station. Our day tour to Fuji leaves from near there at 8 am tomorrow and I wanted to check the meeting point to ensure we knew where to go and roughly how long it might take to get there. We’ll need to be out of the hotel before 7:30 am to be sure of making it.
Majella had been hoping to find lunch near the station but there was nowhere obviously offering food. Lucas had been keen to see the scramble crossing at Shibuya so I consulted the app and determined which line we needed. We found the platform and rode there.

Once we had left the station and oriented ourselves we found the crossing, watched for a bit, and then crossed ourselves in one of the scrambles. By then the priority was food. Lucas had not acquired a taste for much Japanese food so we opted for pizzas at Miami Garden. Lucas had a meat pizza with pepperoni, sausage, and bacon. Majella and I shared a Japanese pizza, the best we could do in the circumstances.

Lucas expressed interest in seeing the Tokyo Nintendo store. A quick search revealed that it was nearby, on the 6th floor of a building full of shops. We found it and Lucas spent time browsing its offerings and those in a nearby store. He almost bought a souvenir but decided it was not good value. We went down via the escalators stopping at each floor to see what was on offer. There were some things that might have attracted us at reasonable prices and others too weird to imagine.

Majella had found there was a street piano in a building near the station so we headed back there, pausing at a stationery store where Majella bought a couple of small items. The piano was on the 4th floor and available so Lucas played for a while.
There seemed little reason to go back to our hotel early so after some discussion we headed for Tokyo Tower. That involved riding one station back, changing lines, going 4 stations, and walking a few hundred metres. As we stepped out of the station we saw the tower and walked toward it. Moments later it was hidden behind buildings until we approached it. Our walk to the tower passed some unusually shaped buildings.


We did not want to go up the tower so a quick look was all that it warranted. What looked like a nearby older building had caught my eye and it was on a route that I found to Daimon station from which it seemed we could get a ride direct to Nihombashi. We walked in that direction, pausing to enjoy a garden and then the surrounds of what turned out to be the Zojoji temple complex and a gallery. There were numerous buildings.




As we approached Daimon station we bought some breakfast items at a 7-Eleven. It was still light and we were not sure what we might find to eat near our hotel so we decided to eat before taking the metro. We looked at a few small restaurants up a side street and went in to one that seemed to have food that Lucas would eat. Majella had sweet and sour pork, Lucas had beef and vegetables, and I had chicken and cashews. The woman who served us had little or no English and we had no Japanese. We interpreted the menu using Google Translate but neglect to order rice and she neglected to suggest it. Other than that the food was good. Majella and I had small beers and Lucas had lemon squash.
We caught the metro to Nihombashi and it was not until we found our way out of the station that I realised Nihombashi station is different from and a distance away from Shin-Nihombashi station. We had several hundred metres to walk to our hotel.
Our bags had already gone up to our room so we were soon checked in and relaxing. That was until WhatsApp messages began arriving from our guide for tomorrow emphasising the need to be on time or left behind and the need for cash rather than card if we decided to eat at the restaurant they had booked. I went out in search of an ATM to replenish my wallet. Fortunately there was one at the FamilyMart around the corner. That done it was time to ensure we were ready for an early start tomorrow.