Today I woke up quite late as I had had an early morning the previous day. In morning I just had a bit of downtime in the hotel, I was in a very nice room and sometimes it is nice to take advantage of the place you are in. I booked a ticket to go to the Japan National Stadium. 

I left the hotel room and had breakfast out the front of the local Lawsons convenience store. I then walked to Akiba station and bought a newspaper whilst on the platform for the Chuo-Sobu Line. 

For some reason I changed at Ochanomizu for the rapid which meant that I had to again change at Yoyogi. So I decided to leave the ticket gates at Yoyogi as it is one of the places that prominently featured in one of my favourite animated movies Your Name (君の名は). I took a couple of photos of the station front. 

The National Stadium is located at Sendagaya. A couple of 100m from the station. It is a very pretty area of Tokyo. I booked the ticket for 2 and of course it was 13:55, when I got off the train so there was a bit of power walking to get to the entry. 

When I got to the national stadium they did a temperature check checked my ticket and gave me a wristband to attach. It was then down in the elevator. The tour was self guided and there were many opportunities to take photos with mounts for phones being present to assist in taking photos. This part of the story is best told with photos so I will do so below.

After finishing at the olympic stadium I bought some souvenirs for myself and then walked up around the top where there is a park. We could see views of Shibuya and Shinjuku-ku. I think TBH Shibuya was prettier. 

I then walked past the metropolitan gymnasium and back to Sendagaya Station. I had a coffee and published a blog post at the Excelcisor Cafe in front of the station. 

After publishing the blog post I got on the chuo line to Nakano. There were some interesting shops in the covered shopping mall (商店街) I did not buy anything. Nakano is one of the most populous wards in Tokyo. 

After that I got the train back to Shinjuku station, my phone was low on charge so I went to Bic Camera, the staff told me the best thing to do was to rent a charger. It was about 300 yen and I could return it tomorrow, it is not just to Bic Camera I could return it to some bigger Family Mart stores. 

I then got on a Saikyo Line through service train to the Rinkai line getting off at Tokyo Teleport. 

Odaiba is one of the interesting areas in Tokyo and in a lot of ways is comparable to the docklands in Melbourne. The part I went to looks over Tokyo Bay over the city, it is quite pretty and it is much more chill than some of the other busier parts of Tokyo. There are some weird things like a statue of liberty for example. 

After a while at about 9pm, I got the Yurikamome (a driverless train that goes over the rainbow bridge). It was quite pretty I was unable to get the front seat there were quite a few fathers that were taking their kids on the Yurikamome and I think that it is important to leave people be. I got off at the terminus of the Yurikamome at Shimbashi. 

After arriving at Shimbashi, I got the Ueno-Tokyo Line to Ueno having a walk around before getting the Kehin-Tohoku line to Okachimachi. At Okachimachi I filmed about 5 minutes of just station noise. For nostalgic purposes later. 

I went back to the hotel and then spent quite a bit of time packing up the hotel room and organising my bags as I will be changing hotels tomorrow. 

Today was a good final day in Tokyo I really enjoyed the olympic stadium. 

Today is the day that I have planned to go to Hamamatsu to go to the Suzuki History Museum (Suzuki Plaza). I had booked my shinkansen ticket on Tuesday and had to be on that at 08:03. I set my alarm for 6:45 to wake up at 7. I did wake up and managed to have a shower. 

I left the hotel room at 07:40 and with roughly 20 min to get to Tokyo Station and find the platform (I figured I could walk though the train to find my seat). I got on the train at Okachimachi, I texted mum saying that I have 10 min to get on my shinkansen. I arrived at Tokyo station putting on quite a fast walk I made it to the shinkansen. It departed 2 minutes later. 

On the bullet train I was a little bit tired still as I usually would wake up at about 8. I put some effort into writing day 3’s blog. But really got distracted by taking photos of Mt. Fuji. The weather has been surprisingly clear whilst I have been in Japan and unlike previous trips I have not needed an umbrella, other than being cold it has been really nice, on top of that I don’t mind wearing jackets at all. 

The shinkansen arrived at Hamamatsu around 09:30, I spent a bit of time walking around hamamatsu station. They had a Suzuki Alto on display when we went in 2019 dad  loved admiring the different cars that they have on display in Japanese stations. Other than that there was a grocery store in the station, for the most part it was pretty quiet and not much is open at 9:30 in the morning. 

The local Tokaido line train to Takatsuka Station left Hamamatsu Station at 10:00 and I arrived a couple of minutes later. I looked on Apple Maps for where the nearest 7/11 was as I needed to have a coffee. It was around the corner. 

On the way from the 7/11 to the Suzuki museum I saw a Japanese petrol station, it had enthusiastic attendants like in the Race Across Japan episode of Top Gear (the thing that sparked my interest in Japan and Japanese). 

The Suzuki Museum was utterly amazing. On the second floor they went through the design process, to testing and engineering as well as the production line. The third floor had different types of Suzuki cars and bikes through history as well as their looms. Please see below for some photos. 

It was interesting to see some of the parallels between the design and development of cars and the design and development of software, the main difference being that the productionisation process is quite different. I often hear about techniques such as Kanban from Toyota being used in a software development context and the process at Suzuki seems to be in a similar light. 

I finished at the Suzuki museum at around about 13:30, I bought a souvenir for dad and myself of course. I walked back to Takatsuka Station and got on an Tokaido Line train to Bentenjima. 

Bentenjima is an island within Lake Hamana which is my favourite section of the shinkansen. Before I departed from Japan I was researching this area because it looked cool. I had a hamburger from an american dinner by Lake Hamana. I was considering before coming to Japan renting a bike and seeing some of the sights of lake Hamana, but alas it was quite windy and I didn’t feel comfortable enough with Japanese road rules to get on a bike. Though I did walk a section over a couple of bridges which was quite cool. In someways it felt like walking down Nepean Highway past Moordialloc however there was a high speed train line next to us. 

I got back on the train at Araimachi, I wasn’t waiting long for the train. I got this to Toyohashi where I changed for a Kodama (local) Shinkansen in the direction of Nagoya because the trains to Tokyo were an hour wait. I didn’t have long to board the shinkansen at Toyohashi. 

I had roughly 20 min at Nagoya, I made a seat reservation with an attendant and then went outside of the ticket gates to buy a Tokai Region IC card called a Toica. This is my 4th IC card with others coming from different regions in Japan. 

The shinkansen back to Tokyo took about an hour and 45 minutes, I was sitting in an aisle seat and wrote a blog post. There was a person who was sitting next to me who was obviously travelling on business. As we were approaching Tokyo Station I had a small chat with him. 

At Tokyo Station, I exited through the Nihombashi exit which made me want to find the Nihombashi Bridge. It is the place were a lot of the transport challenge videos that I watch begin and is traditionally the centre of the Tokyo and therefore much of Japan’s road network. 

I decided that seeing as the importance of this bridge the only thing that I could do was at the Nihombashi bridge sign was to prey in traditional Japanese style. 

I walked back down Chuo Street to Kanda and then got on the train to Okachimachi so that I could go back to the hotel to call my mum. 

I did go back out after this looking at some of the different technology shops in Akihabara, like Yodobashi and Bic Cameras. I got a can of Asahi Zero to have back in the hotel. 

Today was a good day, I had travelled a long way on the Shinkansen and hopefully made my JR pass worth while. 

To be continued… 

This morning I woke up slightly later than I planned at about 9:15. I had a shower and called mum. I left my hotel room at about 12:30 going to Akihabara station, charging my Icoca card and then getting on the Yamanote line to Tokyo. 

At Tokyo I bought myself a late breakfast and some coffee and then got on Chou Line Rapid to Shinjuku. The train I got was a E209 train which there are only 2 of on the Chou line. 

I reserved a seat on express train Azusa 25 bound for Takao (though the express only went as far as Hachioji), departing Shinjuku at 13:00. While waiting for the train I bought myself a chicken bento. 

Arriving at Hachioji changed trains again for the Chuo Line Rapid, just a lot further down the line. I then got this to JR Takao before changing once again to the Keio Takao line for Takaosanguchi (Takao Mountain Entrance). 

There was a cable car to get up to near the summit. It was really quite convenient although it cost about $5 per way which in the grand scheme of things is not that bad. 

The walk to the summit was about 40 minutes, you had to pass through a shrine to get to the summit which was quite pretty. I took quite a few photos on the way up the mountain I will include a couple of the nice ones below. 

Whilst climbing down I bought and eat some dango a traditional japanese rice based treat. I had the golden ones which were dipped in soy sauce they were yummy but I think that 3 is probably a bit much for me. 

On my way to the top of Mt. Takao up I saw that there was a traditional japanese onsen at the station. I decided that this was something that I wanted to go to as it was a bucket list item for my trip to Japan. Unlike in the Aotearoa (NZ) when I have been to hot springs you bathe without clothes on. There is segregation into male and female baths. Before you get in the baths you shower and wash your hair. To be honest it did not feel weird to have a bath at a onsen in fact I found it to be very relaxing. The only thing is being in some of the hotter baths you can get really dehydrated luckily I thought about this before hopping in and put a bottle of “Pocari Sweat” in my locker. 

After the onsen I had a couple of gyoza to make sure that I was ok. 

I got the train back into Tokyo again taking an express from Hachioji to Shinjuku. From Shinjuku I couldn’t stand getting on the busy JR lines so I used the Oedo Line subway instead. 

I called mum when I got back to the hotel at about 20:00, and then went back out for one of my favourite meals which I bought from a standing ramen shop at Akihabara Station it is Gyoza Ramen. 

Today was a really good day, I went to bed at about 24:00 I have an early morning tomorrow. 

To be continued…

Today I woke up at about 8am, I turned on the TV and had a coffee and paracetamol to relieve my headache. I stayed watching TV for about an hour before having a shower. 

I left my hotel at around about 10am first going to the local Lawson’s convenience store to get some breakfast and then to the Yodabashi Camera in Akihabara. I loved how there were so many books about programming languages like C#. 

I then went around the corner to find a bookshop so that I could plan the trains that I will be taking on my holiday, it opened at 11 so I walked down the street I saw the Kanda River. When the bookshop opened I went up to the 5th floor, which was pretty much filled with books about trains and train merch. I bought the timetable book it was about $15AUD and contains all of the JR train times for my holiday it will be imperative. 

I got my first train of the day the Yamanote line from Akiba (Akihabara) to Tokyo Station. At Tokyo station I got on the Shinkansen (Toki-319) to Ueno. I spent about half an hour at Ueno just seeing Japanese trains made me happy. Ueno is my favourite terminal station in Tokyo and has quite a few memories dating back to my first trip (2018). I saw a  Shinkansen “Dr. Yellow” (maintenance train) called the “East i” seeing one of these trains is meant to give you good luck. 

I walked from Ueno park to Uguisudani the station on the Yamanote line after Ueno. While walking into the station I got a call from mum she was not surprised that I had already used the Shinkansen and was happy that I was having an amazing day. I got the train to Ikebukuro and had a chat to the person who was sitting next to me who was using english flash cards on their phone. 

Ikebukuro is the second busiest station in the world (after Shinjuku) and has a high volume of Tokyo Metro and third sector railway passengers as well as JR. At Ikebukuro I found a Starbucks to sit and have a coffee. 

After having my coffee I walked through Sunshine City a large shopping centre, and eventually made it to Nishi-Ikebukuro (West Ikebukuro) subway station. I found out there was a tram stop here and got the Sakura tram to Waseda, much of the exisiting subway lines in Tokyo are the legacy of the tram network and this line is one of the few that remain. 

Waseda is one of the main university areas in Japan and it was about a 2km walk to Takadanobaba Station. On the way there were many interesting signs and it was just nice to have a walk in the streets in Japan. 

I got to Takadanobaba at about 3pm at this time the wind had started to pick up and I needed to wear gloves whilst walking into the station. I then got the Yamanote line to Shibuya. 

Shibuya is where the famous cross is, since I have been there many times I did not take any photos of the crossing though I will definetly be going back. I went to my favourite McDonalds in the world for some lunch. The Loft department store (my favourite store in the world with a whole floor dedicated to stationary) and Muji were next stop they are just around the corner. 

I then went to the newly opened Shibuya Ikea. Ikea in densely populated areas of Japan is quite different from the Ikea we have in Australia there is no real circuit it feels more like a department store with escalators going up. I bought myself a yellow water bottle and coffee mug as the hotel I am staying in does not have large mugs. 

I got a rather busy peak hour yamanote line train back to Shinjuku, since it was peak hour I did not feel like getting on another train and the sun was still up. So I decided to go the free observation deck at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (10 minutes walk away). I texted mum so she could guess where I was she guessed it first time. There was no queue to get up to the elevators. I got quite a few photos including this one that I put on my instagram. 

I got the Oedo subway line back to my hotel as it is only 1 train that takes about 20 minutes. Luckily I was able to get a seat. I got back to my hotel room at about 7pm and called my parents to talk about my day and posted my blog post from day 1. 

For dinner I went to a place in a Curry restaurant and had Chicken Curry it was nice. On the way home I went to the convenience store to get some milk. 

That was my day it was really amazing I am so happy to be in Japan again. 

To be continued…