We woke up from our cozy beds on the tatami mat floor and mentally prepared for our included Japanese-style breakfast. I don’t believe a western breakfast was even an option. We sat down at our own special booth where we were served quite a presentation of different foods that our American palettes were definitely not very familiar with. They lit a flame underneath some sort of soup thing with shiitake mushrooms and tofu amongst other unknowns. Compared to my first trip to Japan back in 2001, I consumed a lot more this time around.
Fish flakes, miso soup, egg loaf thing, tofu loaf thing, weird textured tube thing, mixed vegetables, trout, potatoes, and assorted pickled vegetables and ginger were all tasted. Ate to completion? No, but attempted nonetheless. After the assault on our tastebuds that was the traditional Japanese breakfast, Nicole returned to our room to eat a chocolate croissant she had purchased at Lawson’s yesterday. Unfortunately for me, I had been feeling more adventurous at Lawson’s when I made my purchase yesterday and only had a matcha cake — a continuation of the unique Japanese flavors.
After breakfast, we checked out and walked to the train station after several bows from the staff. There was some debate as to where we should stay after leaving the Nagano area, but that decision was effectively decided for us by the prices in central Tokyo. Perhaps the fact that it is a Saturday night led to quite a surge in prices. Beyond that, based on flight loads, we would have to fly back out of Narita as opposed to the much closer/much superior Haneda. Thus, we decided to get a hotel in Chiba — part of the Tokyo metropolitan area, but a city in its own right. It is on the line that goes to Narita, so our distance there is shortened somewhat and we get to experience a new city.
Our journey took us a total of four hours, and involved three trains including one Shinkansen. We had timed our Shinkansen trip at the same time a bunch of Australians were returning from a ski trip in Japan and seemed to have purchased all of the reserved seats. The idea of Australian skiers is quite nonsensical, but the worst part was having to contend with all of their ski equipment that they were dragging onto the train. I mean — you can’t ski in Australia right? That’s like not a possibility . . .or am I missing something? Why even have skis in Australia? Wouldn’t it have been easier to rent them?
Dodging Aussies, their skis, and oversized luggage, Nicole and I took whatever seats we could find on the crowded Shinkansen before finally arriving at Tokyo Station, where we transferred to the Sobu line to Chiba. It was another 40 minutes before we arrived at Chiba’s main station and had a short walk from there to the Daiwa Roynet hotel. Checking in was a unique experience. It appeared to almost be like a room lottery. We had to go to a machine and scan our card, where it then told us what our room number was. It is quite a bit larger than the Tokyustay and Nicole was excited to sit in a chair that was more than a few inches off the ground. It was almost 4pm by the time we had completely settled into our hotel and we hadn’t really had time for lunch.
I indulged myself with this “Ichigo Sando” from 7-11. The strawberries, custard, and whipped cream sandwiches are surprisingly popular and I thought I’d give it a go as a light snack washed down with some rooibos iced tea. The soft, crustless Japanese bread makes it work and it feels more like a spongey dessert than a proper sandwich. We walked around the neighborhood a bit to check out the Chiba shrine.
It was nice to be the only tourists for the first time in a while. The shrine was fairly empty except for a few Shinto followers. After a brief walk around the shrine, we headed back to the hotel to regroup for dinner. Interestingly enough, our hotel is attached to an Italian restaurant and pizzeria. Nicole swears that she didn’t know about this when she booked it, but I am quite skeptical. In any event, we had Italian this evening. After our breakfast of . . .well. . . I’m not even sure what it was, I suppose an Italian dinner was well deserved.
After dinner we went to Yodobashi Camera, an electronics store that has just about everything. I briefly perused the Sony aisles to price out a new camera body. Mine has been acting up a bit on this trip, but not enough to justify a brand new camera body itself. It was, however, about $400 cheaper to buy it in Japan versus back in the United States. Nicole spent some time looking at camera lenses, rice cookers, guitars, or in this case . . .clocks.
It was a long day of travel and we were both a bit tired, so after one last trip to a convenience store for some snacks, we returned to our room for the remainder of the night. Tomorrow, we will leave Japan on an evening flight, which will (hopefully) be in a Polaris business class seat. Wish us luck.
passports & pepto bismol 