A final free morning in Tokyo followed by an afternoon flight.
Day 20 Planned:
The intended itinerary for today is:
- Free morning in Tokyo
- 4:10PM(Tokyo) to 8:30PM (Hong Kong): CX549 – Tokyo (Haneda) to Hong Kong
- 9:25PM (Hong Kong) to 9:35AM (Sydney): CX161 – Hong Kong to Sydney
It looks like there’s just shy of an hour to make the connection in Hong Kong, so if I want a shower I’ll have to head to the gate first and then work out if there’s a lounge close enough. Yes, Hong Kong airport is that big (and I got burned by that a bit on the Grand Tour).
Day 20 Actual:
After breakfast I checked out, left my main bags at the hotel, and headed off to Tokyo Tower to finally say I’ve been there. I was kind of frustrated earlier in the tour with staying close enough to walk there but just not finding the time for it.
I was there right as it opened and it was kind of amusing seeing the sort of crowd management intended for large groups targeted at just… me.
The views were superb and I even caught another glimpse of Fuji-San. However I was basically done in half an hour or so, which proved useful later on.
One recurring theme over the last couple of days that I haven’t mentioned much in the blog posts is that it’s really easy to get to a Shinjuku Station.
Getting to the right Shinjuku Station (I think there are several), and then not getting lost inside the station when you find it is another matter entirely. The morning trip to Tokyo Tower went relatively smoothly, the trip back left me with a somewhat longer walk than I was expecting. However I had plenty of buffer so I went with that rather than braving the labyrinth again.
A early lunch near the hotel, and then I dropped my portable wi-fi unit into the mail using the provided reply-paid envelope. That’s a really neat system to have available, and the unit never failed me (well, except maybe in deep railway tunnels but I don’t think that counts). Pururu are well worth considering if you’re traveling in Japan, just book ahead like I did so you can pick it up at the airport on arrival.
Then back to the hotel lobby to wait for the airport pickup booked by Inside Japan for me. That went smoothly, as did the transition through Customs etc.
The flight to Hong Kong went fairly smoothly, but departure for Sydney was slightly delayed. I did manage a shower in the Cathay Business Lounge which was nice. I spent the flight to Hong Kong reading Head On by John Scalzi; highly recommended.
Photos
Not too many photos today, but here they are.
Pirates of the Burley Griffin 
Yeah, I find Shinjuku station rather frustrating. Usually need to get out the east exit in the Lumine Est building and almost always end up exiting via the south entrance outside the Flags building. Usually I end up getting confused as to how I make my way back to the east side of the station and usually end up going down the escalators (which actually is the shortest way to get to the east side) but find myself heading off to Kinokuniya instead.
As long as I know the right line I have to be on, generally have no issue finding the right platform. Sometimes mess up the gate transfer if going from JR to one of the private rail companies inside the station.
I’ve generally had pocket wifi units delivered to my hotel, which is good because it saves the time looking for the company at the airport but does sometimes result in hotel reception losing your package before you arrive and having to hunt it down.
I’ll have to consider that option next time. I think it was available but I went with the airport option this time in case I needed connectivity for navigation to the hotel.
As I mentioned above I don’t think it’s one station per se. Which just adds to the confusion of the “maze of twisty tunnels, all alike”. 🙂
It is one station, it’s just that it houses the two government owned (or partly owned) Japan Rail as well as Tokyo Metro Subway as well as three privately run railways, Odakyu, Keio and Toei Subways. Think there’s like 30 or so platforms in total. Of course the private railways, subways and JR have all their platforms partitioned off from each other as such, which makes it a fraction easier to figure out. Also being able to use the one IC card (e.g. Suica, Pasmo etc) for all lines in the city makes it a lot easier to do transfers from one company’s line to another.