The Premium Experience: Tokyo Day 1

After the hour long drive from Narita Airport, I arrived at the Capsule Inn Kinshicho and I sorta knew that I wasn’t really going to like this place. For one thing, I had to carry my luggage up a flight of stairs to the reception/common area. Luckily for me, my bag was light. After meeting my friends, and paying for the night (¥2800 = about $26USD) we decided to head out and explore the city. First order of business was purchasing a Suica card for the transportation. [TIP] You can use your Suica card for the vending machines too. I’ll admit, I knew Japan was going to be expensive but I didn’t think I was going to spend over $300+ on transportation alone. The Suica card was super convenient during my stay in Japan, I was able to use it in Kyoto and Osaka, but back to Tokyo. I paid ¥2000 ($19USD) for the card and we went on our merry way. Both of my friends didn’t get the Suica card because they had already purchased rail passes prior to arriving in Japan and I felt like the rail pass wasn’t worth it so I didn’t get it.  

We went to the Doraemon Museum and to be honest, I don’t really remember how long it took us to get there because I was exhausted. [TIP] Tickets for the museum need to be purchase in advance.  Unfortunately, I didn’t grab any pictures but the museum was quite interesting and at the end of the museum was the gift shop and they were tons of Doraemon capsule machines.

After spending 2+ hours at the museum, we decided to grab a quick bite and we found this little ramen shop in one of the subway station (I believe it was Shinjuku). It was quick, cheap, filling and standing room only.

 ¥340 = about $3.17USD

This was probably one of the best ramen that I had on the trip. Since we were already at the subway station, I decided to purchase my train ticket from Tokyo – Kyoto. I had purchase a ticket on the Nomozi, which is the fastest bullet train service running on the Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen lines in Japan. I paid ¥13,720 (about $128.28USD) for the 6:20 AM train. I was able to use my Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa [no 2x points earned on this purchase unfortunately 😦 ] card to make this purchase even though the my card didn’t have the signature and pin feature.

 Train ticket to Kyoto 🙂

After purchasing my train ticket, we decided to go and explore Shibuya. People weren’t kidding when they said that the Shibuya station entrance was packed. The Hachiko Statue is a popular meeting place and when we were there, it was super packed. Luckily I held onto my friend or else, I would have gotten lost. We also went to the famous Shibuya Crossing and to be honest, I didn’t really think much of it. I mean, it is a crossing right?

So all in all, I spent ¥18,990 (about $185USD) on my first day in Tokyo.