It is the last leg of our trip and we have Shinkansen tickets from Kanazawa to Tokyo at 11 am. It is a short taxi ride to the station after our last breakfast buffet. The trip takes 3 hours and routes through Toyama and Nagano.
In the distance, there is snow on the highest and farthest mountains, perhaps the same storm that brought the season’s first snowfall to Mt. Fuji. Nagano, the site of the 1998 Winter Olympics is beautiful with autumn colors on its forested mountains. We see several ski runs.
The Tokyo Station is overwhelming to say the least. There are stairs and passageways leading in so many directions with a million signs every which way. So many train lines, JR Rail and Shinkansen. It takes us a while to realize our hotel is not near this station and we need get to the Shinigawa Station in south Tokyo. Ray was determined not to take another expensive taxi ride after our experience in Osaka, so the only other alternative was to figure out the subway/train system, and we have all afternoon to do so.
We wander around more until we find the right line and track but where are the ticket offices? It turns out we were inside the main terminal already and there are no tickets sold there, but our original ticket was good for any train. We board the local train then after studying the map for a long time, find our way to the right exit and outside to the Tokyo Marriott shuttle bus stop. That was quite the adventure!!
It is gusty outside but we opt to try tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlet) rather than a hotel meal. With some help from the hotel doorman, we make it to Maruhachi in Shinagawa. It has 1k good reviews online! There are only 10 seats at the counter and most of guests, all men, seem to be regulars.
The tonkatsu is amazing- juicy and crisp, and comes with the miso soup I have ever had. We watch them cook; the soup has sautéed fresh onions and carrots. What a meal -my smaller cutlet is around $12 and Ray’s larger one is about $15. It is so much fun to sit with the locals and pretend to be a non-tourist.
We walk the 30 min back in the gusty wind through the back streets and are glad we ventured out tonight. It would have been so easy to have stayed in but now I feel like I can say I have been to Tokyo.
Looking out our hotel window, the view could be NYC. There is nothing that identifies it as being Japanese except that the streets are void of traffic. It is a public transportation system that works for all residents, making the roads bike able and walkable.