6/3: Tokyo (The Okura Tokyo + Ginza Shopping)
I was excited for my next hotel, The Okura Tokyo. I just booked one night since it was eligible for the Amex FHR program, and with my Platinum card I get an annual $200 statement credit for booking an eligible hotel. The program also comes with great perks, for this hotel I also got $100 hotel credit (planned to use for room service), 12PM early check in upon availability (didn't use), 4PM guaranteed late check out, daily breakfast, and room upgrade when available. I like the program since it stacks with loyalty benefits, so when you stay at Marriotts, Hiltons, etc you still earn points even when booking through FHR. I paid around $460 USD but after all those credits, I thought it was a pretty good deal!
After leaving the Harry Potter studio, I was onto the train around 2PM. It was actually named a bit differently than Google Maps indicated but the time was right so I got on anyways, and it ended up being right. I got a bit lost when transferring to the Ginza line and a nice Japanese woman noticed my confusion and asked if I needed help.
Finding the Okura was a bit of a challenge, the hotel is massive and can be entered from so many sides, so I wasn't really sure where the lobby was. It's also on a bit of a hill so I ended up doing a lot of uphill walking. Well later on I discovered that if you're walking up the hill you're doing it wrong, there are escalators from the bottom of the hill if you know where to look, but it wasn't intuitive at all
I did finally find the right place and they whisked away my bags and helped check me in. I actually went to the wrong building at first (there are two, Prestige and Heritage) but they brought me to the right place, they were all very nice. The guy rolling my bag for me completed my sunglasses, which I thought was funny since they were like $2 from the clearance bins at Target, and this was a 5 star hotel
Check in was very quick, I had paid a small amount extra for a Prestige view room in hopes of a better upgrade, and I think it paid off as I was upgraded to a corner room!
While I was checking in at 3PM, they were literally rolling out a red carpet at the lobby entrance. I didn't catch who was coming in but that's the kind of place it was, old money and foreign dignitary vibes for sure!
They brought me up to my room and showed me around the room, they do that at all the nice hotels in Japan!
Wow, this room was amazing. These are my pictures, not stock photos, I swear!
The corner room was MASSIVE! It would be so great to have a longer stay there.
The bathtub even had a TV, though I didn't get a chance to use it!
But the best part of the room was the view! I couldn't believe it, I had a view of Tokyo Tower! This was totally unexpected and the best surprise ever.
There was even a walk in closet!
A lot of the hotels had packaged treats as gifts, it was fun trying all of them. These were leaf pies and there were some nuts as well.
Ofter enjoying the room for a bit, I headed back out to do a bit of shopping. The Okura is pretty close to a station, it took a bit of practice navigating in that area as a lot of the entrances/exits were inside other buildings. Plus getting in/out of the Okura itself was its own adventure.
I headed to Ippodo in Marunouchi which is funny because I had just been in that area and didn't realize there was a location there, oops. I bought two 20g containers of their more expensive matcha even though I know nothing about matcha. It was 3780¥ for both, which I think is way cheaper than ordering it in the US. I think it was the Ummon and Seiun varieties, I haven't tried them yet. I started with my Matcha Stand Maruni matcha since that's a lower grade and I don't wanna start with the good stuff first!
It was quite rainy that evening, luckily I didn't have to walk far to the stations. I headed to Ginza next, to check out the flagship Uniqlo.
It had like 12 stories! It was pretty busy and a lot of the floors had the same things, and the floors were small. The regular Uniqlo I went to at a mall earlier this trip had all the same stuff, so I recommend shopping at a less popular location and then just checking out the flagship if you're interested in seeing it. Not sure I'd bother going back but it was fun riding the escalators up and up. I rode a LOT of escalators in Japan!
I did find a Peanuts shirt in my mom's size that was out at the other location I was at, so that was a success.
I checked out GU, which had so much cute stuff! I am usually a S-M in the US and generally M was okay for me at these stores in Japan. Some of the stuff just fit a bit oddly, but that happens in the US as well. I didn't find anything I liked enough to get but I also wasn't really in a clothes buying mood, being wet from the rain and tired from the long day on my feet. GU wasn't very busy, especially compared to Uniqlo, even though they were practically next to each other.
I saw so little of Ginza that I definitely want to go back, there are so many shops!
I definitely need to try Gyukatsu again, I keep thinking about it! I almost missed a lot of rooms too, I looked up a map just before I left to check and realized I had only seen like half the rooms. Dizzy was like an alcove room that made it look like you were moving with everything else, the super motion-sickness inducing one! I think I missed the cube room LOL!
This was supposed to be a two hour meal!
I felt bad for the cow that was sacrificed for this meal, LOL. The A5 wagyu was just so rich, so fatty, I could not eat nearly as much as I would regular steak. I'm a big eater and this meal just took me out. It didn't help that everything was so fast (all four meats were served within 25 minutes) so I had no time to really digest.
We just finished reading Chamber of Secrets but we're going to pause since the story gets progressively darker.
