Say, those are the same designs they have on the ceiling of the Disney Soda Fountain in Hollywood
When I had lunch at Oceano, they gave me a card for a promotion where you can collect limited edition pins for every two meals you eat at a Disney hotel restaurant (except the one that you had first kinda doesn't count cuz you still need two more after that to get the first pin). The catch (and, no doubt the reason for the promotion) is that you're never at the hotels at lunchtime because you're in the parks, and meal prices almost double at dinnertime. Another catch is that you have to order a buffet or a set or course menu that costs ¥1,900 or more (and it always costs more
). Basically, it is a terrible deal for anyone with even basic math skills, but all day the wheels in my head had been turning trying to figure out how we could get that first pin without going broke.
Pin set
¥5,700 first pin
My quest led me back to the Ambassador looking for dinner.
The *only* reason I was in here was to get you pictures of another fabulous hotel restroom!
Whoaanother real art piece in a restroom!
There's a lovely lounge in the lobby of the Ambassador Hotel where you can get drinks and light snacks. I thought maybe eating there would count for the pin promo, but they didn't have a set menu in the evening. I have no pictures of the place, but I did shoot the fake food!
I'll take an electric drink, please!
I read all the restaurant menus and settled on Hana as the place where I could eat the cheapest (Tick-Tock diner also didn't count toward the pin promo). To refresh your memory, cuz I posted these pix, like, 3 years ago now
Outside of Hana
Inside of Hana
I got tempura!
It was OK, but not, like, the best tempura I've ever had. Back to the train station!
The Ambassador's courtyard is so pretty at night!
When I got back to Tokyo Station, I realized I still hadn't bought our bullet train tickets to Kyoto for the following week. You can't buy them from outside the country or I would have done this before we left the US. I dunno if I really needed to buy them in advance, but I'm an uber planner, so I figured I should do it while I was in the station.
This turned into an hour-long slog from one end of the ginormous station to the other and back again as I was sent from person to person in search of the shinkansen ticket office. First I got a guy who told me to use the ticket machine, but when I did, it said wouldnt take credit cards (again
why?!).
Not here
When I asked him again, he told me the same thing. The third time I asked he sent me halfway round the barn to the wrong JR counter
Not here
The person there sent me in the general direction of the right counter, but I had to stop for more directions a couple times.
Not here, but this *is* where you want to go if you have a Japan Rail Pass you bought in the States and need to exchange it
FINALLY, when Id seriously gone all the way around the, like, five city blocks that comprise Tokyo Station, I found the office and muddled my way thru an order.
Here!!!
And this is what it looks like from the other side!
I was already wiped out from a day of ambling around Disney, so when I finally found the right ticket counter after 45 minutes of frustration and discovered the guy didn't speak English and that my phrasebook and 2 weeks of language lessons weren't helping me, I was practically in tears. Granted, it was the only time in three weeks when I felt overwhelmed by the language barrier, and I think being utterly exhausted didn't help. The guy at the counter was very persistent, though, and eventually, through sign language and my pigeon Japanese, he figured out that I wanted two reserved seats on the first shinkansen to Kyoto the following Tuesday and that I was very, very tired. Then it was back down to the subway to catch the Marunouchi line for Akasaka.
This little guy cheered me right up!
When I got back to the room, I started packing for our departure for Disney the next day. What I didn't know is whether we'd be able to go down for park opening and do a full day or have to go down later in the day and wait til Wednesday to go to a park. It all depended on what time Patrick got in from the shoot, and at midnight, things weren't looking good
What *was* looking good was my souvenir haul for the trip so far!
Up Next: Checking into the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel!
Except for that squi like thing you ate hehe
Love the hankies & the pic of your loot.
I'm glad you were finally able to get to the right place and get the train tickets - I know how frustrating that was.
