Lalaport Mall, Toyosu, Tokyo

One of the places I visited was Toyosu in southeast Tokyo. It can be reached by the Yurakucho line as well as the Yurikamome monorail line of which it is one of the terminal stations. There are lots of small, great-smelling restaurants and large discount shops. Beside it as well, is the beautiful and quirky LalaPort Mall with its own ferry port, a TokyoHands crafts store branch, and loads of well-designed shops and restaurants (see photo section of this blog). We ate in the beautiful Sushitsune restaurant on the top level. This was recommended to me by the guard at the Ariaka Ferry Boat port beside Tokyo Big Sight in Ariake. LalaPort also has an annex which houses the Aoki Fine Foods store which reminded me of the basement food halls of Mitsukoshi in Ginza and Harrods in London. I could have spent days in this area.

Finding a hotel in Tokyo, Part 3

Having made all the arrangements, nothing was left except to fly to Tokyo.

We were booked on Northwest (Flight 20), the Manila-to-Tokyo leg being the first part of a longer flight that would end in the USA. We picked the airline because its departure and arrival times would give us more time during our short stay in Tokyo. It definitely was not because of the service, which was just adequate on the way there but horrible on the way back. I tried to tell myself that the flight attendants on the return flight (19) must have been tired from the
 long flight from the USA, but when dinner was served, one flight attendant (who looked and sounded like a Japanese-American type) asked me whether I would prefer the chicken or the beef. When I asked in turn how the beef was cooked, she drew out the beef plate, stuck her finger on the plastic wrap and said, "Like this." Then she giggled, totally unaware of how crassly she had behaved. But I've wandered from the story.

Prior to our departure from Manila, I checked the limousine bus schedule on their website: we would arrive in Narita at 1.20pm and the bus would leave at 1.50. The next departure time from Narita to our hotel would be at 3.50pm. I just had enough time to to send e-mail to the hotel saying that we might arrive at around 5pm (3.50 + the 70-minute bus ride). Being used to the chaos of arriving in Manila's airports, I doubted we could make it to the 1.50 bus trip.

Happily enough though, arriving in Narita was a breeze. I had to wait a few minutes for my colleague, but we still had enough time to pay for our bus ride and get to the hotel at around 3.

Check-in at Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel was smooth and pleasant. We were greeted with bows and courteous smiles by both the concierge and the pretty ladies at the reception counter. There was absolutely no problem with our reservations– I was even given a room at a higher floor as I requested. This assured me of a great view of Ariake, Tokyo Bay with "mainland" Tokyo gleaming in the background.

Considering that the IGAS 2007 convention was going on at the time, the mood in the hotel was calm and relaxing.

The room, a single, was snug– some would say small but I was not planning to spend long waking hours there anyway. The large window that dominated the room kept it from feeling claustrophobic. Besides, it was not much smaller than those of some hotels in Europe.

Some websites had warned of the absence of a garment closet, but I was traveling light anyway and had lived off my suitcase before. The bathroom was clean, had a shower, a tub and the fanciest toilet seat I've ever used (warm-water bidet/cleaning spray with water pressure control).

There was no mini-bar, just a small empty ref that we were encouraged to stock. The desk held a flat-panel TV and a hot plate. Below it was a small cabinet with both Western and Japanese teacups, glasses and a small pot we could use to brew tea or cook instant ramen with.

All the TV programs were in Japanese but the opening screen informed me that I could purchase a Y1000 "virtual home theater" ticket from a vending machine in the lobby. This would allow me to watch an unlimited number of shows for the whole night. Shows included American and international movies, TV shows and even Japanese adult
movies. (Note: In most adult movies in Japan, private parts are obscured through computer pixelation, so I did not bother checking these out.)

I also saw an ethernet cable and connection port. Wired high-speed access to the Internet is free from your room– you have to bring your laptop though. I didn't and this was worth a few minutes of regret. (On the ground floor, in a small room, there is bank of computers you can use to surf as well as a photocopier/printer. One or 2 of the computers are set in English. It costs Y100 for ten minutes with a separate charge for using the printer.)

The staff, contrary to some comments in some web-based travel sites, were helpful and easy to talk to, never making you feel that your stupid questions were an inconvenience. I usually encountered those in the afternoon shift and must mention Mr Jonsoo Kong who was especially helpful in giving directions and making suggestions about
what to do for our last few hours after check out. (Check out was before noon but we could leave our luggage in the hotel. Since our flight out would leave at 7pm, we had a few hours to visit some other sites in Ariake but this worked out quite well. After all, right beside the hotel were 3 train stations and we got back to it with enough time to freshen up and even to visit the Panasonic Show Room nearby.)

Since there was no mini-bar, and almost everything, from snacks to liquor, could be bought from hotel vending machines or from at least three convenience stores all within walking distance of the hotel, check-out was a breeze. You simply stuck your room key card into a machine which would then issue your receipt. The only thing we had to
prepare for was our limousine bus trip back to Narita (you need to book the trip a day before).

All in all, our stay in Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel was as smooth as silk and as pleasant a green tea ice cream– a source of peaceful pleasure. For business travelers who have to attend a convention in Tokyo Big Sight, nothing can beat this hotel in price, proximity and efficiency. For some families who want to visit Tokyo Disneyland, the hotel is close enough to make it worth considering, but I would visit their website to ask about the size of the room.

Hotel Room Photos in Photo Section of this blog

Okay. I've completed the upload of my hotel room photos and annotated them with comments about room details. You can find these in the Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel album in the Photos section of this blog. Or you can click on the photo above.

Still uploading photos

I am currently uploading photos of my room in Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel. Thanks for your patience. I should be done in a few days.

Finding a hotel in Tokyo, Part 2

Having decided on a hotel, it was now time to book a room.

Fortunately, Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel has a website where you can make reservations. The site is available in both English and Japanese. You can access the website here.

It's a fairly straightforward site with a small map showing the hotel's location.

Once you fill in the reservation details, you click the SEARCh button which brings you to a page the shows all the available room configurations and their prices. Select a room by clicking GO. This brings you to a page listing the room you selected.

Clicking the NEXT button brings you to a form page where you are asked to fill in some personal information (there is a secure server option). This is an important page because, when filled out correctly, it starts the confirmation process which will provide you with a reservation number. When filling out your phone number filled, don't use the plus (+) or slash (/) signs normally associated with area codes. Also, the address fields allow only a limited number of characters.

Once you get through this though, your confirmation page will come up and you will be given a reference/reservation number. You will need this to make further correspondence easier. You will also receive e- mail listing your reservation details.

A great thing about this is that no credit card information or advance payment is desired unlike some online hotel booking sites.

This worried me at first, since we were traveling during peak season, and previously, the hotel web site showed very few rooms available. Then, I also had to change my reservation dates since my colleague had to change our dates of departure.

To make changes in my reservation, I made a new reservation on the website. Then I sent e-mail to further confirm it. The hotel (through Kaoru Highuchi-san) replied promptly but to double-check the reserv ations change, I then made a
telephone call. The person answering the phone was polite and sharp. She quickly transferred me to the Reservations desk where another lady who spoke English clearly, quickly looked up my reservation details using the reference number I dictated out to her. She was clear, efficient, polite and friendly.

Reassured, I then proceeded to use the Net to look up other useful information for my stay:

Information about Narita airport (You can even download floor plans of the airport!)

Getting from the airport to the hotel and back (The limousine bus is the best buy. You can check here if your hotel is served by it.)

rail links (Hyperdia even has an English interactive site that allows you to plan a trip using the one station as a start point and another as a destination. You will receive information about trip options, departure and arrival times, where to transfer, and travel cost!)

subway/monorail links:  Yurikamome monorail line; Rinkai subway line

Tokyo Subway Map 

Info about Tokyo Big Sight

In all, I was able to use the Net to make all the necessary arrangements and gather loads of useful information for my stay.

My next blog will describe my arrival in the hotel. 

Finding a hotel in Tokyo, Part 1

[Note: This post should have appeared earlier– last week in fact. I tried to post it via e-mail. Unfortunately this blog's hosting service (i.ph) hasn't been able to make it work yet.]

Before I begin, I should first say that finding a hotel outside your home
country is much easier now since it can be done online. Still, the results
of your search depend on how well you think about where to stay. I've used
trip advisor and hotels.com to help narrow my search and achieve some sort
of focus. In fact, viewing hotels on online booking sites help you
understand where  you are staying, thus refining your ideas of what you
really want.

I also visited the main focus of my trip: the Tokyo Big Sight website
which had lot of information as to access, including a helpful map of the
Odaiba area.

Still, once you've decided on your hotel, it would be best if you could
find the hotel's own website as well, if it has any.

In most cases, for convention visitors and simple tourists, especially
those on short schedules and budgets, the main issues will be:
    1) price (or better still, value)
    2) hotel comfort and facilities
    3) location (price of travel, convenience, proximity to inexpensive
        transportation)

For this Tokyo trip, I managed to zero in on:

    1) Hotel Nikko Tokyo (1-9-1 Daiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo TOKYO, JP 135-8625).
It can be found on the [ http://www.jalhotels.com ]www.jalhotels.com
website, although its listed address is wrong– someone typed in their
Ginza branch's address. It boasts of an "every-room-with-a-view-of Tokyo
Bay" concept and sits right beside the Daiba Station of the Yurikamome
monorail line, the 5th stop from Tokyo Big Sight's Kokusai Tenjijo Seimon
station.

   2) Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel (3-1 Ariake, Koto-ku, Tokyo,
Japan, Tel: +81 3-5564-0111) Its mother website (it's part of the
Washington Hotel chain) is  [ http://www.wh-rsv.com/english/index.html
]http://www.wh-rsv.com/english/index.html. This appeared to be a simple
business hotel but it had the advantages of:
        a) being right beside Tokyo Big Sight where the IGAS convention we wanted
                to attend was
        b) costing about half of Hotel Nikko Tokyo
        c) having 3 stations also right beside it

Eventually, 2 things outside my control decided for me (this happens often
in business travel).
    1) My colleague had to change his day of departure and Nikko Tokyo did not
            have single rooms available on our arrival dates.
    2) The office approved the lower accommodations budget.

And so Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel was it.

In my next posts, I'll talk about finalizing my booking in the hotel and
how my stay turned out when I finally got to Tokyo.

Taking a business trip to Ariake, Odaiba in Tokyo

During the last week of September, the week of the Autumn Harvest Moon, I had the opportunity to attend a trade fair for printing and pre-press machines and technology. In my next blogs, I will share my experiences: from finding a hotel online to photos of the various sights I was able to cram in during my short 4-day, 3-night visit. I will touch on the places I managed to get to: Ariake on the man-made island of Odaiba, where both Tokyo Disneyland and the Tokyo Big Sight Convention Center;  Toyosu , the lovely terminal town of the Yurikamome monorail with the eye-food-full Lalaport mall nearby; the famous Tsukiji fish market; the Ginza in central Tokyo and Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel which served as my hub and resting place while I was in Japan.