October 4, 2026
Greetings from Japan! I’ve noted the date as October 4th, but a reminder that since we crossed the International Date Line that we are actually a day ahead of our family and friends back home in the USA.
Getting off the cruise ship, through immigration and customs went smoothly except for one slight snag that my large suitcase was missing in the arrival terminal. It got sorted out quickly though when one of the staff asked us to check in the section of bags where the baggage tags had come off. Sure enough, my bag was there and we were on our way.
After a bit of back and forth between trying to decide on whether or not to take a taxi or Uber to our hotel, we settled on requesting an Uber. We did need to walk a few blocks to get to the pickup area. In a short two minutes a nice new van pulled up with plenty of room for the four of us and our luggage. He was a great driver and we felt very comfortable with him.
We got to our hotel around 11ish which was too early to check in, but they were very willing to hold our bags for us.
Next stop a 7/11 for an ATM to get some Japanese YEN. Success…
About a block from there we found a small “hole in the wall” restaurant run by one lady. Using Google translate, I asked for three bowls of Ramen noodles with pork and hard boiled eggs. Tim got himself a banana, nuts and water to play it safe. The Ramen was delicious, a little too salty though and probably loaded with MSG, which would have certainly ended Tim’s outing with us.
Backtracking to the 7/11, the entrance to the subway was right there. We figured out how to purchase a one way ticket for the subway and took a ride on the H line from Kayabacho to Ueno.
Then a several block walk and through a park we arrived at the Tokyo National Museum.
The exhibits were beautifully done. Established in 1872, it is Japan’s oldest national museum. It is home to the world’s largest collection of Japanese artwork and artifacts. We spent approximately two hours there and only toured one of five buildings!
After several dead ends, we finally found where we could buy our subway Suica cards and load them with money so that we did not need to continually purchase individual tickets.
Navigating our way back to the hotel, our bags had been delivered to our (very tiny) rooms. Yes, we had been forewarned that the rooms would be smaller than we were accustomed to. In fact our cabin on our cruise ship was larger with more storage room.
I was not particularly hungry (WHAT??), and stayed in the room while the three of them went out for some dinner. That gave me time to start this post.
Tomorrow we have an early pickup at 7:00 for a private tour to Nikko that we booked before we left home.
GRATITUDE MOMENT: Today I am grateful that everything went so smoothly for our first day here in Japan. We were able to accomplish everything I had hoped for and I feel proud of how much we experienced and learned.
