The morning started with a swim and I was keen to check out the Prince Gallery pool to see how it compared to the Ritz in Kyoto. Whilst it was a nice pool with an amazing view (though you could not see any of it when you were actually in the pool) the finishes in both the pool and changing area were not as nice as that of the Ritz. Over the years we have been lucky enough to stay in many five star hotels at various price points and in different countries, whilst Prince Gallery was certainly very good it was not quite up there with the very best. Anyway, it was a good swim and it woke me up nicely for the day to come. Oh and it also made me feel not quite so guilty about the club lounge breakfast I was about to enjoy.
We arrived at the club lounge and after giving our room number were warmly welcomed as per our previous visits. We were encouraged to order a hot dish from the breakfast menu as well as make use of the self-service buffet. As per the suggestions on FT I decided to order the chef's egg, which is scrambled egg yolk, topped with a poached egg, with egg white foam on the top along with some Parma ham and a light grating of truffle. I also indulged in some pastries and other items from the buffet and a couple of coffees, all the while enjoying the view. To be honest it was a brilliant way to start the morning and if there wasn't so much to see in Tokyo we could have stayed a lot longer.
The plan for the morning and it was a plan that failed miserably, was to have a stroll around Daikenyama which was supposed to be filled with cute little shops, coffee houses, art galleries and so on. Maybe we went to the wrong part but it was not what we found. Heading back a minute what made it even more frustrating was that we spend more time getting lost trying to escape the surrounds of Shibuya station then we spent in Daikenyama. On a positive note we did find Hachiko the dog!
So in the end we headed back to the crowds of Shibuya and enjoyed a stroll through streets big and small, found some real life Mario Karters and did plenty of window shopping. After a few hours of walking around doing not much more than soak in the atmosphere we headed back to the Prince Gallery to check out and move on to our next hotel.
It was a short trip on the metro, at least in theory on the Marunouchi Line from the Prince Gallery to the Palace Hotel, but whilst the trip on the metro was short, escaping Otemachi Station was something else. It took almost the same time again to make it through the maze of the station into the depths of the Palace hotel and out the other side to the front desk.
Hotel: Palace Hotel
Room: Deluxe with Balcony (Room 2001)
Status: None (Booked through Virtuoso - Upgrade, breakfast and dining credit)
We were running a little late and made it to check in for 2pm, the same time as our reservation for lunch at Go Teppanyaki. Thankfully check in was quick and friendly with our Virtuoso benefits explained. Our bags were taken one way and we were taken the other as we were walked straight to the restaurant. The set up was similar to the tempura restaurant at the Ritz in Kyoto. There were two spotless grills and one other couple in the restaurant. As per usual drinks were beer and ginger ale. We had gone for the basic Ryokusui menu and once again the more you pay the more expensive the ingredients are, with a small increase in the volume of food served. In all honesty the amount of food was way more than it looked. Service was polite but functional, perhaps as our chef and our server were less confident in English than at some of the other high end places we had been to on this trip. Overall the meal was definitely lacking the personality and atmoshpere we had at Monk, Jiki Miyazawa and Tempura Mizuki.
Anyway, let's move onto the food. First up was some soup and then a small salad.
We were presented with our vegetables and meat before they was placed on the grill. Our condiments were also explained. The vegetables were nice but that marbled beef was something else, not necessarily better than a good old fashioned thick cut steak from home (France or UK) but it had a completely different flavour and texture profile, buttery, melt in the mouth and incredibly rich. If this was the cheap cut how good must the real prime cuts be? After that we had some deliciously fragrant garlic rice (yes, we got food envy and paid the supplement!), then the miso soup and pickles.
There was a dairy based dessert (can't remember exactly what it was now) and we finished up with the usual green tea and some much needed coffee. It was an expensive lunch, but with the Virtuoso dining credit making a significant dent towards the bill it was quite reasonable for the quantity and quality of the food as well as the exclusivity of the location and essentially having our own private chef cook for us.
We were pretty stuffed and thought we better check out our room before heading out for the afternoon.
We were happy to see we had been given room 2001 which had a special meaning for us. I was happier still that we'd been upgraded to a balcony room which had quite spectacular views of the Imperial Palace Gardens, Tokyo Station and all those lovely sky scrapers with Tokyo Tower in the distance. The room itself was large, not as big as Prince Gallery or the Ritz but we had loads of space. The fixtures and fittings although not as high tech as Prince Gallery felt significantly more luxurious. This felt like a really high end luxury hotel and for the nightly room rate that was the very least we were expecting! We briefly unpacked and then headed out for one crazy afternoon and evening of sightseeing.
First up for the afternoon was the Imperial Palace. Sadly we had to rush this visit due to the late arrival at the hotel, longer than planned lunch and me taking too long in the room taking photos and unpacking. The grounds were pleasant enough but compared to what we had seen elsewhere there was nothing worth dwelling over. The fact that it was rather overcast didn't help. We left at closing time as the guards were politely ushering us and the other stragglers out.
Next up headed for Akihabara to see the lights, obsolete gadgets, geeks and so forth. When I think of Tokyo Akihabara was what I always had in mind. It was also nice to really stretch our legs after all that food. In an ideal world we would have arrived a little later and caught the illuminations in their full glory rather than at dusk. We saw lots of fun things, old gadgets, geeky dolls, some rather strange singing with even stranger dance moves (sorry, we were enjoying it too much to take a video), more Mario Karts, backpacker bars and restaurants under the railway arches and ladies playing dress up.
Oh and the amazing Yamashiroya toy store, the only toy store I can think of that was almost entirely devoid of children. It had everything we could ever dream of from high end Ghibli merch to plastic musical cats and dogs, dancing Star Wars figures and fancy mecha kits. So much fun. Oh and I won't talk about how a certain person got over excited at the floor filled with every Sylvanian Family you could imagine. We really loved this place and were quite glad that our cases were already full to bursting.
It was still earlyish (well not for sightseeing) and one of the joys of Tokyo is how late the museums open at the weekend so we headed off towards Ueno park and the Tokyo National Museum.
It was dark by the time we got there but still pretty busy. We had about 90 minutes to enjoy the museum before closing which included time to pick up some of the gifts that we'd struggled to find. I have to confess we probably could have spent the day here and in the end we managed to rush through one of the wings. Despite the rush we saw some amazing art, ceramics, furniture, swords, screens. It was a really great museum. We finished up trawling the gift shop and thankfully found some nice items to bring home to our families that didn't take up a lot of room in our cases.
We weren't super hungry after a huge hotel breakfast and a good sized lunch. So rather than dinner we headed back to the hotel for cocktails and dessert. However, on the way back through the park we stumbled on what looked like some kind of bonsai competition. Another wow moment on what was turning into one heck of a fun day. We took the metro back from Ueno to Tokyo Station (could the day get any better?) and I even got to enjoy a rather fun photo opportunity!
Knowing we had a few fine hotels, with equally fine hotel bars we wanted to dress up for at least one evening and enjoy some drinks. For some reason I was terribly bloated and just about managed to fit into my clothes. Ms Spymon had no such problem. We ended up in the main bar and caught the end of the jazz band over a couple of cocktails and some desserts.
It was very relaxing and we were happily overdressed. It had been a great day and we couldn't believe we had less than 24 hours left in Japan.