I have just returned form a vacation trip to Japan. I was a short trip since I combined it with a trip to the Philippines to visit some friends.

For this trip I stayed at the Sheraton Yokohama basically because it is accessible to the Narita Express, it had a Citibank ATM next to it, and it's only a short hop on the Tokaido Line to get to Shinagawa Station to connect to the Yamanote Line. Oh plus, Starwood points made the stay free.

What worked?

1) The Citibank ATM accepted my Washington Mutual ATM card. I used it to get additional funds. Y10,000 = $86.00 (at least according to the bank statement, of course there will probably be the usual bank "foreign transaction fee" added later. Last year, when I was there, I used my Citibank Credit card and it also worked, but this time around I wanted to confirm that it would work with a regular bank ATM card.

2) The 3G network of DOCOMO and Vodafone JP. Yup, my T-Mobile service roamed to them. I was able to use voice and text. Of course, I had to enable international roaming, which is free to activate at T-Mobile. I also have a Sony Ericsson K610i which is Tri-band and 3G capable.

3) At the last minute, I realized that there were other type of JR Rail Passes. When I would have normally bought a 7 day Green Car JR Pass ($350 - $375 approx.), it would not have been worth it since I was only in Japan for 5 days and only in the Yokohama/Tokyo area. However, I realized that there is a JR Pass only for JR East and that covers where I will be at. A 5 day Ordinary Car JR East Pass cost $177.00. I figured it was worth it even though my longest trip would have been round trip on the Narita Express ($45 - $50 each way approx.). Also, that I'm buying it for the convenience of not having to line up with the rest of the Salarymen and Office Ladies at the ticket machine (plus trying to figure out the cost, etc.)

In any case, the trip was enjoyable though short. Other than Akihabara and Harajuku, and of course, the Yokohama area, I did get to go around Odaiba do the tourist thing at the Tokyo Big Sight, the miniature Statue of Liberty, and the Fuji TV corporate office. I also made it to Kamakura/Hase area to look at the big Buddha and the Kannon temple.