We had another rainy morning so headed to the station and had coffee there before getting the Shinkansen train to Tokyo.

If you’re in Japan you must experience their trains. Especially the Shinkansen. It’s the Bullet train and clocks speeds of around 264 km per hour. Amazing.

The stations have a great assortment of bento boxes, sandwiches / from Family Mart, drinks machines everywhere making taking a snack very easy. On these longer trips 2.5 hrs to cross the country most people bring their food. But by the end of the journey there isn’t one bit of rubbish left behind. Amazing!!!

We got off a stop earlier than Tokyo main station because we realised that Ueno Park was closer to our hotel. We changed to a JR train and in two stops were close to our hotel – the Asakusa View Hotel Annex Rokku. It’s fairly new and off the Main Street and close to all the little laneways of restaurants and shops. It’s a complete contrast to upmarket Ginza where we stayed when we first arrived.

I like the change of areas. I had a big walk around to get to know the place while Steve did the washing. These hotels all have cooperated laundry rooms. For 400 yen ( $4) you can do a load of washing. Drying is 100 yen.

We headed off for a drink and dinner and wandered the covered market streets.

We were looking for bar but most here are all restaurants as well Until we found Zen which looked like a wine bar but did turn into a restaurant. It was a great little place

We stayed and had a great meal. Steve had the ginger pork and I had octopus rice hot pot.

We walked back to the hotel via Lawsons – like 7 eleven. Only so much better than our Australian ones. We got a few supplies and now I’m preparing for a bubble bath and Steve’s having whiskey bought from Lawsons and watching the baseball finals.