Tokyo & Ishigaki Nara
So using our collected points we flew Cathay Pacific Business Class up to Tokyo-Narita, unfortunately the incoming aircraft servicing our flight had developed a technical problem and we are almost 4 hours late leaving Hong Kong, which put paid to any early sightseeing in Tokyo.
Upon arrival, immigration formalities were quick and easy, and only 30 minutes after disembarking we were buying our tickets for the train into town. Tokyo offers many good incentives to use local transport. We purchased a one way fast train ticket to the city, and a 3 day underground pass, so we could just hop on and off the trains. It only took 45 minutes to reach the city centre where we switched lines and to reach our hotel at Shiodome.
I wanted to go back to the Park hotel where we stayed on our first visit, the hotel is located on the top floors of the Shiodome Tower, so even a room on the lowest floor is at skyscraper level. I had done some research to discover that the hotel had employed local artists to decorate rooms on their Art Floor, also if you booked a room on this floor you had access to a lounge that offered complementary snacks and wine between 5 & 7 p.m. Our room was decorated with a carp painting.
As we had visited Tokyo before and seen many of the tourist sites. So we decided to go find some of the places i'd only heard about, but would love to find. So first on the list was a trip to the Budokan Sumo Hall, am not a fan of sumo, and the reason I wanted to visit was that many rock bands would play the hall when in Tokyo, as its quite a prestigious place to play, and going back to my youth I remember the seminal live album released by Cheap Trick was recorded at the Budokan, may sound daft to some, but we had to make the pilgrimage.
The weather wasn't great, most days it rained a little but at least it wasn't hot and humid. We took the train to some of the more known places like Shubiya, Shinjuku and Harajuku. With nothing better to do than people watch, it is a great pastime, especially somewhere like Tokyo, with fashion statements at every turn.
A highlight of the trip was a visit to the TeamLab Borderless Art Museum. Situated on one of the reclaimed islands, it was very easy to reach by underground. We had pre-booked our tickets, which were time stamped, and I would advise you plan to spend between 3 & 4 hours just wandering through the rooms. There is no map, you just go where you wish over, though there are queues into some of the exhibits with limited room.
It certainly is an assault on the senses, rooms are dimly lit , and some like the Forest of Lamps where you move through a room colourful changing lights. My favourite room turned out to be one where you were able to contribute to the moveable artwork. Initially it looked like it was an activity for children. There were blank templates of fish outlines, and all you had to do was colour them in. Then what happened was just great to watch. You gave your drawing to someone who scanned it, and the walls were an equivalent of a digital fish tank, once scanned your picture came alive and was dropped into the fish tank, and it swam with all the other artwork. We must have stood for a good 20 minutes watching the virtual fish swim.
Near our hotel was a stopwatch countdown to the Rugby World Cup, which was set at 80 days. I tried to find some merchandise to take as souvenirs, and even after searching google and wandering the streets we were unable to find any stores selling rugby world cup gear.
After a few nights we left our hotel on the Haneda hotel shuttle bus, taking the short early morning trip to the city airport more known for its domestic services. We continued our trip to the small south island of Nara, which is nearer to Hong Kong than Tokyo.
As part of the trip I also wanted to do some diving and beach time. We had booked 4 nights at the ClubMed Ishigaki. After arrival we settled in and went looking for the dive centre. We booked to have 2 dives per day for 3 days in an effort to find and be in the sea with the stunning Manta Ray. Unfortunately the rays hadn't read the script, and in 6 dives we didn't manage to see one of the majestic creatures. Though a dive can never be classed as disappointing as there is always something to see and marvel at.
The setup at ClubMed is very European based. The food was excellent and we could have easily gained weight if we hadn't watched what we ate and drank. We spent the non dive time, relaxing on the beach and reading, and yes having the odd cocktail. We also liked the idea of ClubMed team members joining guests at mealtimes, it made a nice change.
All too quickly the trip to Japan was over, and we took the short trip back to Hong Kong, for one night before making our way back to the UK for the rest of our summer.