Day 3 - Monday 24th April 2023

This afternoon we will be changing hotels. Our flight tomorrow morning leaves from Narita airport and so tonight we will be staying at a hotel near that airport (Hotel Nikko Narita). This will involve a two hour bus trip to Narita.

It was another cool morning - about 12C. Not raining but still cloudy and so we still couldn't see Mt Fuji.

This morning there was no queue at the hotel restaurant for breakfast. In fact, many of the tables were empty. Suzy was feeling fragile after our dinner last night but she started to feel better after having breakfast.

Many of the shops here don't open until 10am. Suzy's sneakers had developed a hole yesterday and so she wanted to replace them this morning. However the shop she wanted to go to didn't open until 11am. I walked some of the way with her to take some photos of the area and then returned to our room.

She was back in the room soon after me because the shop didn't have the shoes she wanted.

We were due to check out by 12 noon. Just as we were packing up ready to leave, the clouds lifted a little and we could see a blurry snow-covered Mt Fuji in the distance. At first I thought it was just a cloud but it gradually became clear enough to photograph.

After checking out, we left our bags at reception and headed down to level 2 to have lunch at a cafe called Shake Shack. We each had a delicious burger which was just what we needed after a late breakfast.

The bus to Narita airport was due to leave at 1:20pm and we were waiting at street level ten minutes before that. It's labelled Airport Limousine even though it is a bus. In fact, it's labelled Friendly Airport Limousine. I guess we should be grateful that we got the friendly bus.

As you would expect in Japan, it left exactly on time. We stopped to pick up passengers at a few other hotels nearby and then stopped for ten minutes at their depot before heading off on the motorway. Until then, we hadn't got very far - we were still about 200m from our hotel. The total trip was about 80km.

Most of the way, we travelled though city areas before reaching country areas with what look like rice paddies. We also passed the Tokyo Disneyland.

We reached the airport at about 3pm and then had to search for the right place to catch the shuttle bus to the hotel. It turned out that we'd missed the shuttle and we caught a taxi instead. The hotel is only about 10 minutes away from the airport.

We'd read on the hotel's web site that they would be blacked out this afternoon between 2pm and 4:30pm. Apparently this is some government requirement - they need to do it once each year and today was the day.

Sure enough, the lights, lifts, etc. weren't working. We were still able to check in and were told we could use the stairs to get to our room which is located on the tenth floor. Obviously we didn't take up that suggestion and we waited patiently in the lounge.

The staff were very helpful and apologetic. Fortunately the power came back on early at about 4pm.

Our room is quite compact. It doesn't even have a cupboard - just some hangers on hooks on the wall. Once again the shower is in the bath. Wi-Fi internet speed is very good: about 200MB down and 100Mb up. It's fine for an overnight stay close to the airport followed by an early departure.

Because Suzy is a member of their Harmony Club, they gave us coupons for two free drinks. So we decided to use them for a predinner drink. The bar on level 11 was supposed to open at 5:30 but it was closed when we went up there. Apparently it's closed on Mondays. It provided a good view of the nearby airport.

Instead we went down to the restaurant on level 1 where we were planning to have dinner. Originally we planned to come back later for dinner (which the staff couldn't comprehend) but in the end we were feeling comfortable and settled after our free drink and so we did order dinner at about 6:30 anyway.

The choice was fairly limited. Instead of the western style menu options, we turned the card over and ordered from the Japanese options. Suzy had a tempura dish and I had grilled fish. On the menu photos, I thought they might not be filling. When they arrived, they had a range of small portions that turned out to be quite enough.

Decorations in this hotel are quite impressive. I don't know why, but in the reception area they have large fish kites hanging from the ceiling. The restaurant was well decorated with lanterns and lights. Outside the restaurant, there was a garden with colourful flowers and green lawns. It looked quite expansive compared with the city where we had been previously.

Although this is a very large hotel, we saw very few guests. Initially we were the only people in the restaurant. By the time we left, a few other couples had arrived. It seemed as though staff outnumbered guests. There were enough tables to accommodate many more people.