For some reason we find it impossible to make a connection when traveling internationally, outbound. Our trip to London last year for the start of an 80-day trip required rebooking after the connecting flight was delayed. Our luggage, however, got an extra 4 days worth of travel.
This year our originating flight was delayed by 1:35 eating up all but 10 minutes of the connection in ATL. So we moved over two gates and booked through Seattle, with a 45 minute connection to Tokyo. Well, that flight was slightly delayed, then took 15 minutes to taxi to the gate in SEA. By the time we got the international flight they had given away our seats, so we spent the night in Seattle, courtesy of Delta.
Enough of that. We made it Tokyo one day late, fortunately we had planned to arrive 3 days early.
The flight took the northern route to Japan.
We're staying at the Tokyo Hilton Odaiba. Our room has an outstanding view, as do most of the rooms.
The cherry blossoms are still in bloom.
The Rainbow Bridge is right outside our window.
A nearby building/Death Star
Our hotel, viewed from one of the many walkways along the water.
We walked along the main road, to find food and stay awake for few hours.
A photo booth! As we found out later, this area is very popular in the evenings, with a large mall right next to our hotel.
As we walked back from dining, there's a miniature Statue of Liberty along the waterfront.
That evening.
On our single day in Tokyo we took the subway into town, just to walk around in the sunlight and see the city. Not very crowded at 8am on a Saturday.
Shimbashi Subway station
Hibiya Park, just south of the Imperial Palace gounds
The moat
One of a pair of gates guarding access to the grounds.
Nijubashi Bridge
After two hours of walking around the Imperial Palace grounds, we found the subway again and eventually found our train and went to Ginza district, Tokyo's shopping street.
Every high end retailer was present in this area. Lots of opportunity to spend money. We found a Disney Store and bought a Chip and Dale Keychain.
Tiffany's
After an afternoon nap we went out for food again, and the area was quite busy. Instead of walking along the street level we were on the third level promenade. There's our hotel.
The Rainbow Bridge lit up at night. The lights went out about midnight.
From our hotel room. That's the mini Liberty in the lower right.
