Day (Night) 1: Christmas Lights of Tokyo City
A 5.30am start for us. Thanks to Cherry, we were able to have some Bread Club pastries for breakfast that she had bought the day prior. Our Uber driver, Thamer Alkhammat greeted us with a smile by the time we were out the door at 6.30am. Turns out he used to work as a paramedic in Melbourne. As the conversation unfolded… we found that he used to race in the Baja off-road series in Dubai and had worked for the Red Cross Geneva in Iraq during some of the more tumultuous years. What an incredible guy! Thamer eventually told us that he is the famed and Melbourne’s own Smily Driver. What made it more impressive was that he had remembered giving Cherry a ride before and could quote specific lines from their conversation then. You can read more about Thamer’s journey to Australia through this article: https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/one-step-forward-10-back-iraqi-uber-driver-s-visa-mountain-20220428-p5agt1.html
Our flight QF79, an Airbus 330, departed on time and my 90375th attempt to ask for a free upgrade was once again rejected…! Perhaps I should let Cherry do the asking next time.
We arrived on Christmas evening after a fairly uneventful flight. Cherry pretty much utilised the entire flight time to work on her Master’s, while I had some downtime to catch a movie and finished a book I had started the week before (Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop). Our flight landed and we disembarked at the promised time of 5.55pm.
This was the first time I had arrived in Tokyo through Narita International Airport. Adorned by multiple Pokémon murals, we were very much welcomed by a highly efficient operation and we were out of the airport with both our checked luggages in no time.
A quick enquiry at the Keisei Skyliner train counter led us to catching the local Limited Express Keisei train direct to Oshiage station, where Tokyo Skytree was. The journey took a little over an hour and we were able to pay using our Suica IC cards that we had topped up through Apple Pay.
On arrival at 8.25pm, it was action stations. We had to locate lockers for our luggages and still make the final entry time for Skytree at 9pm. Thankfully, with the help of the staff at Tokyo Solamachi they were able to point us to some free lockers in B3 of the complex. Once again, we were able to use our transit Suica card on our phones to pay for the luggage lockers. Come on, Melbourne, time to step your game up!
8.45pm: we made it to Tokyo Skytree after navigating throngs of people in Solamachi. In the lead up to Christmas, the Skytree would be lit up in alternating green and red colours. On Christmas Day we were treated with the green setup. The surrounding area was buzzing with young couples all eagerly awaiting to take photos with the myriad of Christmas Decorations that have been put up. The promised 8 metre tall Christmas tree wasn’t as impressive as we had thought…
The entrance to Skytree was clear in its messaging: tickets for the night are sold out! Luckily I had bought them off the website prior. Phew. Once again, don’t underestimate the Christmas and New Year period in Japan. We hurried in and the lovely staff welcomed us in as we were clearly the last people to be heading up at this hour.
It took about 60 seconds in the elevator to take us up to the Tembo Deck which sat 350 metres above ground level. Pretty crazy stuffs.
To be spending Christmas Day overlooking the lights of Tokyo is simply lovely (F1 reference, sorry).
The city lights surrounded us as we navigated round the tower. It was only here, messaging our dear friend and fellow kendoka, Ravon, that we found out it was a bit of a cultural thing for young Japanese couples to visit the Skytree on Christmas night. Makes sense, given how we were either surrounded by tourists like ourselves or couples…
We then took the next elevator up to the Tembo Galleria which brought us to the highest observation point of 451.2 metres.
By this point in the night, the crowds had started to dissipate and we were beginning to feel the weight of the day’s flight on us. We took both elevators back down to civilisation.
Given the hour of the night, our next challenge presented itself… getting out of Solamachi! Escalators had closed for the night and following the signs led us to multiple elevators with long queues spanning metres. Goodness. We explored around and luckily found direct elevators that led us straight to our baggage lockers in B3.
We departed Oshiage station at about 10:13pm, catching the train to Shimbashi on the Asakusa Line. Hotel time.
Arriving at our hotel, Tokyu Stay Shimbashi, gave us a huge sense of relief… we were pretty tired navigating the crowds of Tokyo with our four luggages and full backpacks. Checking in was as quick and smooth as possible and we finally were able to leave our bags behind to begin pondering what to have for our very late dinner.
Neither of us particularly felt like dining in, so the option was clear: konbini food! The nearest 7-Eleven was merely a two minute walk away.
While Operation KFC on Christmas Night was not a success by all measures, I was quick to secure our backup option after entering the store. There were exactly two pieces of Fried Chicken left and I eagerly ordered them from the confused staff as I left her behind to explore the rest of the store with Cherry. Minutes later, we emerged with our haul:
2 x Fried Chicken
1 x Tonkatsu Bento
2 x Soft Boiled Egg
1 x Fruit Cup
1 x Melon Pan + Haagen Daaz Ice Cream (for a custom ice-cream sandwich!)
2 x Juice packs
1 x Pocari Sweat
1 x Suntory Gin and Soda
1 x Suntory Grape Highball
All for a total price of… AUD $33!
Best part of our hotel room was that it had a microwave. We were able to easily follow the instructions on the pack to warm up our food.
Finishing past midnight, we were pretty proud that we were at least able to have some sort of fried chicken in Japan on Christmas Day. Trust me, sleep came very easily after.
Cheers everyone! We hope you had a very lovely Christmas Day regardless of its significance for you.
