Sunday, July 17, 2011

Tokyo (Haneda) Layover

Now that Leon let me borrow some Japanese Yen, I'm thinking I may take a short trip to Tokyo during my layover to Beijing. I have ~4.5 hours total... since Haneda Airport is in Tokyo Bay, there's a monorail which can get me to Hamamatsucho Station at ~6am. From there, it's a 15 minute walk to Tokyo Tower. However, the observatory doesn't open until 9am so I won't be able to go up.



The exchange rate is only ¥79 for $1 so the ¥470 train ticket is ~$6 each way. Let's hope the rain from typhoon Ma-On is gone as well. I actually want to visit areas near Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Akihabara stations... oh well, maybe I'll fly through Tokyo again on my future China trips.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

sorry you may not have enough yen to visit a soap-land :(

they used to call it a Turkish bath or Turkey-bath until the Turks raised a stink.

totochi said...

Wikipedia: Soaplands began when explicit prostitution in Japan became illegal, as a simple form of bath where women washed men's bodies. They were originally known as toruko-buro, meaning Turkish bath. Following a campaign by Turkish scholar Nusret Sancaklı denouncing the use of this name for brothels, the new name "soapland" was the winning entry in a nationwide contest to rename them.

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They had a "nationwide contest" to name whorehouses? Really?!

Anyway, Yoshiwara is not that far from Ueno Station though Sunday morning at 6am is not the best time to visit, eh?

Anonymous said...

3 to 4 am would be better. you would just be catching them closing up although you probably can find a 24 hour place. you want me to see if i can dig out a coupon?

totochi said...

Coupon?! Filler, is that you?