The Famous Imperial Palace

Tokyo station is the center point of our visit. I felt funny that the big city name is also a station name. Tokyo station is 100 years old and beautiful building. That area is surrounded by businesses and high quality shops, and of course The Imperial Palace.

5 minutes easy walk from Tokyo station leads you to the Imperial palace area. Big green area with wide roads and historical remnants. There are people running and walking on the wide roads…

There is also Nihonbashi Bridge, a big photo spot. The bridge is actually inside of the palace so no one is allowed on the bridge except for special days like New Year.

Then, there comes East Garden of the Imperial Palace. The last time I tried to enter the garden it was after 4.30pm so the admission was closed. 4.30 pm is last entry time, but this time I was around 4.00 pm. even though gardens closing time is 5.00 pm. I wandered around. I enjoyed the scenery very much.

 

The only entrance to the garden is Otemon Gate. Then you go get a free admission ticket-chip, before starting the visit.

Inside of the garden is beautiful, and calm. There are many ancient walls, tea ceremony rooms and a museum.

The best part of it that the garden is full of corners to sit and chill. Even there are people on the grass areas lounging and relaxing.   It is a relaxing place to have a coffee and to read.

Another spot is Sakuradamon Gate. It is a no entry gate. But the gate is close to the surrounding pond and the walls. It is another beautiful photo spot, with side note that, pond is an artificial feature from old times for defense use. Nowadays, it is pleasing the eye, and a nice venue for lantern festival.

The maps of Imperial palace is helpful for the tourists like me, loving to make the check lists. The map suggests 4 spots shown   on map.

The Spots are Nihonbashi Bridge, Sakuradamon Gate, Wadakura Fountain Park, and the Statue of Kusunoki Masashige. I would add Otemon Gate and East Garden to the list. For me, there are 6 spots have to be seen in the Imperial Palace area.

I will go the Imperial Palace again and see the statue and check on the museum on the East Garden, sit on the grass with a nice book and  a good company. Imperial palace is more than a Touristic spot for me.

Cheers,

Ece

Sakura House

Life is full of surprises and opportunities. Last year, I was in need of place to stay for a month. Hotels are too expensive and not suitable for a long stay, and I wanted some comfort.

All of these and some input from my friends led me to Sakura House Website. It is such a comfort for me to see all the steps in English.

Sakura House has hotel, dormitory, personal room, vacation apartments, and all many more to choose based on your needs.First item is checked I need a place to stay and Sakura House offers that.

Then, I was looking for my personal preferences like place, the bedding, full Japanese experience of western style, what is inside the room (TV, fridge, bookshelf), how many people stay, and all…

Surprisingly, whenever I enter a preference there are always options. You know when you want TV in your room but the only available room is too pricey or far from your work or school or possible tourist spots that you have to compromise your preferences. Forget that. That does not happen in Sakura House.

Second item to choose is exactly which place to stay. I never felt so free to choose.

What I was afraid of was the administration or paperwork part. It may take days to finish that procedure.

I filled the online reservation form for a room that I liked. I just went on with my life since I don’t expect a reply till the next day, and as my expectation was that when they reply, they will ask more questions before moving on to the actual steps.

It is wonderful when reality is better than expectations.

I got a reply email in one hour with the actual steps of reservation. One hour… 60 minutes…

Though I need to specify that I was in Tokyo time zone, it may be different if you email when everyone is sleeping in Tokyo.😀

Then I needed to pay the deposit and voila, the day I plan to move in, I went to the Sakura House office, filled the forms, paid my rent, got the keys and started everything blissfully and without even uttering one word in Japanese.

Now comes the second part, how is everything actually going to work, from cleaning to personal space…

The room was clean, the bedding sheets were clean, the communal spaces were clean, toilets and bath were clean.

I told myself, it is high hopes for all to stay that clean… Apparently it was not. Everyone was quite respectful and clean, once a week there is cleaning and maintenance staff coming to the house…

And in case there are some dysfunctional things, like forgetting to take out the garbage or smoking, all of the residents of the house receive a warning e-mail as a first step, though I am sure they are many more steps until the problem is solved.

My second worry was the personal privacy and space in communal areas like bath shelves or fridge shelves…

Japanese perfectionism won me over one more time with the boxing and numbering system put in order by Sakura House. Sakura House think about every little detail in full of boxes and shelves with room numbers written on.

One by one all my worries evaporated, and I enjoyed my stay. 

The best ending to my blissful story with Sakura House was an expected and relaxing moving out day. On the day and specific hour appointment designed by yourself of moving out, a staff calmly knocked my door. 

The moving out procedure took 5 minutes, the Sakura House Staff Checked the room, took my keys and gave back 75 % of my deposit back. Generally in Japan, when you rent a place the deposit that you gave is used for the cleaning after you leave, and most of the time you get nothing back from the deposit. So, to specify, 75 % of the deposit is a huge and a positive policy of Sakura House.

Just as I moved in, and I moved out happily of Sakura House.

Cheers,

Ece

Itsy Bitsy-3

Small things matter.

•          There is no small part of the skyscapers  though, we don’t always notice them while rushing back and forth infront of these buldings.

Shinjuku is the commercial center of Tokyo  decorated  with majestic skyscapers.

We all need to notice them just by looking up.

 

•    Even though Shinjuku is a major business center, I really enjoyed the fact that there is a big LOVE sign.

Since I love Tokyo …

• Itsy Bitsy part of Fuji-san is that you can see Mount Fuji sometimes depending on weather and from some places of Tokyo.  Or, You can see  Mt.Fuji on Shinkansen ride  from Tokyo to Kansai Area. 

It is like catching a glimpse of a  celebrity, which makes your day.

 

Cheers,

Ece