NELSONS IN TOKYO, JAPAN 2004

Konnichi wa (hello) from Scott and Erika! Please click on images to see enlarged version.

We have just returned from a wonderful first trip to Japan last April 5. Scott had to go for business reasons but he wanted to make sure that I got to experience Japan too so we made arrangements for me to tag along!

Friday, March 26 and Saturday, March 27

We both traveled on business class tickets on Varig Airlines. The shuttle picked us up at 4:30AM and we were waiting for our flight at the gate by 7 (our flight was 9AM). For some reason the flight was an hour or so late before they boarded people and we still waited inside the plane until suddenly a slew of passengers showed up.

The accommodation quality was exactly between first class and economy. The first class had even bigger seats, were served first and had sharper screens! I can't even imagine how bad economy people's screen were or if they saw films because our screen was not very comfortable to look at. Anyway, I personally casually watched 4 of 6 films: Door to Door (good film!), Monsters Inc, Simone, and a subtitled Brazilian film. We got fed often plus we had sandwiches that we can order anytime. My first meal was sea bass with appetizer veggies, salad and soup and dessert. My second meal was just one of those anytime sandwiches I think. The food was so-so. I liked the cheese plate snack with brie, swiss, crackers, walnuts, date, and grapes. The returning flight had same films and same food except they did have more beef which made Scott happy.

We left LAX 9AM March 26th, and arrived Japan almost 3PM March 27th. We finally landed over an hour late at the Narita Airport where we met up with the very patient Roberto-san (he is part Japanese, part Brazilian), who is one of the engineers of Scott's client. Poor thing looked very exhausted from waiting forever.

After the 11.5 hours direct flight, I had to immediately look for the "toileto" and I was immediately impressed by their wheelchair accommodations. Each one is in a private bathroom with pocket doors that open and close with big elevator like buttons. When it's occupied, the doors don't open. And I LOVE THEIR TOILETS! But more on that later ;)

We all bought limousine bus tickets which are $27 each. They are comfortable luxury buses. We all went out to the front of the airport where young men in uniform loaded luggage under the buses. We approach these people, they look at out tickets and let us know when the appropriate bus for our destination. We are asked to fall in line. When our bus arrived, the main guy whipped me right out of my wheelchair and sat me in the first seat! I did have to teach him how to pick me up as he almost just tried to pick me up with one arm from behind as if I could walk and he just needed to support me **whew**. But he was very cheerful and friendly. Roberto-san told us they don't tip in Japan. I thought wow, they are too nice in this country! I found out later that everything seemed taxed and had "10% service charge" which I guess serves as tip for everybody. Nevertheless, I still think everybody is generally very nice!

The traffic was atrocious! What was supposed to be an hour trip took over 2 hours! As you can see from the "limousine bus" photos above, we started out with a lot of light around 3PM and it got really dark by the time we walked the 2 blocks from stop to the hotel. They actually had curb cuts for wheelchairs! How about that???

Finally we reached the impressive entrance to the hotel. We were booked at the Royal Park Hotel for 9 nights. We saw the huge lobby with marble floors and huge milky way chandelier right away. As we approached the front desk, the manager invited us to his desk. And he implemented our check in. I glanced to the desk next to him and it was the "lady's desk assistant". This is where timid lady guests express needs?

Room was about $300/night yikes! I thought they said $237??? American dollar dropping fast! He wasn't going to give me my own key so I asked for one. He said, "Please wait 10 minutes while I make you one." Did you see those keys? They are heavy! Like a key to an old mansion might look/feel. They had broadband Internet connection in each guest room at $18/day or a dial-up at $15.day. We didn't have international dial-up account so Scott opted for the bb. For my purposes, they offered the office center which well equipped with Macs and IBM systems, printers, xerox and scanner. It was $5 for the entirety of our stay. It's a glass walled office next to the reception counters.

The manager even took us to our room! The 6th elevator is twice the size with buttons lowered and placed on both sides inside. Two double beds, wheelchair accessible bathroom, desk, refrigerator reading chair, closet two phones plus on in bathroom. A well-stocked refrigerator with EXPENSIVE goodies. Coca-cola is over $4.00. alcohol $12 each. I appreciated the electric water heater that was full daily. I drank a lot of tea while we were there. The usual hotel stationery and postcards and 2 cotton kimono robes (yukatas) and slippers.