We’ve had an all too brief stay in Tokyo and are now on the Hikari express bound for Nara which is about four hours south of Tokyo.

The Hilton hotel at Shinjuku was very comfortable and in a very good location close to the main railway station. It was relatively easy to get to as Shinjuku is one of the few stops from the airport on the Narita Express. The only downside to the hotel is that it is a western chain but it has all the features of an international hotel – comfortable rooms, buffet breakfast which includes Japanese and international foods, and a range of dining options and bars. It was very busy with many international travellers but they had lots of attentive staff. It didn’t have a Japanese bathhouse but it was nice to put on a yakuta after a bath.

Our room on the 20th floor had a wonderful view of Shinjuku Central Park, the smaller of the parks in this area. Unfortunately we are too late for the cherry blossoms which came earlier this year in Tokyo. There are just a few glimpses of late blossoms still clinging to some trees.

Yesterday we took the Yanimoto line to Sugarno which they call the ‘old auntie district’ as it is popular with older Japanese people and famous for its red underwear which is said to be very lucky. We did buy some red undies. I thought I had purchased boy leg undies but this was lost in translation and what I have are more old lady undies that go to mid thigh! They may not be sexy but let’s hope they are lucky!

The pedestrian shopping street was really long and there were lots of food stalls. We enjoyed the free samples – Japanese pickles, dried fish and fruits, biscuits and crackers and sesame products – as did the many other older visitors!

Interestingly we found a popup museum with a display of Kokeshi dolls.

I bought two of these in a Japanese shop in Melbourne a couple of years back when I was down for a GP workshop but knew nothing about them. The lady in the museum gave me a brochure in English which explained that these dolls became popular as souvenirs in onsens on the island of Honshu in the late Edo period (1804-1830). There are 11 distinct lineages of these dolls based on the style of the original kokeshi master and passed down to other generations of makers for over 200 years. The dolls I have are from the Naruko family. They are distinctive because they make a squeak when the head is turned. What a small world!

Then back to Shinjuku station for a refreshing iced tea/coffee break and afternoon rediscovery of the delights of department store food halls. We headed to Isetan which is deservedly known as the premier department store in Tokyo.

More free samples and a gin tasting and I found a jar of yuzu (a kind of Japanese lemon) marmalade. Food packing is an art form which they take very seriously. My jar was wrapped in bubble wrap, then into two paper bags and topped with a plastic bag. The woman in front of us had a number of items which were each individually put into plastic bags and stuck down with tape before being put into a larger branded plastic shopping bag.

The displays of food are truly beautiful!

We deserved a drink when we got back to the hotel and found a quiet seat at the bar on the second floor to have an Asahi beer and Japanese gin and tonic for me.

It’s been a lovely couple of days where we have rediscovered:

• The joys of convenience stores where you can eat quite cheaply and buy a range of rice balls with fillings and even a can of local beer
• 
• The unobtrusive service and attention to detail of Japanese workers where nothing is too much trouble. The long distance trains even have blankets!
• The hot drinks you can buy at railway stations which are very comforting while waiting to board your train
• How big Tokyo is and its diversity yet it feels so accessible and quiet
• How easy it is to travel around Tokyo and beyond because of an efficient transport system and English signage alongside the Japanese
• How clean everything is and there is virtually no litter
• The warm seats of Japanese toilets
• Squat toilets are not so bad when you need to go
• How polite everyone is and waits in line to board the train
• 
• But Japan is no longer a secret and has been discovered by many more tourists. We’ve come across far more English speaking tourists than on any of our previous trips