Do It For The Points!: End of Year Trip

Saturday, June 22, 2013

End of the Year Trip: Tokyo Hilton, Where I Expected to Meet Don Draper

Introduction
Tale of Two Lounges - Dulles Airport
Onward to Tokyo - First Class United & ANA Dreamliner
Castle in the Clouds - Park Hyatt Tokyo
Day Trip to Kamakura
Tokyo Hilton
A Blast From the Past - American First Class
Tale of Two Lounges - Narita Airport
The Joan Rivers Hotel - W Chicago Lakeside
Wrap-Up of Trip

When I was planning for the trip, I wanted to limit my cash out of pocket. Therefore, I knew that I needed to use points to pay for some of the last three nights in Tokyo. The Hilton was two blocks away for the Hilton and I was sitting on about 75,000 points, so I was pretty sure I was going to stay here for the last three nights in Tokyo.

The majority of my 75,000 points came from applying for the American Express Hilton, a great card. At that time, the card had a 50,000 sign-up bonus, but more importantly, no annual fee - making it a great credit card to get and keep to strength my credit score.

At that time, rooms were going for 40,000 points a night. My goal was to pay for 1 night in cash and use points for 2 nights. To earn the last 5,000 points, I decided to transfer 4,500 points from my eRewards account. For the last 500, I paid cash, which is an option that Hilton allows you to do when booking award stays. Initially, I was going to pay $300 for the last night. I shuddered at the thought about paying that much, but could justify since it was the only night on the trip that would cost me money. However, as I wrote here, Hilton had a 50% sale for stays in December 2012 on participating hotels. Luckily, the Tokyo Hilton was participating and the cost of my night dropped to $154 USD, SCORE! Three nights for $165 USD + 80,000 points.

Back to the trip report....

The Tokyo Hilton is located two blocks away from the Hyatt. I decided to take a cab, because of the size and number of my bags I had. The cost $12 for 2-3 blocks.

The hotel lobby is massive. The check-in desk is deep back in a corner.

Check-in was not smooth. My goal was to get a room on the club level. Prior to my trip, I called the customer service number to request a room on the club level. The representative told me that as a Gold my request would be granted. When I arrived at 5:30 pm, the check-in representative told me my non-smoking room on the fifth floor was ready. I asked for an upgrade to club level and was told there was nothing available. A little pushing and 20 minutes later, I was on my way to a smoking room on the club level.

The room had a distinct 50s feel. The wood paneling, weird carpeting, and red chair made me feel like I was going to see Don Draper at the bar.

The bathroom was typical hotel size. No Park Hyatt, but good enough:

What I didn't under stand was this glass partion in the shower. It served very little purpose, because it only covered some of the tub. Also, one part of the partion swung out a little, but nothing to a massive degree in one direction or another.

The other strange thing about the bathroom was the mirror. It never completely fogged over:

How does this happen? It was super helpful for shaving directly after showering.

My room had decent views:

The reason why I pushed for Club access was for a place to go and relax and get food.

I was provided this letter at check-in about the club:

As you can see, the club offers food/snacks throughout the day. What I did't expect was the quality of the food. My first night, I went down for Cocktails and appetizers:

Look at this breakfast spread:

And afternoon tea:

Having access to the lounge was helpful. I saved a ton of money on not having to eat out for breakfast. Given as a Gold member of Hilton, I would have been given free breakfast at the restaurant downstairs. But the access to the lounge was more than just breakfast, it was access to a place to relax and have a drink or snack.

The hotel has a gym and pool. One must sign in to use either as I learned the hard way:

The hotel's closest metro stop is M7 - Nishi-Shinjuku.

The hotel actually has its own exit into the tunnel leads toward the subway ie no having to walk outside. From the hotel, the exit to the subway is near the Hiltopia Shopping Arcade.

The second floor of the hotel had many sit-down restaurants. They were all a little out of my price range:

Overall, the stay was good. After staying with the Park Hyatt, my expectations of what a hotel should be were pretty high. If I just stayed at the Hilton, I would have thought the stay was amazing. My only complaint was check-out. It was a cluster fuck. They demanded everyone out at noon, but then did not have the staff to check-out people. The line, as seen below, was 30 to 40 people deep.

The hotel had a 1950s feel, which is cool. However, the hotel was trying to stray away from it and become modern. The 1950s, Mad Men, is hip now. I would play up that old school hotel, you would be surprised how many people would probably dig it.

In the end, I never met Don Draper at the hotel bar, but had a good stay. I would come back.

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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

End of Year Trip: Day Trip to Kamakura

Kamakura is located southwest of Tokyo. It takes about an 90 minutes to get their via train and tram to get one of the first major stops around Kamakura. I would recommend buying the Enoshima Kamakura Free Pass, which costs about 1,500 Yen. You can find more information about the tickets here.

The pass gives you a roundtrip on Odakyu Railways. One picks up the Odakyu train at the Shinjuku station, the station closest to the Park Hyatt. You take the Odakyu line to Fujisawa.

The next step is a little tricky. One needs to transfer to the Enoden line. To get to the Enoden line, one needs to walk out of the Fujisawa station and follow the signs:

Outside of the Fujisawa station, one needs to walk over the a bridge towards a department store.

Right by the department store is the small Fujisawa- Endoden tation. Look for the sign for the Enoden line in the direction of Kamakura.

The Enoden line is operated by a very cute electrical rail line with green trains. The train goes from the Fujisawa- Endoden station to Kamakura with many stops between. The free pass allows ultimated rides on the Enoden line on one day. Each stops various things to do and see. I go off the train at the three major stops: Enoshima, Hase, and Kamakira.

The Enoshima station takes one to a beach resort. This station involves the longest amount of walking for the day. I would recommend doing this stop first. Follow the signs to the major attractions.

On the walk, one will need to cross a major street. There is a walkway under the street to the right. On my way to the attractions, I missed this walkway and tried to cross this very busy street.

Enoshima is an inlet with some attractions on the top of a big hill.

Enoshima

To get to the top, one can walk or take an a series of escalators. Pay for the escalators. Actually, pay for all of the attractions on the island at the first escalator, it will save you money. I made the mistake of not doing this and it cost me going up the tower.

The cost of the elevator ride is 350 Yen or under $4.

While the cost of the elevator, gardens and tower is 750 Yen or $8. I would pay for this option.

The final option cost 1000 Yen or under $11 for a ride up the escaltors and tower, a visit to the gardens and the caves. Skip this option. The caves, as you will see where a waste of time and effort.

The escalators are a series of three or four that takes you up to the main area.

At each landing, there is areas to buy various things and eat.

There are three shrines located throughout the island that make up the Enshonma Shrine, here is one of them:

The last escalator will drop one off at the Cooking Garden and Tower. No pictures, because I refused to pay the 500 Yen (my only regret on this entire trip was not doing this for $6).

The walk to the cave is long. Lots of stone steps going down to the cave, but going down on the way to the cave requires you to go up the stairs

The cave is a true tourist trap. There is not much to it except a few statues:

The only benefit of the caves are the ocean views. However, I don't know if the views outweigh the long walk up and down the steps.

After my visit to Enoshima, I boarded the train to head to the next station, Hase. Hase is the home to the main reason for the Kamakura trip: the Great Buddha. Its a 5-10 minute walk from the Hase station.

The Buddha is an impressive piece of work. One turns the corner and the view is breath taking. The last time I had this feeling was at the Grand Canyon. As one gets closer to the statue, the detail on the statue become evident. Then you remember that the statue was cast in 1252. 1252!!!! For a small extra fee, less than a $1, one can go inside the Budda. The inside is cramped, but a must see.

One the exhibits at the statue are these sandals. They were created by school children after using math to figure out how big the sandals would have to be to fit the statue.

After spending time with the statue, I headed to the other major attraction at Haas, the Hasedera Temple. The temple has amazing gardens and interesting little statues throughout, but I don't remember the temples.

At the Haas Station is an important stop: the 100 Yen Store or now 105 Yen Store.

The 100 Yen stores can be found all over Japan and are dollar type stores. Everything in the store is 100 Yen or now 105 Yen. One can get anything from food, dishes, paper, and clothing. On this trip, I lost my gloves and the 100 Yen store had it. If in Japan, defiantly stop at these stores to stock up on things.

The last stop is Kamakura. The major attraction here is the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine. This shrine is the symbol of Kamakura being the capital of Tokyo 900 + years ago.

The other major attraction in Kamakura is ice cream. Not just any ice cream, but purple sweet potato.

Purple sweet potato is special to Kamakura. I heard that purple sweet potato ice cream was a must try. And I agree, if in Kamakura, one must try it. It was very sweet, but the color did not scream purple. It was light purple. The same vendor has fried purple sweet potato and the color on that was deep purple.

The trip to Kamakura was amazing. I loved getting out of the city for a day. I visiting Tokyo, I highly recommend a day trip to Kamakura.
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