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.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Follow us on Twitter @doit4thepoints!

 Have a question for us? E-mail us at chris@doitforthepoints.com or jd@doitforthepoints.com

Introduction: End of Year - Tokyo Trip

My end of the year trip to Tokyo was born out of boredom. Yes, boredom. But I need to take a step back before we move forward.

2012 was year of change for me. After five years, I left my first real job at a local community bank to move to a "to big to fail" bank. After three months, I learned quickly that I did not fit well with this bank and quickly signed up with a local mortgage company. 2012 = 3 different jobs. My horoscope for 2013 says that the winds of change are finally calming down. Looking back, 2012 was one big tornado.

Back to the story, one night in November, I was at work late and had enough of this refinance "from hell" (On a side note, not telling your loan officer, you just leased a car, in the middle of your refinance, is not a good thing.) I need something to look forward to. I was having hard time justifying my work. I was the one who said "he works to travel." My last major trip was February. I needed to change my travel drought quickly. That night I put together the trip.

I knew I wanted to go to Asia, as it would knock another continent off my bucket list. Tokyo was the only destination available. My dream destination was an Asia country with warm weather and a beach, but with less than 30 days before the trip, one can't be to picky. It was either Tokyo or Connecticut for the holidays and the decision became a no brainer.

The entire trip was booked using online portals except for the Hyatt stays that had to be booked via the phone. I did not use a booking service (thought about it). I used the United website to book the outward bound flight and American Airline's website for the return flight. Therefore, anyone can recreate this trip.

As I detailed here, I used United miles for my trip from Washington, DC to Frankfurt in  United First and then onward to Tokyo on ANA in their Dreamliner. While in Tokyo, I used my free nights from the Chase Hyatt Visa to stay at the Park Hyatt for two nights. My last three nights were at the Tokyo Hilton using points for two nights and cash for the remaining night.To get home, all that was available was American First from Tokyo to Washington, DC with an overnight in Chicago. My night in Chicago was spent at the W Lakeshore.

I will breakdown my trip into 9 parts:

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

I hope this trip report gives you the inspiration to start your own amazing trip. For many months, I would read other people's trip reports, wondering one day I could have my own trip. Yes, this is my second international trip paid for by points, (my first being Niger - trip report to come soon) but my first international trip for less than $500 out of pocket. Again, I hope this brings you the inspiration to start planning your own trip, because the first step in your own dream trip is the dream.

Tokyo Metro System

One of the ways, I saved money in Tokyo was to use public transportation. The Tokyo metro system is made up the Tokyo Metro (Private) and Toei Subway (Government -Owned).  In addition to the metro system, there are multiple commuter trains.

The first time I looked at this map, I got a little dizzy. My first piece of advice is to take a big breath and understand that you are going to get lost. With that understanding, here is my first hand account of using the metro/train system in Tokyo.

Tickets vs Pass

You have three options of paying to use the metro: single use tickets, daily passes or metro card. Each of the options can be purchased at any metro system at a fare machine like this:

All the machines I used had an option to change the displayed language to English. The button to do so is on the top right corner.

After switching the language, you will have multiple options on the left hand side.

If you are going to be in Tokyo sightseeing for more than two days, get the pass known as PASMO or SUICA, both are the same. An average ride cost 200 Yen or about $2.50. An all day pass, that allows travel on most trains, costs 1600 Yen; therefore, you would need to take more than 8 trips to justify the all-day pass. I never took 8 rides in any day I was in Tokyo; therefore my recommendation of the PASMO card.

To buy the PASMO card, go to any fare machine. There is a large pink button labeled PASMO.

You will need to pick an amount to put on the card. I recommend to put 1000 or 2000 Yen.

500 Yen will be taken as a deposit. You can get the deposit back by bring the card and filling out a form. It is unknown if you can get the money left on the card back. I had on 40 Yen left and was not given it back. 

Important to note, my Chase Sapphire (no chip), Chase Hyatt (with chip), Chase British Airways (with chip) and my local bank debit card (no chip), all did not work at the machines. I had to use cash. Keep that in mind, when you first go to the machine. After putting in the appropriate amount of Yen, you will receive your PASMO card:

You will use your PASMO card to enter and exit the station. The fare for your ride will be debited from the card on your way out of the station. The PASMO card can also be used to buy food and drinks from vending machines around the city. In addition, I saw some clothing stores offering the option to pay by PASMO, as well.

Tap your PASAMO Card, pay for a drink

In comparison, the paper ticket was the size of a small stick of gum. I lost this one ticket in my coat twice, on this small two stop hop, on my last night:

Getting Around

At first glance of the map, fear might over take you. For me, I started questioning my ability to move around because I don't know Japanese. My first few trips were scary and resulted in me getting off one train and running to the train across the platform to go back in the opposite direction. This all stopped when I noticed that each line had its own unique letter and each station had its own number:

As you can see, this sign has an M07. The M stands for the Marunouchi line and the 07 stands for the station, Nishi-shinjuku (this is the station closest to the Hilton). On the right hand side, you see M08 and an arrow...this is showing you that this entrance takes you to the train that goes to station greater than 7. Therefore, if you were trying to get to M15 (close to the Imperial Palace), you would take this side.

Also, the pillars on the track level had signs like these to show you what stations a particular side of the track services.

Almost all of the the trains stations had at least one sign letting you know when the next train is expected to arrive. Unlike Washington, DC, I only experience one delayed train in my entire trip. It was 1 minute late.

When you arrive to Tokyo, I would recommend picking up this guide book produced by Tokyo Metropolitan Government:

The great thing about this book is that every attraction write-up has the closest metro station, how long of walk to the attraction (everything says 10 minutes even if it takes 20 minutes to walk) and most important what exit from the station to take. The exit is important, because taking the wrong exit could result in a major walk above ground. Example of a write-up from the guide book:

Conclusion

It took me two days to get the hang of the metro system. After taking it a few times and learning the letter and number system, the metro system was super easy to use. Taking the metro system rather than cabs, can save you a ton of money. A cab ride from the Park Hyatt to the Hilton (less than four blocks away) cost 710 Yen. One can get across most of Tokyo on the subway for that price.

If you go with an open mind and a ton of patience, you to can master the Tokyo metro system!