Japan Visit -- Start With Sushi

The good news--our bid to upgrade our flight to Tokyo was accepted. The bad news--our credit card company wouldn't let the charge go through because it thought it was fraudulent. We lost the upgrade. The good news--when Bob went to check in, an upgrade was offered for $50 less than what we'd bid. Yay!

Our flight from Toronto to Tokyo was in Air Canada premium economy. It was a cheap version of first class. Yes, there was more leg room but we were against the bulkhead which meant we couldn't stow anything under a seat. And we were in the middle section of seats. The odd thing was people who wanted to get from one aisle to the other would step over our feet to cross to the other side. Thankfully it didn't happen too often. My only other complaint was that the bathroom was really bad. The toilet bowl looked ancient and corroded. (Turned out it wasn't any better on the return flight even though it was a different plane.)

When you are traveling to see grandkids you haven't seen in a year, all of the discomfort takes a back seat to the anticipation of being with them. We were due to meet up in Tokyo on the day after our arrival as they arrived from Sapporo. Our son met us at the Haneda airport and we all traveled to our hotel, the Shinagawa Prince. We had stayed there once before when we came to Tokyo for his wedding.

We decided on sushi for dinner and our son who has lived in Tokyo for four years now knew a great place. It was a tiny little restaurant but very nice and I regret not remembering the name. I'll blame it on jet lag. The sushi arrived in several courses, each more beautifully presented than the previous. It was artistry as well as pure delight in taste. I even ate part of my oyster which was the largest I've ever seen and was said to come from Hokkaido. My favorite was the eel that was flavored with a Japanese BBQ sauce. I was sorry there was only one piece of it.

Dessert was a small scoop of ice cream sprinkled with green tea and accompanied by a spoonful of fruit.

It was probably the most expensive meal we've had in a long time though: $400 for the three of us. Hard to complain when the experience and the food was absolutely topnotch. What a great start to our trip.

We went straight back to our hotel after dinner and climbed into bed hoping our body clocks would readjust quickly.