30th - 'How lucky are we - #1'

Firstly we were very fortunate to have Stacy arrive at 5:30am to drive us to Brisbane. A marvellous effort for a Sunday morning and for those who don't know, it is a 2.5 hr round trip. Thanks again Stacy!! Hope you got your walk in before having to run your kids around for the day.

When we were checked in, the girl told us the plane was over booked by 10 passengers, and they were hoping some would not turn up. We were then killing time at the airport when we heard our names being paged to the departure gate counter. We were a little concerned due to the comments of the check in girl that we were going to be bumped from the flight. BUT>>> How lucky are we.... they asked for our boarding cards and then handed us new ones. They were for business class. WOOHOO!! What a hoot we had. Such luxury when you don't expect it.

We did think it was way too early (at 9:30am) to be drinking the french champagne they were offering but when everyone else around us accepted we thought... what the heck, let's indulge. The food and service were exemplary (sorry to dispute your JAL theory Emmeline). We arrived feeling refreshed and ready to find our way in Tokyo.

On arriving at Tokyo train station we had our map in hand and walked 5 mins to our hotel. Once we turned into the hotels street we both gasped when we noted the beautiful cherry blossom trees lining both sides of the street. What a thrill to see one of the reasons we stayed in Tokyo. We were always crossing our fingers we would time seeing the cherry blossoms in flower. They only last 1 - 2 weeks depending on the weather. See the picture, over my head, the blue sign is our hotel.

We quickly dumped everything in the room and headed out for a stroll and a bite to eat. It was drizzling a little but nothing our little umbrella couldn't handle. (Ashleigh I grabbed it back out of your bag at the last minute) We found a great little eatery. It was a bit like a small diner with only a U shaped counter to sit at and one person behind running things. We had to order via a vending machine but it printed out our ticket which we then handed to the guy behind the counter. The food as well as Miso soup and water were all in front of us within 1 minute. Delicious, cheap and cheerful. We were sharing the counter with office workers, steet cleaners and alike who had ducked in for a quick meal while on the run.

xD