After sleeping our first ever night in a couples capsule in the Kiba Hotel in Tokyo which was great, we planned on visiting the Planetarium and in the same building, the Sunshine City tower, and take in the views of Tokyo from the top floor.

Day 50 – April 22nd, 2014.

We wake at 8.30am after a good nights sleep even though there were a few noisy arrivals after midnight but only for a few minutes, maybe take some ear plugs, not knowing what to expect when staying in a capsule hotel in Japan.

“In Japan most places have a communal shower and bathing room”

Here at the Tokyo Kiba hotel it’s exactly that.

Down to level 3 in the lift (we are on level5) where the bathrooms are located, male and female next door to each other. There is a large changing room with lockers for your clothes plus soaps, toothbrushes, hairdryers is all provided. Mirrors at each place by a sink and chair allow you to sit and groom in a very civilised way.

Male & Female bathrooms with sinks, chairs, hairdryers etc

After you change you first take a hot shower. A small low seat is provide along with soaps, shampoo etc, you need your own wash towel. This shower room has nine showers and in the adjacent room is the communal bath.

Lockers & communal showers

After your shower you can then ease in to the bath, with the emphasise on ease, take it slow as the temperatures of the bathes in Japan are generally very hot. This one today is not as hot as the last one and I manage to completely get in.

Bath, sink with cosmetics

Leaving the bath, I then have a shave and clean teeth whilst sat down at the sink. Next I get dressed and head back to meet Moni at the capsule, as she checks in with clients, then we remove our belongings from our locker and hand back the locker key and check out which is that simple.

Working in a capsule in Tokyo before heading out, the Kiba Hotel view from the Kiba station exit on the Tozai Line

“The planetarium show was next up for us”

Out we go heading towards the planetarium via the subway, we get there just after 11am and book for the 12 o clock show, allowing us time to grab a quick lunch which was very tasty.

Planetarium tickets then lunch before the show

The planetarium show in my opinion was a bit strange and lacked the wow factor, but Moni enjoyed it which was great, I wouldn’t mind if I’d missed it.

After the Planetarium we walked around a few of the shops in the building before taking a coffee break at Seattle’s Best Coffee. The coffee was ok just a bit milky. Just around the corner and down some stairs you’l find the lifts that go to the top of this building where you get views across Tokyo, we took the elevator to the top, the 60th floor to view the surrounds.

View from top of the Sunshine City tower across Tokyo

All great, just a shame we could only see about 7kms as it was cloudy and raining in the distance.

“There is an exhibition of a square boxed figure called ‘Danboard’ which covers the walls”

Each day has a photograph that shows what Danboard was getting up to. I’ll have to do some research and find out what the go is with Danboard.

365 days of Danboard, hey ‘Sali-du’ how did you get there?

“Harajuku the trendy kids town, we blend in well”

Next up we take the JR loop to Harajukju to check out the area where the young trendy people gather and socialise strutting there stuff.

Just by chance among all the label stores I spy an American Eagle store and head in to see if by chance they have a similar pair of jeans to what I had from Dubai. How fortunate for me I find a pair that fits perfectly and so now I have two pairs of jeans.

Images from Harajuku the trendy kids town

We walk around some more before heading back to Shibuya to hopefully get Moni some pink shoes that we had tried on yesterday and regretfully not purchased.

Images from Shibuya, Moni’s Nika pink shoes & on our way to Manga cafe with the help of two local lads,

Lucky for me, yes lucky for me, happy wife makes for a happy life the saying goes… We managed to find a pair, the last one in that size I might ad, phew.

So with us both happy campers it was off to find the Manga Cafe for tonights stay.