Back to the land of toilets with heated seats which can surprise you in unexpected places!

A spider’s web of queues to navigate through to enter Japan. But enter we did and my case appeared quickly. I said goodbye to my neighbour on the plane a mature lady visiting her son. It does make travel more acceptable to feel you’re travelling with people. I found the person meeting me fine and she got me to the taxi which delivered me to the Hotel Groove. She also gave me train tickets which didn’t seem to match what Audley told me. The train ticket for Matsumoto left from Shinjuku, better than Tokyo Station which I was originally told.

Hotel Groove is a modern hotel well placed in Shinjuku. Like the other city hotels I stayed it occupied floors in tower buildings, you used one sets of lifts to reach reception, another sets of lifts to reach one’s room. Despite being warned no check in before 3pm I checked in just after 2pm (I was able to check in early into other hotels). The room came with pyjamas and slippers and a great view.

At the Hotel Groove I gained a pocket router which was extremely useful. I paid for a black coffee at the Starbucks on the ground floor so I could sit and process everything before beginning tourism.

Hotel Groove was acting as a hotel for a Deaf Olympics going on, which explained the sign language at Heathrow and also why it was already busy by 7am for my first breakfast.

Hotel Groove building

Cleaning robots

View from my hotel room

My room 2615

JAM17 breakfast location

JAM17

JAM17

JAM17 cereals

French pumpkin toast with pine nuts in maple syrup