Shin-Yokohama

I enjoyed my first trip to Tokyo at Easter so much that I’m returning for a long weekend. QF25 to Tokyo Haneda airport is uneventful, taking off from Sydney ‘almost’ on time, and landing on time at 5 am in Tokyo. It seems a quick flight at just over 9 hours. It is not until the pilot says that he hopes that those going to the rugby enjoy it, that I realise the Wallabies are playing a friendly match against Japan. That answers the question of what I’ll be doing today in Shin-Yokohama. 

In the meantime, the short train ride on the Keikyu Line from Haneda Airport to Shinagawa Station is uneventful. It’s 6 am on a Saturday morning, and the massive Shinagawa railway station is largely deserted. Except for the announcement that there are extra security measures in place because Donald Trump is visiting over the weekend. Great. 

The Strings by Intercontinental is my go-to hotel in Tokyo, conveniently located a short walk from the station. Perched on the top of an office building, it is much like the Sofitel on Collins in Melbourne – the first 25 floors are office space, and the hotel occupies floors 26 to 32. The elevators to the 26th floor are so smooth and silent, it is difficult to work out whether the elevator is actually moving or not. The rooms circle a 6-floor atrium, which provides a lot of light. 

My room is compact, but well-appointed, with a Bose Bluetooth mini sound dock, and a very helpful USB charging station that accommodates the iPhone and iPad. There are also lots of power points, which is a nice change. My room on the 31st floor looks out over the Tokyo skyline, with Tokyo Tower off to the left-hand side, and a view of Mt Fuji in the distance on a clear day. Today is overcast, and a bit humid, with a forecast of 22 degrees. The foreground is Shinagawa station, with a large building site off to the right-hand side. It turns out that a new Shinkansen station is being built to service Nagoya.  

Shinagawa Station is a large station, serving a couple of JR line services, the Shinkansen line to Osaka, and a private rail line. It features many food outlets, and an upmarket department store called Atre, a modern food court with a bakery, bar, and food outlets. It also houses the Blue Bottle Coffee cafe, which takes its coffee seriously, and usually has a queue as soon as it opens. 

A wander around the neighborhood finds the Minato dog park, and the Shinshiba Ungazoi Green Space, which is a promenade along the canals in this area that eventually run into Tokyo Bay. An urban oasis on a bright, sunny Saturday morning in Tokyo. 

The Wallabies are playing Japan at Nissan Stadium in Yokohama, which will mean a Shinkansen train from Shinagawa to Yokohama. Online ticket sales have closed, so the only way to get a ticket is to turn up at the stadium and hope they aren’t sold out. Nissan Stadium seats 76,000 people, and there can’t be that many people interested in seeing Australia versus Japan, right?

A reserved seat on the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Shin-Yokohama is about $25, which is overkill for a 15-minute train trip, but worth it to see the train conductor bow to the passengers each time she enters and leaves the carriage. Shin-Yokohama has a nice feel to it – the walk from the train station to the stadium is marked with inlaid circles in the pavement promoting the local team, and it is a well-marked 15-minute walk to the stadium. The highest category tickets have sold out, and there are only category 3 and 4 tickets left. A category 3 ticket is still $55, expensive for a football game. My ticket is entirely in Japanese, and I spend 10 minutes asking staff where I’m supposed to sit. English isn’t widely spoken here, and the best they can manage is ‘up’, ‘up’. I end up on the top floor of the stadium and try to find my seat. It is only when one of the staff makes a circular motion with his hands in the direction of the seats that it dawns on me that the ticket is for a section of seating, and there isn’t any allocated seating. By the time I’ve worked this out, the Wallabies have scored their second try of the game. 

It’s a record crowd of 43,000 for the game, which I think is made up of 42,500 locals and 500 Australians. It’s a terrible 1st half from the Brave Blossoms (back to the Marketing department on that name), but the parochial home crowd is persistent in trying to rally the Japanese team. It must have had some effect, as Japan plays better in the second half, but not well enough to bridge the gap with the Wallabies. 

The scoreboard says it all. 

Sunset is at 5 pm, so it’s getting dark during the walk back to the station.

The night lights of Shin-Yokohama make this city more attractive than ever.

The weather is changing quickly – it is much cooler and a strong breeze makes the station colder than a couple of hours ago. A reserved seat on the Shinkansen back to Tokyo’s Shinagawa station turns out to be a good idea – the non-reserved carriages only total 3 on the entire train.