Japan Tokyo Free and Easy: Tokyu Stay Shinjuku

Some of the important places and distance from Shinjuku Tokyu Stay. The walk to the JR station and bus terminal should be around 10-15 minutes. The Shinjuku Gyoen( Koen) is around 10 minutes walk away. A great place to catch cherry blossoms and autumn leaves . There is a bus stop before you cross the road to Isetan on your right. The bus takes around 15 minutes to Meiji shrine. much faster and less hassle compare to the trains.

First impression of the Tokyo Stay. Great. Everything looks so clean and new. 

I book two different kind of room, one is the small double room and the twin room. The bigger room for my parents.

The different between the small double room is that there is two big chairs with the table so it is a great place for the whole family to have dinner or have a small discussion. The twin room also have a extra small room where the makeup table, washing machine.washer, microwave, trousers press and clothes hanger are. The small double room have everything except the makeup table but is crammed into a narrow walkway.

Both rooms also comes with a humidifier, one packet of detergent, safe and one free use of the instant coffee and a kettle.

This is the twin room. 

Double room and the small table for gathering

This is the small double room.

Small double room. The bed is use beside the table The white part is the first photo is the bed. The room is quite narrow,

 Free coffee every morning

Why I would recommend Tokyu stay.
1. It is just located behind the Shinjuku-3-chrome station, 1 minute walk  and there is an escalator leading up to the exit, although no escalator down. There is a lift like 4 minutes walk away. If you bringing elderly. This is a great hotel to stay.
2. It is located not far from JR station, if you exit at the JR station near to platform 1 to 2, it is only a 10 minutes walk away and if you are lazy, The bus terminal which has buses to the airport and other places like Mount Fuji are located 10 minutes walk away too.
3. There are convenient stores, eateries, small supermarket, drugstores, Shinjuku park, malls and also 100 yen shop located nearby.
4. There is a microwave and washer/dryer. I would sometimes like to buy food back to eat at the apartment in the morning before I set off. Too lazy to go out for breakfast. The microwave is really useful. The washer and dryer means I do not need to bring too much clothes, it is very important especially during winter.
5. The staff speaks good English.
6. They have real windows.



Why I would not recommend Tokyu stay.
1. There is only room service once a week.
2. The small double room is a bit crammed.

Flight Review: Japan Airline JAL to Japan

This is my first flight by Japan Airlines. I was expecting quite good services and food as Japan is know to meticulous and of good quality. Moreover, my parents took a flight to Hokkaido via JAL and was full of praise for JAL.

The seats was comfortable to me. My mum complained the new design of chair seat is not really suitable for her back. I think it is just that the seat design is comfortable to most people but not  tio some. 

The food was the main problem of the flight. We took a midnight flight to Tokyo. No midnight snack /drink  was offered. The only meal offered was two hours before landing. Most flights I taken will at least offer a light snack.

Most airlines or all airlines I have taken offered two choices of food. JAL has only one option for breakfast which is soup with bread. Firstly, I was disappointed firstly with the lack of choices. As an Asian airline, I would expect something more Asian and if another choice is offered, something more to modern western taste buds.. My parents do not like the soup, therefore, they have to make do with cold bread and a hot drink.  I am not a fan of pumpkin soup too, but when you are hungry and tired, you have to make do with anything they offered.

On the flight back, which was an evening flight. We were hoping for a better meal.The only options available was either beef with something or a beef burger. The only options available on flight was beef. We were visibly upset as we did not realize beef is a special request. There was no special meal for no beef. The main reason is also we took quite a number of flights with various airlines and never encounter beef as a special request.  They will have a safe option like chicken or seafood. The second reason is a large number of Asians do not consume beef due to their religious beef and JAL do not seems to realise that. 

The saving grace of the day was one kind and helpful air stewardess, although one make some remarks on us being too troublesome. I did not manage to get the name of the helpful air stewardess, but  she manage to get one fish meal for my parents. She tried to remove the beef and serve as the side dishes as she was worried that we did not eat anything on the long flight. We tried to eat some food but the fragrance of the beef was too nauseous for us. 

I will not recommend JAL to people who are picky about flight food. If you are someone who has no interest in flight food. It was a great flight.