"One Night in Tokyo" Tokyo by meccostaud

In out attempt to make our trip back from Vietnam a little less exhausting, we decided to spend one night in Tokyo on the way back.

We arrived early in the morning and checked in to our hotel, which was near the Narita airport.

We dropped our bags and immediately hopped the hotel shuttle back to the airport so that we could catch a train to downtown. We wanted to see the Ginza shopping district, which is the hangout of the now-famous "Harijuku" girls that Gwen Stefani sings about in her hit "What You Waiting For".

Being "Mr Information Technology", I decided that I would use a self-service kiosk to purchase our tickets. It wasn't easy to use but we figured it out and purchased our tickets, which were almost $30.00US to get to the closest station to the Ginza shopping district. OUCH.

After almost an hour of stopping at every tiny town between Narita and downtown, we finally arrived at our destination. Tokyo train stations are gargantuan, bustling with activity and people. Not sure which way to proceed to get to the Ginza district, we stopped and got a coffee and asked the lovely girls behind the counter. They were extremely helpful and friendly and got us pointed in the right direction even though their English was minimal and my Japanese was limited to "Arrigato".

Just a few blocks down from the train station we were drawn to the huge video screens on the sides of the buildings and the glitzy retail stores and restaurants. We had arrived at last in Ginza.

• Pros:Organized, friendly people
• Cons:EXPENSIVE
• In a nutshell:One Night in Tokyo is More Expensive than 15 in Vietnam!