We just wrapped up an excellent weeklong trip to Tokyo during cherry blossom season which was outstanding, despite the weather being a bit cold and rainy.
A couple things we found that could be useful for others:
We stayed at the Westin Tokyo in Ebisu using a points redemption which was a perfect home base for a Tokyo based trip. We were able to get a pretty outstanding redemption; we used 420k bonvoy points for the redemption which translated to approximately 1.67 cpp; given the estimated value of approximately 0.7-0.8 cpp that was very nice. They also gave us free buffet breakfast as our welcome gift with lifetime titanium which was 13k ¥ per day, increasing the value of the redemption to 1.8 cpp. The buffet was excellent with a combination of Japanese and western dishes including made to order noodle soups, onigiri, and eggs, and was a good way to get a lot of protein to start the day. The room was large even by US standards and was cavernous by Tokyo standards. We brought a small air mattress which was perfect for our daughter. The hotel had a nice gym and spa and was very well situated about 5-8 minute walk from Ebisu station, which allowed us easy subway access to everywhere in the city. Ebisu is home to a lot of western high end dining which I wouldn’t recommend as they certainly aren’t a good value, with places like La Table de Joel Roubechon, Lawry’s and Peter Luger’s.
We did a variety of things during our week in Tokyo and generally found the subway to be a very easy and pretty fast way to get everywhere. We did use a few taxis which were easy and much less expensive than ride share in the US.
We made very few restaurant reservations because we wanted to keep our schedule as open as possible, but did end up checking out a few ramen, yakiniku, curry, and tonkotsu restaurants which were delicious and inexpensive. The one higher end experience we did book was the palace hotel for high tea which is a pretty unique experience that I’d recommend. The food was excellent and the environment was pretty unparalleled, being right on the most of the imperial palace with excellent Sakura viewing.
We did spend a day at Ueno park which is another excellent place for cherry blossom viewing along with a large street food area with a lot of excellent choices.
We ended up flying delta in and out of Hamada which was convenient from a distance and time perspective and a reasonably good points redemption for delta one which we were lucky enough to find at about 4 cpp (Amex). The schedule was excellent, putting us in at about 5 pm and leaving at 3 pm which kept things very good from a jet lag perspective.
Btw I posted about Kama-Asa a few days ago, and it’s an outstanding place to buy knives, accessories, etc. their consultants will do one on one consultations and show you a variety of knives in different sizes, price points, and finishes. I found the selection, service, and pricing outstanding. I ended up with excellent petty and fish/meat knives with Japanese hardware for <500. I was more concerned about functionality than adornment although they had some extremely decorative blades as well if that’s what you’re interested in.