The JapanLA Summer Tokyo 2010 trip is planned! This, year, we are staying at the Shibuya Excel Hotel. We chose this location because it is right in the middle of great shopping, eating, and night time hanging out, and it is easy to find your way back to your hotel without a tour guide if you are wandering around Tokyo, and it is an awesome hotel with great reviews too!

The Shibuya Excel Hotel has 408 guestrooms, all with views of Tokyo, and there are 25 floors. The rooms have free wired high-speed internet, (so you can bring your laptop), tea maker, soft tempur foam pillows, and Japanese-style yukata cotton bathrobes. Some other things in the hotel that you may want to know are there is: air conditioning (you control climate in the room), TV, hair dryer, iron, complimentary toiletries (this usually means big pump bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash). The tour price is for double occupancy per room, and each room has 2 twin beds. If you would like your own room, by yourself, please add $620 to the tour price.

If you are bringing your laptop or other electronics, you will need a plug converter, if your cord has a 3-prong plug, or one of those 2-prong plugs where 1 prong is bigger than the other. A 2-prong plug with both prongs the same size will most likely work in a Japanese outlet. If you do find you need an adapter, you can see if the hotel will let you borrow one or run over to Tokyu Hands, (there's one in Shibuya near the hotel).

Here's an action shot of Shibuya at night. This is the Shibuya Crossing, one of the busiest intersections in the world. It is referred to as a "scramble" crosswalk. All of the car traffic is stopped in all directions, and everyone crosses in all directions at the same time. It looks intimidating, but everyone is used to it and knows what to do to avoid running into each other.
You can CLICK HERE to see a YouTube video of people crossing, pretty amazing. Our hotel is right around here too!

Shopping in Shibuya is pretty awesome! You will get a map of all of our favorite shopping spots in every neighborhood in Tokyo that we travel too, including Shibuya. Some popular spots to mention are: Loft, Tokyu Hands, Shibuya 109, Parco, Marui 0101, and my favorite Don Quijote. There are also lots of record stores, bars, and restaurants around here too!