The area is called Shinshiba. Looking west, the towers — it’s hard to judge whether they’re offices or apartments — are built up to the edge of the canal.

To these southwest, the pedestrian bridge is painted pink.

I followed the main road to walk south over a bridge.  On subsequent walks, I discovered a Hanamasa supermarket further down this road.  Beyond that, there’s more highrises.

Following the main road, I turned east at the pedestrian crosswalk at the traffic lights.

Ot the souteast corner of the next major intersection, the old location of the Shibaura Institute of Technology has been vacated and not yet replaced with a new tenant.

On the northeast corner, there are restaurants on higher floors of that tower.

Walking north, I again crossed the canal.  Looking eastward, the buildings are so built up so that I expect that shadows are cast on the water almost all day.

I approached Shibaura Unga Dori, and could see the Shibuaura trains station behind.  My usual route takes me west to the hotel.

Near the corner, I noticed a map of the area.  The blue is a reminder of the relative proximity to Tokyo Bay.

Approaching Tamachi station, the restaurants had lunch displays out, both for dining in and for takeout.

The Shibaura neighbourhood doesn’t seem to be a destination for tourists.  The apartments and offices in the area demonstrate mixed use planning, so there are always feet on the street both day and night.

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As with most huge airports, passengers debark from the aircraft to face a long walk to the terminal.

Speedwalks in the terminal make the walk easier.  I passed by thermal monitors on the lookout for fevers, right before the lineups at immigration and luggage carousels.

Exiting the baggage area, my first stop takes me on a turn right.  Since my mobile phone from Canada hasn’t worked in Japan, I order a local mobile phone via ANA Skyweb for pickup, a week before the scheduled flight.

At the end of the terminal, the Ana sky porter had a mobile phone with my name on a list.

Turning around to come back through the centre of the terminal, I passed by the main escalator down to the trains.

There’s another wing of the terminal farther along, but my destination was the ATMs just to the left.

In Japan, credit cards are widely accepted, but it always pays to have a little cash for lunch and incidentals.

Just by the ATMs at this arrivals level, there are escalators down to the ticket hall.

Downstairs, local residents are likely to purchase their train tickets from the banks of automated machines . For foreigners, there’s another option.

To the right of the machines is a ticket counter.  Visitors with foreign passwords are entitled to purchase the Suica + N’Ex card, at a discount.  The Suica card eases boarding trains on the variety of companies in the Tokyo area easy, by allowing entry with a card swipe instead of a ticket obtained by pouring change into an automated ticket machine.  The N’Ex card makes the ride into Tokyo on the Narita Express effectively “free” with the discount.  The fare can be paid with a credit card, and the deposit on the card is refunded on its return to the airport.

After buying the card, the gates to the train are at the other end of the hall.

The platform to board trains is another level down on an escalator.

The specific platform and boarding time was printed on the ticket, and shown by the clerk at the ticket office.

Taking the express train means that I wouldn’t be making any stops, as listed on the schedule on the platform.

The ticket also specifies the seat in the car on the train, corresponding to the markers on the file floor.

The inbound train paused for a few minutes, to allow boarding for at a leisurely pace.

By the door, there was an area to store baggage.  I’ve learned that most Japanese ship their luggage to the aiport rather than dragging them onto trains as do foreigners.

The seating on the Narita Express is like on airplanes … with a little more legroom.

After slightly less than an hour of looking out the window at pitch black darkness and then some city lights, the Narita Express arrived at Tokyo Station.

Getting from the airport train underground up to the city trains on elevated platforms means riding several elevators.

My instructions to Tamachi had directed me to the Yamamote Line on Track 5.  This is a line that runs a circular path around the city.  I wanted to go towards Shinagawa and Shibuya.

On the Yamanote line platform, the overhead signs reported the wait for the next trains.

Just to instill confidence, I also referred to the listing of next stops timed by minutes.

The Yamanote line has benches facing each other, with a wide path down the middle for standing room at rush hour.  The cars are linked with so that advertising posters down the length of the train are visible.

Arriving at Tamachi station, I took the escalators up to the ticket hall.

Arriving on a weekend evening, the station was relatively quiet.

Exiting the gates, I turned towards the east exit of the station.  This direction passes over the train tracks.

Tamachi station is open to the outdoors, with overhead cover extended down the escalators.

There’s fewer restaurants immediately on the east side of the train station.  By the compass, the sidewalk actually leads southeast.

The Tamachi campus of the Tokyo Institute of Technology was lit up that evening.

At the first intersection, I turned right onto Shibaura Unga Dori, heading southwest.

Japanese sidewalks typically have a yellow tiled section to aid the visually impaired maintain a straight path.  They’re less helpful for a visitor dragging trolley cases.

Halfway down the street, the office towers gradually came into sight.

At the corner is the Granpark tower, with a grocery store and some restaurants in the basement.

Across the street was my regular destination when staying in Tokyo, the Villa Fontaine Mita.

There’s one entry for the office tower, and another for the hotel.  The hotel has a checki-in counter on the ground floor, and then rooms up on the top levels.

Settling in the hotel is usually happens around dinner time in the Tokyo time zone,.   My body is confused from travelling from Eastern Time, 14 hours into the next day and across the international date line.  I usually pick up a few things at the grocery store, and try to sleep early to ease into the Tokyo time.

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I was entertained by the smoking area in the middle of the block, away from anyplace a pedestrian would object.

I presume that the translation of the caution is literal.

I rode up the escalator into Tamachi station, bought a Japan Rail ticket, and went down to the train platform.

The Skyliner starts at Ueno station, where I think that transferring from Japan Rail to Keisei requires crossing the street. An easier alternative may be to transfer at Nippori, which is a smaller and less popular station.

At Nippori, the directions to the Narita train are well marked …

… and farther down the platform is an escalator to handle the trolley cases.

Coming up into the station, I was a bit confused about where to go.

I had ridden Japan Rail to Nippori, but now needed to buy a Keisei ticket. The dispenser is automated with timing for the next train, or reservations for later in the day.

Construction in the station meant navigating a bit of a maze. The waiting room didn’t look exciting, so I continued down to the platform.

Directions on the floor direct passengers to their seats where the doors will open. I had to wait a few minutes for the Skyliner to arrive.

Instead of railway ties between the rails, there were full floors under the trains.

Seats in the train are reserved.

Since my prior ride on the Narita Express was at night, I hadn’t seen any sights. My impression is that the Keisei Skyliner runs less out of the way.

Going through small towns, barricades would come down to stop traffic.

Even little streets have rail crossings.

The Skyliner makes just a few station stops.

After a while, the towns gave way to fields, presumably farms.

In the spring, maybe planting had started … or maybe not.

A windmill was a bit a strange sight. Maybe it was a resort.

Farther out from Tokyo, the towns didn’t look as tight or orderly.

Approaching the airport, there’s a lot of large construction.

At the station, exiting the train and riding the escalator up brings the trip to the end at the turnstiles.

Entering the station, there are inspection stations. The inspectors that day didn’t seem very interested.

On the way to checkin, I noticed the ticket counter for the train, had I chosen the Keisei Skyliner on the way into the city.

It’s right across the aisle from the Japan Rail ticket counter.

I was boarding an Air China flight for Beijing, which had an extremely long queue. Fortunately, the line moved quite rapidly.

On future trips to Tokyo, I think that I’ll plan to take the Keisei Skyliner again. While taking the Narita Express is slightly faster, and would seem to be the more popular way for tourists, transferring from one line to another is required in either case.

The hotel serves a continental breakfast in the lobby in the mornings, but doesn’t have a restaurant. As an amenity for travellers, coin-operated laundry facilities are available. The four floors of rooms all have exterior window views, and the corridors are open around a central courtyard.

The view to the northwest overlooks rail lines that stop at Tamachi station.

Across the street from the hotel is another office tower, with a mall in the basement. In addition to several restaurants, there’s a Daimaru Peacock supermarket.

This store was much like we would expect in North America. There was a good variety of produce.

Ready-to-serve foods are as popular with urban Japanese as suburban Americans, and the selection is typically local.

The hotel provided maps pointing out local restaurants, so we walked over two blocks. On the plaza east of Tamachi station was a choice of four or five restaurants. We chose the beef bowl restaurant, dropping our coins in the machine outside to buy tickets.

The next morning, we returned to the station area, and noted the bicycle parking area underground. A woman came by, and walked her bicycle downstairs.

As an aid to parking bicycles downstairs, there’s a conveyor belt to help carry the bikes up to ground level.

The conveyor belt resolves the effort associated with a common chore. Bicycling to the rail station saves time, and underground parking ensures protection against the weather, while conserving street space.

More restaurants and stores are on the other side of the Shibaura rail station. There are multiple entrances to the Mita subway station, as the Asakusa and Mita lines cross near each other. The walk from rail station to the Mita subway line seemed to take 10 minutes underground.

The Tamachi area doesn’t cater to tourists, but has all of the basic amenities for a business traveller. With good transit connections, it’s a reasonable location for hopping on westbound trains and subway for the morning commute.