Japan Day 1: Arrival in Tokyo.
December 31st - January 1st.
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One more recommendation for travel: fly on New Year's Eve. The airport was empty and I made it through security in under 10 minutes. When Japan Airlines sent me the reminder email, they said I only needed to be the airport an hour in advance, but my instinct is to always arrive at least two hours early. Boy was I wrong. I sure did sit at that airport for two hours waiting and waiting and waiting!
It ended up being fine, because with no one at the airport, the WiFi wasn't bogged down and I stayed entertained for the most part. The flight as well was a breeze. Japan Airlines has plenty of leg room, and the movie selection was pretty solid, so as long as you stay busy: time flies. I think the movies I watched in no particular order were: Jumanji 1, Maleficent 2, Toy Story 4, Aladdin, X-Men: Dark Pheonix, and Shazam! I paid the premium for inflight WiFi, and it wasn't fast enough to do most things on the internet, but was good enough to load social media and message the spouse and friends.
I woke up at 7am December 31st, the flight left Boston at 12pm, and arrived in Japan at 2am January 1st Boston time. We're quickly closing in on 24 hours of being awake, because I can't sleep on a plane. I'm an incredibly light sleeper, so any little bump or bounce from the plane and I'll be awake again, so I'm pretty excited to make it to the hotel so I can sleep, but I have a bunch of things I need to do at the airport first:
January 1 by numbers:
One more recommendation for travel: fly on New Year's Eve. The airport was empty and I made it through security in under 10 minutes. When Japan Airlines sent me the reminder email, they said I only needed to be the airport an hour in advance, but my instinct is to always arrive at least two hours early. Boy was I wrong. I sure did sit at that airport for two hours waiting and waiting and waiting!
It ended up being fine, because with no one at the airport, the WiFi wasn't bogged down and I stayed entertained for the most part. The flight as well was a breeze. Japan Airlines has plenty of leg room, and the movie selection was pretty solid, so as long as you stay busy: time flies. I think the movies I watched in no particular order were: Jumanji 1, Maleficent 2, Toy Story 4, Aladdin, X-Men: Dark Pheonix, and Shazam! I paid the premium for inflight WiFi, and it wasn't fast enough to do most things on the internet, but was good enough to load social media and message the spouse and friends.
I woke up at 7am December 31st, the flight left Boston at 12pm, and arrived in Japan at 2am January 1st Boston time. We're quickly closing in on 24 hours of being awake, because I can't sleep on a plane. I'm an incredibly light sleeper, so any little bump or bounce from the plane and I'll be awake again, so I'm pretty excited to make it to the hotel so I can sleep, but I have a bunch of things I need to do at the airport first:
- JR Rail Pass
- Pocket WiFi
- Tickets for Ghibli Museum
- Exchange Money
This is the first time the language barrier became and issue. JR Rail Pass was easy to grab because there's a big booth that says "JR Rail Service Center," and all the employees are either fluent in English or speak enough that it was a breeze to roll through, and so was exchanging money. However, finding both the voucher company and the pocket WiFi company were a bit of Where's Waldo. Both of these booths had a different company's name on them, so I walked right by them, but there's a like 8 different companies to one tiny booth, and I'm not going to lie, I spent a little longer at the airport than I'd like to admit, about 2 hours total with no checked bags.
Heading to the basement I learned I needed to go back to the JR Rail Service Center to book a specific seat on the Narita Express, and that would shoot me directly to Downtown Tokyo. Narita Airport is about 45 minutes from downtown by train, it's a bit of a lengthy ride than I expected, but hey, the ride's free with the JR Pass! By comparison, a taxi ride would be $200.
I walked from Tokyo Station to my hotel in Shinbashi, essentially directly south of the station, because I needed to stretch out my legs and breathe some non recycled plane air. Was a 26 minute walk past all these cool little shops, most of which being closed because of the New Year, but a late night walk through Tokyo with the lights on was super rad. Checked into the hotel, thought about getting some Ramen, but it's now 8:30pm local time, I'm close to 24 hours without sleep, and I want to crash.
So I slept.
And that ends the technical first day in Japan. Saw the Tokyo Skytree from the train, I'll be there tomorrow. Walked around in the lights of the city, and have everything I need prepped for the next 20 days.
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| Lights of Shinbashi, Tokyo |
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| Sleepy Exhausted Joe |
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| View From the Hotel |
January 1 by numbers:
- Photos: 9
- Miles walked: 5.1
- Steps: 9933
- Total Calories Burned: 3561
- Bowls of Ramen: 0
-Joe
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