Journey to Tokyo

Still feeling like it was a bit surreal, Dave and I and our friends, Jeremy, Jeff and Brynne assembled at the airport yesterday for our flight to Tokyo. The flight itself was lengthy but we enjoyed a relatively new plane and extremely attentive service by the Japan Airlines flight crew.



Airplane selfie stick action - everyone around us loved it!

 After arriving at Narita Airport and being fingerprinted by Customs (standard procedure, not just me), we were greeted by a driver for the car service we had booked to take us into Tokyo. Narita is about 60km from downtown Tokyo and we were apprehensive about navigating the subway for the first time with lots of luggage, so the car service was a good option for our group size. Our "second wind" of energy was quickly zapped by the 2 hour traffic-filled drive from Narita to our apartment (as our friend Michelle describes it - "soul destroying"). By the time we arrived at our apartment, we were tired, hungry and thirsty. Perfect time to embark on a scavenger hunt of sorts to retrieve the keys to our apartment. Luckily, our hosts sent us extremely detailed directions complete with various pictures of landmarks along our route. In a surprisingly short period of time, considering the rest of the day's events, we were unlocking the door to our apartment.


This place is advertised as able to sleep 8

I don't consider myself extremely tall, yet I have to duck through certain doorways in our apartment. Our collective initial thought standing in the foyer was that we had entered a hobbit's Japanese dwelling. I think our second collective thought was 'Are we going to kill each other by the end of this week?'. But funny enough, once being inside the apartment for awhile and getting settled, you get accustomed to the size.

On our "third wind" at this point, we got ready to head to Shinjuku to find some food and drink. Shinjuku is the nearest major neighbourhood, except "neighbourhood" is not even the way to describe it. It's like Times Square, only it's one of many Times Squares in Tokyo. I was a bit embarrassed by how awestruck I was during this first trip out exploring. I've been to big cities but this feels like another level. And somehow it is still extremely orderly, clean and quiet.

Thanks to pocket wifi devices (seriously no idea what we would do without these), we navigated our way to meet up with our friend Michelle, who also happens to be in Tokyo this weekend from Hong Kong (and will be our host in HK in a couple weeks). She showed us around a bit while also trying to find somewhere for our first meal in Tokyo, which is fairly challenging because there is almost too much choice. Restaurants are not only on the ground level but also on multiple levels of multiple buildings. There are pictures of food served at each of these restaurants but when you've been up for 24 hours and the group is hangry (hungry + angry), everything starts to blur together. After a couple failed attempts, we chose a restaurant that specializes in vegetables wrapped in thin pork slices (similar to prosciutto) and grilled. Except we didn't realize that everything was wrapped in pork, which unfortunately left poor Brynne with a couple tiny salad options that were not all that satisfying. Lesson - don't choose restaurants when already hangry, planning ahead is key.

Delirium set in at some point during dinner and we called it a night soon after eating. I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, though it did not mean jetlag didn't jolt me awake at 5:30am. Initial impressions so far - Tokyo is a fascinating city and the people even more so. It feels safe and the low crime rate is evident, as many bikes that are parked along the street are not even locked up. People are quiet as they move around on the street and via transit, which seems essential with such a big population in a small place. I wouldn't mind a bit more of that at home actually!