• Date: 2013-03-12 22:55Z
  • Position: 35.689686, 139.770706
  • Speed: -
  • Heading: -
  • Air Temp: 11C
  • Wind Speed: 3 mps
  • Cloud: -
  • Prep: -
  • SST: -
  • SSS: -

Food

Yesteday I had the various airplane meals which consisted of chicken and rice, verious fruits, and a turkey sandwich. My first actual meal in Tokyo was a bowl of bukkake udon which was had in the basement of some building close to Kanda Station. It was tasty, but I’m not sure how to describe it.

Journal

I arrived at the airport around 0700HST, I checked in and made it through the TSA without incident other than some confusion as to why I only had a one way ticket. The plane itself was a 747, which is the largest place I’ve been on. I was lucky enough to have a window seat. Other than the flight attendents, I saw perhaps 4 other non-japanese people.

The flight itself was also uneventful, unless you count the person next to you falling asleep and their head hitting your shoulder suddently. I laughed a little at it, them being Japanese, I imagine they were very embarased by it.

When able to see Japan out my window for the first time, only a few things really struck me. The first was the number of ships in the water, there were so many and all going in different directions. And most of them were large ships. The second thing that struck me was that the cars were driving on the opposite side of the road as in the United States. When I saw that, that is when it hit that I was truly going to be in another country.

On landing, the we deplaned quickly and orderly (as I would expect from the Japanese), I went through imigration and customs without issue, knowing that I would be unable to check into the hotel before 1700, I decided to kill some time in the airport, and change my money. I purchased train tickets to Kanda station and boarded the 1515 train to Tokyo station. I had heard that Japaense trains were punctual, but wow, as soon as the clock hit 1515, that very second we pulled away from the station.

The train made it to Tokyo station exactly as scheduled. I then started to make my way through Tokyo station, which was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Just the number of people rushing about was incredible. From what I could tell I was succesful in avoiding being in peoples way. I had to quickly check the train maps and made it to a train that would take me to where I needed without issue. Though, I had decided to take a train that was only going in the direction I needed to avoid major screwups.

I made it to the capsule hotel (no photos inside) and checked in, stashed my items and left looking for food. The choices were overwhelming, so I decided to try and find a place for udon noodles. This is where my most basic knowledge of the Japanese language came in handy as no place had signs in English, I wandered around in circles for a bit before I spooted the kana I was looking for, うどん. I could barely communicate with the people, but was able to get my bowl of noodles, making sure to slurp loudly.

After the noodles I returend to the hotel to bathe and sleep. I use the word bathe because the only showering facilities are traditional Japanese ones. Which, if you don’t know how they work, have stools near a wall and one (or more) communal bath tub. The procedue is to sit on the stool and clean yourself, then, only when clean, enter the bath for a bit of relaxation.

With myself clean, I crawled into the capsule and went to sleep. Today, I am planning on going north on the train to Ueno and attempting to find my way back on foot. A path that will take me through Akihabara.