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Hi everyone! Well we’ve landed safely now and our first evening in Tokyo has been somewhat of an adventure. The plane ride was actually very nice and went by quicker than I thought. There was more legroom than we knew what to do with and the flight attendants actually knew our names and try to cater to our every needs. I love first class! The food was the best plane food I have ever had. Once boarding we had our choice of champagne or an orange juice cocktail, we both chose the orange juice. Then came hot and cold canapés, I’m not really sure what a canapé is, but we were served one gyoza and shumai and a couple pieces of sushi. From there we had our choice of lunch, I chose the Japanese lunch which came with lobster, buckwheat somen, crabmeat kanten (jelly), grilled salmon, rice, miso soup. Robert chose the American style chicken and potatoes. Then we got our choice of desert, we chose raspberry mousse. And then we got an assortment of cheeses and grapes with port. The port was awfully strong so I only had a sip or two. And then we got to choose when we
wanted our next meal, we chose two hours prior to landing, which gave us several hours to pass in the meantime. We got barbequed duck with ginger orange sauce and fresh fruit and chocolate truffles.
We napped and watched a couple of movies and played video games such as Zelda and Super Mario. Aren’t you jealous Joey? After we landed was when the real fun started though. First we were able to get our rail passes relatively easy and I was able to find where our first train was. It arrived about 30minutes early and we hopped on. About two minutes later we were asked to get out of the train which didn’t go to Tokyo as we had thought, but the another part of the airport! I panicked, but asked one of the conductors on the platform who told me that they were just cleaning the train and that we could get back on in a minute. Then we got back on and were shuttled right back to where we started, and everyone else got on the train, at 4:45, just like our tickets said. The Narita express was great, nonstop from the airport to Tokyo in nice
Canapes anyone?
Mom still makes the best gyozas cushy seats. Once we got to Tokyo, I figured that it was all smooth sailing from there. But I was wrong. We easily hopped on the next train to Ueno, no one stopped us and asked for tickets or a pass which I thought was kind of weird. At Ueno station we figured we would just get out and walk to Asakusa—not so easy. We had to put our ticket into the machine to get out!! But we hadn’t bought tickets to get to Ueno! We wandered around for a good 20 minutes, I figured we were stuck at the station forever. I was so tired at this point I just wanted to cry! I finally went up to some guy at the exit and asked how we get to the Ginza subway, which is what my directions said would lead us right to the doorstep of our hostel. He pointed me in the direction and I started walking, wondering if I should run while I had the chance to escape. “tickets please!” he barked in english. Probably thought I was some dumb gaijin. Well, I guess I am in a way. Anyways, we figured out that all we had
Yum!
I am still haunted by the crab jell-o to do was show our rail pass to get out!.. But then once we got to the subway to Ginza, we each paid our 160 yen (Thanks mom for the change purse!) and got on the first subway, but then realized we were headed in the wrong direction!! We got out again and found ourselves back at Ueno station. ARG! Needless to say, I think we have a pretty good idea how to use the public transportation system here now. We found our hostel and checked in. This room is so incredibly tiny! We’re on the third floor and our room had bunk beds. Robert claimed the top bunk…I didn’t really mind, I never liked bunk beds anyways. The bathroom is right across the hallway, but it’s really hot and stuffy in there. There’s a window but it just opens up into the hallway so everyone can hear you!
After getting situated we figured we would take a walk. Our first stop—am/pm! Robert got a ramune (kind of like Sprite, it comes in a funny glass bottle) and I had my first pint of Japanese milk in a long time. Robert tasted it and said that it tastes and smells
Attack!
Robert stabbing his sushi before it squirmed off his plate like corn. You know, I never thought of it that way, but it does! I love it anyways. Then we wandered the streets of Asakusa, some interesting American things we saw: a Starbucks, with a couple of African gentlemen who looked just as surprised to see us as we did them, a two-storied Denny’s, and probably about 5 am/pm’s in a square mile. There are ramen shops everywhere, Robert is going into overload, he doesn’t know which one to try first! We also saw a new Pepsi product, Pepsi Nex that we’ve never seen in the states. The taste is different, like cross between Pepsi and Calpico. Weird. We also stopped at a grocery store, where I made beeline for the peanut butter and bread. Ohhhh it’s so tasty! Anyways, it’s 4 a.m. here right now and I’m writing this on the laptop in our room. As tired as I was I woke up a couple times in the night and now I’m wide awake. I’m sure I’ll get over the jetlag soon enough. Today I think we’ll head to Tsukuji fish market and have some of their famous sushi. I don’t know where we’ll go from there. We’ll definitely
be going to Asakusa sometime today since Kaminarimon ( the big lantern) is about a 3 minute walk from our hostel.
Robert would like to add that Amanda has absolutely no sense of direction what so ever.
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