TerenceD

Last entry.. Internet aint working too well so most of the videos never uploaded. The first few of these pictures are of the HIlton in Narita... not quite as nice as the one in Shinjuku, but still pretty good. Much more western in style too, larger rooms. A few pictures of Terminal 1 Narita, this was my first time there (JAL flies out of the nicer Terminal 2), but wasn't too bad. The flight itself was pretty good, lots of room to spread out which was nice. Also while waiting for the other guys to board the plane I ended up killing time chatting up this rather beautiful Chinese girl, Michelle, who happened to miss the same flight we did. Her final stop was Seattle, but after hearing the horror story of our 38 hour trip ... read more

I believe I have some catching up to do. Breaking this up to limit the pictures per entry... mind is a bit hazy still from Jet Lag, consider yourself warned! Wednesday we spent out checking the two "Fashionable" areas, Shibuya and Harajuku. Ended up having a pretty good time checking out the stores and such in the 109 Building (bought a T-Shirt I liked) before heading over to Harajuku. Checked out an extremely high end shopping mall, as well as some flagship stores for Tokyo like Nike and some other Japan specific places. The evening we all met up with Jason, another friend of Aaron's, and checked out a few of the bars in Shinjuku. On Thursday my original plan was to take the Shinkansen to Kyoto or some such place while the other guys checked ... read more

Well my flight left a few hours ago... and I'm still in Japan. Yup, that is exactlly what it sounds like. Issue with the timing of the flight and so now we had to rebook. Cost an extra $250 per person (plus $70 per person for the extra night now in Narita Airport). Initially the next available flight from Seattle (where we originally were connecting through) was on July 12th. We had them dig more, and found us a flight tomorrow. tomorrowISH. Here's the scoop (all times are local to that city): Leave Japan at 21:20, arrive in HONOLULU at 9:30AM. leave Honolulu at 17:15 (8 hour lay over) and arrive at 6:05 _AM_ in Minneapolis Leave Minneapolis at 21:40 (18 HOUR LAY OVER!!!!!) and arrive in Edmonton 23:34 (Thats Monday) Really not capable of saying ... read more

Well, turns out although the Hilton DOES offer internet, it's at an amazingly expensive price of 48 Yen per MINUTE, thats about 50 cents. Suffice to say other then a VERY quick check of email and such I never really got the chance to do any uploading of these last few entries. Other then that the hotel was great, I've stayed in better but not many. Helpful English speaking staff, large bed and good location can't be beat. The night in Nagoya was much needed, I didn't really do much after arriving. I headed into the downtown for a bit, checked out an Australian Bar and watched some Rugby. Nagoya's a great city, can't really put my finger on what but I've always enjoyed my time here. It's very foreigner friendly, lots of English folks around. ... read more

Note - in a rush to enter these before their plane lands so the pics might be outa order... Writing this from the Hikari Super Express 517. Left Tokyo for the night, heading into Nagoya before returning to Tokyo to meet up with Aaron and his friends. Rod departed for Edmonton, thankfully all of our return flights go through Seattle, cuts 3 hours off the flight time roughly. Leaving off from where I last wrote, the following day we started off in Shinjuku. Needed to get the lay of the land for meeting up with Aaron there, as well we checked out the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices. These two (at least) towers house the people that keep Tokyo running. The one we went into had at around 50 floors. The observatory was on the 45th and ... read more