Returning to Japan!

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And so it seems I am unable to escape the allure of Japan... not even a year after my previous trip I find myself back in Tokyo, back in Kangetsu Ryokan, enjoying the sites and sounds. Of course an insanely cheap price of $400 CAD for airfare MIGHT have had something to do with my desire to return.. and this time I'm not alone. For the first week here a good friend of mine Rod has joined up for his first trip to Tokyo. And so far it has been VERY eventful. Since I'm only here two weeks I wasn't originally going to blog about it, but events have transpired that are too long to tweet or Facebook about. Enough with the introduction...

The trip to Tokyo was a bit different then usual. Flying with NWA instead of JAL was an adventure, although better then I anticipated. The day started around 4am. We started off flying South East To Minneapolis / St. Paul, a major hub for NWA. After a decent sized layover we flew back North West (almost literally over top of Edmonton where we started, sigh) for a 12 hour flight to Tokyo. From Vancouver it's a 9 hour flight, and those 3 extra hours I was really feeling it. The TV system they has was a large projector at the front where we watched whatever they wanted to show us. Movies, TV Shows, ad's for Delta Airlines.. thankfully brought enough entertainment to keep myself busy, and the 3 meals and free booze certainly helped! They also provided some cheap pillows and blankets, so it was far from all bad. The food was decent enough too!

After finally catching a couple hours of sleep, we landed in Narita. The cloud cover was amazing, only the last minute or so of landing did we finally get below the cloud cover to see Narita Airport. Upon landing we went through the H1N1 screening process.. which amounted to them asking if we had health problems, giving us a piece of paper saying if your sick see a doctor, and sent us on our way. Customs and such proved equally easy to get through, and our luggage was there waiting for us. The airport was amazingly dead, not sure why but only 3 flights were landing at the time apparently. Made for a quick exit. Got our train passes and went into Tokyo. Didn't have any trouble finding the Ryokan, I almost know the route off by heart now... Suffice to say by the time we got here we were hot, tired, and ready to get some sleep! The rooms we're staying in are in the "new" part where I never stayed before. They're pretty nice I must say, well worth the slightly extra cost!

Tonight heading out to Roppongi for drinks with some people we met up with, so I'll write more about the actual adventures in Japan later. Jaa Mata (Bye for now!)

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Photos

View from Airplane
Looking out on the flight to Minn/St. Paul

Home for 12 hours
Loading up the 747-400 we're about the embark on.

Kangetsu Ryokan
Similar to previous pictures I've taken, still love the style

Ryokan Room
Nicer then the older annex I've stayed in before.