To the land of the rising sun

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When I went to bed last night, much later than I had planned to go, I had a beautiful Orchid on my pillow along with a card that said ‘Sleep is an art, for one to appreciate it one must stay awake all day’. Or something along those lines. I tell you I have stayed awake all day and been up much earlier than I care to be up - I really appreciate my sleep. So when my alarm went off at the ungodly hour of 4 am I was less than amused. Oh how I wanted to sleep in again to a decent time. Hopefully I was planning to get tomorrow off. Not that I would be able to sleep in that day either but I needed a day off, it had been 17 days since my last day off, which meant that in the month or so that I had been working I had actually only had 1 day off! I should have had 4 days off by now. So to say that I was feeling the strain was putting it lightly.

As we had to get up so early we had our breakfast sent to our rooms, as I don’t think the restaurants were open just yet. At the appointed time of 5am we were on our way to the airport which we had only been through less than 24hrs earlier. It was a pretty dull journey. Not much to see - it was all dark. F kept himself happy by counting the lamp posts. He said that there were 2000 between the hotel and the airport, but I have a feeling that it was a little bit more than that. But hey, whatever keeps him from annoying his sister is alright with me. He also said that it helped him with his maths as he had to count in 2s. Well then it is doubly okay with me. Trying to get him to do anything remotely educational is difficult so if he is doing it by himself - hurrah.

We checked in with Thai International Airways in their Upper Class area. This basically meant, we got to swan around while they did it all for us. We did make one mistake and that was while packing all of Mr G’s birthday presents we forgot to put the one that had the shaving foam in one of our suitcases. So as we went through security we lost it 😞 well, we thought we had lost it, our nice check in lady tried to get it put into our cases. But came back only to tell us that our cases had already left, so she said that she would put in a box for us. Wasn’t that jolly decent of her? You wouldn’t get that in cattle class now would you. We were met on the other side of security by 2 beep beep (see the post about arriving in Hong Kong for an explanation into why they are called beep beep cars) cars - but not the normal beep beep cars. These were futuristic. Something you would find from Star Trek, only they didn’t hover. That would have been incredibly cool if they had. Anyway they were 3 seaters. One for the driver and then directly behind him facing backwards was one seat and then facing that seat was another seat. The width of them was that of an average sized person. What a start to the day, this was totally worth getting up early for. Just to ride through the airport past all those poor people walking was great. It was the same feeling one gets when you have a fastpass to a ride in Disney during the height of summer when the standby line is 2hrs and you can saunter past trying not to look smug as you do. All my Disney friends will know exactly what I mean. That is a great feeling.

We had a little time to kill in the lounge; in fact it was enough time for both Mr and Mrs G to have a massage. We had hoped that we would get the beep beep cars to take us to the gate, but alas no. We had to walk. It wasn’t that far, but still it would have been nice to have them. On this flight Mr and Mrs G were in first class, while I and the children were in upstairs in the bubble in business class. The plane was rather old and tired looking. Thankfully it was only a 5hr flight to Tokyo. M slept for over half of it, then woke up when the guy sitting behind us kept unnecessarily shaking our chairs when he got up. M then got in a big strop when I told her to not to do something so she started kicking the chair in front of us. If there is something I can’t stand on a plane or where ever is someone kicking my chair. It is unbelievably annoying. So I told her off for that too, which resulted in tears. Now when I say tell off - it is telling her to stop or I will ask the person behind to start kicking her chair. I really am like Mary Poppins (especially from the book) or Nanny McFee. If you notice they rarely say anything to the children they look after, they just look at them and say hmmm. I have that down to an art.

So we arrived in Tokyo, and we managed to get into the country - phew. They think that we are safe enough to be allowed in. The first thing we notice is - no not that everything is in Japanese - is that the ATMs don’t accept any international cards! How stupid is that? This is an international airport and they don’t have a place for you to get cash out. My advice to you, if you come to Japan, is bring lots and lots and lots of cash. Firstly you will be hard pushed to find an ATM that does accept international cards (regardless of the type), secondly everything is so expensive - a kg of strawberries cost $150! And finally the shops don’t like taking international cards unless it is Visa (ha in your face mummy for telling me that no one would accept Visa! I’m the only one in the group that hasn’t had problems with using a card because mine is a Visa!).

We were picked up by our local guide Shinji who was really great. I didn’t really see him after today as I wasn’t with the main group while we were in Tokyo. We had quite a long ride to the centre of Tokyo, which involved a lot of chair swapping as HB was sitting next to me, then she wanted to sit with Mrs G, then she wanted to sit with me. No more musical chairs while the van is in motion. Originally Mr G did not want the children to go to Disney, which is why I was hoping that I would get a day off so that I could go to them by myself. This would have to be done in top secret as I didn’t want HB to find out where I had been. Otherwise it would cause a major crisis. Well, I need not have worried. Mrs G had managed to twist the arm of Mr G and broke the news to me that I would be taking the kids to Tokyo Disney tomorrow. Yay! That is not what I had in mind - I wanted to go by myself, but on the bright side, I am still getting to go and I get to go for free! That is worth an Oh Yay (Elaine why does that remind me of you and concert band). So now we broke it to both F and HB. You should have heard the squeals. Well not from F, he is obviously far too cool to squeal like a little girl. It just so happened that we were passing by the Tokyo Disney resort so we got a passing glance at the castle towers and some of the other rides - looks like there is a Tower of Terror there! YAY!

Our hotel for the next few nights was the Penninsula Hotel - a very nice place indeed. For the first time in ages I won’t have to worry about spiders or mossies in my room. Or have to wait for turn down to come and spray the room for the night. Oh I forgot to mention, it was freezing here, really cold. It snowed while we were here! Japan is not a country that I associate with snow, when I think of Japan I think of Earthquakes, giant monsters attacking the cities, geisha and cherry blossom. Not snow. But there was, and in one place there was a lot of it! I was starting to get the feeling that my Japanese Encephalitis B vaccination wasn’t really necessary, as there were no mossies around. Hmm, that is not technically true; I did get bitten while in Japan. Bloody typical. The only mosquito that is alive in the winter finds me.

As it was Mr G’s birthday (I won’t reveal how old) we set up his bedroom with the decorations that we had made, and had a little birthday celebration, joined by a few of the senior staff members (just for the sing though). The birthday celebrations kept being dragged out but a certain little girl, rather like this post, who was trying everything so she didn’t have to go to bed. It ended as it often does when you have a tired, over excited 5 year old. It ended in tears. That was my cue to sweep down and take her off to bed. I made it quite clear to her as I tucked her into bed that tomorrow we were going to be getting up early and would be walking the majority of the day. So I did not want under any circumstances any whining or complaining. Disney does not allow grumpy people in their parks. It is a happy place filled with happy people, and we were going to be those happy people (even if it killed us 😊. Saying that HB still didn’t fall asleep till 10pm! Then she was up at 11pm and again at midnight. Wonderful. I really was beginning to wonder if it was a good idea taking her if she was going to be tired after so many early starts. But you will have to wait and find out just what we did in the end.

To be continued ...

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Photos

Half asleep
In the first class area waiting to be checked in. If only it was always like this.

Balancing act
Yup that was in the first class area - I am a classy lady.

Beep beep car
F on the ultra cool beep beep car. I think he is waving to all the suckers I mean people who were walking.

HB and I
On the plane to cold country

a pretty building
somewhere in tokyo

Our hotel
Not a good shot but ah oh well.

Comments

[Eric]

I enjoyed your post. I have always wanted to travel to Japan. My blog is looking for travel photos. If you have the time, email us some at [e-mail] or check us out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com Continued fun on your travels, Eric

[Elaine]

Oh yeah
Ooooooh Yeeeah! (In a deep voice) That was something to do with Johnny Depp as I recall but I can't really remember now. And I think Sarah too (likely!)

[Anita85]

oh yes, I remember.