As promised you can find some pix in my earlier entries, as well as in this post and some upcoming ones. (If I can write about my boring weekends for a million years, how much text do you think 6 days in Tokyo will generate?) First up, a blow-by-blow description of the very first day.
5:45 AM
Yes, 5:45 AM. Super Shuttle is supposed to pick me up at 7:15 for my 11 AM flight. Kinda early, but what do you expect for $20? I turn on my cell phone to find a voicemail from them: “Our apologies but we’ll have to move up your reservation. . .to 6:20.” Needless to say I cancel.
6:30 AM
In the shower my nose starts to bleed like I’m 5 years old. Great.
8:45 AM
At the airport! Had to take a cab for almost four times the amount of Super Shuttle. Oh well. I forget how pretty Newark Airport is. JFK and LGA are really crummy in comparison.
11:40 AM
Take off! 30 minutes late but not bad. Plus I have a whole row to myself. Score! The plane is half-empty. Japanese girls, like American ones, seem to travel in packs. All have the same shaggy longish do and bad dye jobs. Why would anyone want their hair to be that orangey-brown color?
12:20 PM
Watching a Japanese movie, Fly Daddy Fly (okay, loving the website), in spirit of trip. It’s pretty good. The subtitles could use some work though. “Don’t fuck with me, old man” is translated into, “Don’t heck with me, old man.”
1:21 PM
Okay, this movie is totally homoerotic in a Fight Club kind of way. And I have to say it’s sorta turning me on.
3:34 PM
Awake from a nap. Bird starts playing on iPod shuffle, and before that Hikaru Utadu. Very appropriate.
Hungry. Shoulda brought more snacks. Japanese couple in front of me are eating what smells like a crunchy, sesame-y, possibly seaweed-y snack. Would it be rude of me to ask them for a handful?
4:26 PM
Sugar Soul now. Japanese characters can appear on my iPod. Who knew.
9:00 PM
ES just alerted me to look out the window and here’s what we see:
These are the Cherskogo Mountains of Siberia. Super cool.
11:39 PM
Good lord, I think I’ve been on this flight for half my life. I actually fell asleep for the last hour and awoke to all the cabin lights on. I found myself sitting up, anxious and disoriented, like Ellie woken from a nap.
11:50 PM
Okay, I got my first compliment on my “perfect English.” Let’s see how many more I get.
1:20 AM EST/3:20 PM Tokyo time
We’ve landed! We’re in Tokyo!
Our room at the ryokan – comfy and cozy!
Your pics are awesome. And yeah, thanks for causing me to salivate at my desk at 9am. It’s all about the fish sperm sacks.
(that eggplant looked cool!)
Looks and sounds like a great time… crazy and busy, but great.
I’d love to go to Japan.
funny first day account. i’ll never understand why the shuttle people think that it’s okay to change to an earlier time. like we’re all just sitting around the house for hours with nothing to do before they show up.
Um, what eggplant? The Siberian range looked so cool. What a way to feel really tiny. So’s like having to fly for 14 hours at airplane speed to get there!