Day 1 - The Trip Over and Arrival in Tokyo
We left for Japan on 8/6/07, flying from Dallas to Houston, then Houston to Tokyo. The flight from Houston took about 13 1/2 hours - a long time to spend on a plane! We were fortunate to have a whole row to ourselves, which gave us room to stretch out. Each seat had an individual TV screen with movies on demand, TV shows, games, music, and a map with a satellite picture showing where the plane was with stats such as speed, altitude, and outside temperature. For much of the flight, we were at 37-38,000 feet and the outside air temperature was at -60 degrees.
After we landed and went through customs, we got our bags, got cash, visited the info booth for maps, and got our rail passes. Then it was time for our train into Tokyo. We arrived at Tokyo Station, and it was a madhouse - a mass of people walking as fast as they could in every direction possible. After some searching, we found the reservation office to make arrangements for our train to Kyoto the next day. The agents didn't speak English, but Robert came up with a great idea and wrote down the date, train, and time, and the agent was able to figure out what we wanted and give us tickets.
The next hurdle was figuring out the subway system and ticket machines. Using our maps and guidebooks, we were able to get on the right train going the correct direction on our first try! We had a long walk to get out of the next station at the correct entrance for our hotel, the Mercure Ginza. We checked in and ventured out for dinner. The hotel was near a major department store, Matsuya, and we'd read they had several options for dinner. None of the restaurants were very appealing, but we found a market in the basement with lots of options. I choose something like an omelette with shredded vegetables and Robert got a sampler of different noodles and marinated vegetables. It was…different - but not bad.
After we ate, we went for a walk in Ginza, the area around our hotel, trying to stay up as late as possible and get used to the time change. We were surprised at how many people were out walking around. Ginza is like the 5th Avenue of Tokyo, full of high-end stores like Chanel, Mikimoto, Cartier, Bulgari, etc. After exploring, we called it a night and were in bed by 8:30 for a good night's sleep.
Observations:
- Most signs were written in Japanese and English
- The Japanese like to illustrate everything with cartoon characters
- There are vending machines everywhere
- McDonald's changes their outdoor signage and menus for breakfast
- Drivers sit on the right side of cars; cars & people stay to the left of the road/sidewalk
- The airport baggage carousels have a buffer zone - no people or carts unless you're pulling your bag off the carousel. Very nice.
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