Japan – Day 1 – Let the fun begin
For the first day of the trip it was an early start. We got up at 5:30, took a shower, put the last unpacked things in our bags, prepared the unit for departure and headed off to the airport. Surprisingly, everything went as per plan, even though last night we had had a pretty big day/ night out with friends.
Brisbane International Airport has not changed since the last time we were there. Still a bit confused about the use of check-in machines. Why would you use them to just get boarding passes if you have to go to the baggage drop off counter anyway? After a lovely Red Rooster breakfast with our parents who were very kind to take us to the airport we went off to boarding.
The flight was ok, apart from the fact that our seats were at the back of the plane (at least not near the lavatories). There were also a couple of little children who tried to entertain people around them but, thanks to noise cancelling headphones, it didn’t bother us too much. Once again, we came to a conclusion that long day flights within the same time zone are the worst. What a waste of time. We came up with a solution – watch all the movies that you wouldn’t pay money to watch outside of the airplane or wouldn’t watch together. In between the movies we looked out of the window, it was a clear day so we saw some pretty looking places. Papua New Guinea (presuming that’s what it was) looks amazing from the air!
The Japanese really care about people, even those who are self-absorbed
Arrival in Tokyo was painless. We were almost the last ones to leave the plane which meant that by the time we got to passport control there was no queue. This time Lena wasn’t drilled at passport control and customs areas, which was quite nice for a change. The Japanese are probably better sign posters than Australians and as a result airport is pretty easy to navigate around, just look up.
As we briefly mentioned in our planning post we booked our JR Passes in advance which meant we needed to exchange them to real ones. When we found the right exchange office we were unpleasantly surprised with a massive queue of people. We would’ve spent about an hour there for sure, if not more. There is one thing that is worth mentioning with regards to the JR passes. A pass is valid for exactly the number of whole days that you booked it for and validity period starts when you do the exchange. Our passes were booked for 14 days and when we were actually in Japan for 15 days (even though arriving at night on the first day and leaving in the morning on the last). So had we chosen to stay in the queue and get our passes exchanged on the 14th, we would not have been able to use them on the 28th (the day we leave). After a quick check on the next available train which was suitable, the decision was made to pay cash and catch Narita Express to Shinjuku (the closest station to our hotel) and another local train to the hotel and exchange the JR passes the next day.
Why not buy JR tickets when you’ve already paid for a JR Rail pass
Luckily for us there was a helper near the tickets vending machine who helped us to acquire correct tickets and pointed to where we had to go. He gave us two options, the ‘challenge’ or ‘normal’. The ‘challenge’ option was to catch a train departing in two minutes, or the ‘normal’ option was to wait an hour. This doesn’t seem like much of a challenge unless you don’t know how big the train station is or which platform the train was on which was our case. Such as it was, we had been sitting for some time and this was meant to be a fun holiday the ‘challenge’ was accepted. So that was fun! Don’t remember when we had to run with two heavy backpacks on last. At least we made it and spent the next 80 minutes enjoying the ride and “views” out of the window. Actually, it felt a bit surreal. Lost in Translation was now to begin, whether you think of the Chinese book, or the movie which is completely different.
That looks a bit like Sexi-Tel but actually it’s SekiTei.
Change over to Shin Okubo from Shinjuku station was painless as well. We had decided, or at least the more forgetful of the two of us, that we should dump all extra weight off as quickly as possible this included: leaving the e-reader on the plane, leaving the camera bag on the train much to the disgust of an Argentinian soccer fan that Japan seemed to be teeming with. Luckily this was a failed plan and we managed to fail so well that nothing was lost. In Kazakhstan it’s good practise to sit down for a minute before you leave so to avoid forgetting anything. The Western half might eventually become as wise.
Shin Okubo Sekitei Hotel where we are staying for the night was not too difficult to find. It is situated in a dark alley which was a little unnerving for those who are not Japanofiles, but the sigh for it was spotted and Google (10^10^100) maps with a bit of roaming data triumphed.
Our eConnect card turned up at the hotel as expected but we’d recommend if flying out of Brisbane to pickup the cards from the airport as there is plenty of time from the flight arriving at six, and, you’ll feel more comfortable with a GPS in your hands when navigating to a tucked away hotel (instead of paying for roaming fees). In our case we used a bit of roaming data which, at a dollar a MB will probably hurt later when we see the bill. Vodafone it seems does not have a data plan for Japan… I wonder why considering they did have one for Zambia??
After a tour of the room and a refreshing cup of tea we decided to set off for a walk and look for some food in Shinjuku area. Went back to the local Shin Okubo Station and caught a train in. It’s only one stop away, technically, but we were not keen on walking, since we were a bit tired after a long flight.
We did, however ended up with quite a good walk around Shinjuku, first to find an ATM and then to find some food to eat. This was largely thanks to Maps.me which was an extremely handy online and offline maps application, Google (10^10^100) certainly does 99% of the job but if it wasn’t for Maps.me we wouldn’t have located the 7-11 and therefore we would’ve starved. Restaurants were tricky to work out on the first night when late, we ended up using a coin operated restaurant (Kamukura Soup with noodles) which had fantastic food as it turned out and we happened to be in the red light district so watching a bit of the local behaviour was fun.
Tasty – And coin operated into the bargain
On the way back we happened across a wedding photographer with groom and bride posing amongst the masses.
Evening settling into the hotel was a bit daunting but in reality it was simple as, futons were in the cupboard and shifting the table out to the other room was no trouble. Our only issue was that Tim is allergy prone and the straw floors made him a bit sensitive. This might be a consideration for other travellers in similar circumstances. They also have one of those cool toilets with a heated seat and buttons with some additional functions, having it in your own private room on the first night is quite handy, you can learn all the tricks and not make a fool of yourself when you are forced to use one somewhere in public toilets.
Well, that’s pretty much it for Day 1 in Japan. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.
Stay tuned, or if not tuned, please adjust 🙂