We didn't have to leave the hotel till around 8 so we were able to have a relatively relaxed morning. It gave us time to eat some grub and bring our suitcases down. It was here that we said our goodbyes to the folks and went on our way to the airport. Tamer was the representative who picked us up so that was cool.
Because we were flying with Lufthansa, our flight plan was to fly to Munich (Germany), and then transfer to a flight to Tokyo. The Munich flight was 4 hours and wasn't too bad. We had less than an hour for the transfer before the 11 hour Japan flight...
As a rule, I really don't mind flights. I can waste time with the best of them. However, one thing I cannot do is sleep. The flight itself was ok. We watched some movies we'd been meaning to see, I read a bit. Sandra slept in her seat and curled up on the floor. All good. However, we landed in Japan at around 9 am, but my body was telling me that it was around 5 am. So for anyone who has stayed up all night past 5 am, this is how I felt.
We made our way to immigration and found out that we hadn't received the immigration forms on the plane when they were handing them out. Must have been during one of our attempts to sleep. Filled in the forms, went through and then headed to the luggage belt and picked up our suitcases. When we got to Japanese customs there weren't many people but we had to fill in a customs declaration form (which we also didn't get on the plane) before we were allowed through. By the time we had filled out the form there were a few more people at customs so Sandra chose the next freest looking one.
Unfortunately, this one had a nice but fussy lady who made us unlock one of our suitcases and then pull everything out so that she could have a look. This was also unfortunately the bag that had my dutch licorice powder and our Egyptian stone carving that was wrapped suspiciously in newspaper and bubble wrap. Thankfully one of the other guys in another lane had finished up so came over to see what was happening. He was cool. Each time the lady wanted to investigate something closer the cool guy was just like, "These people are cool, chill out". Sandra was pretty annoyed about the suitcase, especially when they couldn't fit everything back in again.
Once we finally made it through customs we changed some money over and then headed down to the train station to get to our hotel. Now, keep in mind, our flight landed around 9 am. We didn't make it to the train platform until 11:30 am and then it took us about two hours to make it to our hotel from the airport. Nuts! At least we got a seat on the train though.
We navigated our way to the hotel with good old Google maps and the iPhone GPS. It was a nice place, with the most space age toilet ever. As soon as you sit down, it starts filling the bidet. This is strange as it sounds like it flushes when you sit. The interesting thing is that I suspect that this is a 'regular' toilet by Japanese standards...
So after getting settled into the hotel, we made our way to Akihabara. This is an area where you can buy a whole bunch of the latest and greatest stuff Japan has to offer.
While walking around Tokyo, you start to realise that every 20th person is wearing one of those face masks. One can only assume this is for either stopping germs from coming in, stopping germs from getting out, or polution (or all of the above). After coming from Cairo, any of these seemed trivial. Yet still, you see them everywhere.
While crusing down Akihabara, we also noticed quite a few chicks dressed in 'maid' outfits handing out brochures. I figured it was best not to ask, and just accept it for the norm. We then found a street-side tourist information place (with a british girl dress in a maid outfit). After talking to her, it turns out that a current fad in Akihabara are 'Maid Cafes'. Well, that explains that then. Apparently, in these cafes the waitresses are all dress in 'maid' outfits, and treat you like a 'master' of a house while serving you drinks etc.
We went into some of the building in this area, and saw all the trading card stores, manga figurene stores, comic stores etc. All the stuff you had hoped they'd sell and more. It was truely and interesting experience. Even though I got Megatron in Greece, I still kept an eye out for him. It came as no surprise that I didn't find the one I wanted. Instead, I found crazier versions of Megatron.
The supermarkets and corner stores were pretty cool. They all had a wicked selection of Japanese style takeaway meals. These were awesome, and pretty much became our steady diet.
Keeping in mind that we haven't had any sleep yet, and our bodies thought it was 1pm now, we were struggling to stay awake. So we made it to the hotel, to get into bed by 7pm.
Annoyingly, I woke up around midnight fully awake and unable to get back to sleep. I also felt a snack attack coming on. But with no food in the hotel, what was one to do? Ah ha! We have a 24 hour convinience store below the hotel! Time to get me some of those awesome Japanese takeaway meals!
After some reading, with a full tummy, it was time to go to sleep again.
No comments:
Post a Comment