OUR ARRIVAL:
Akasaka-Mitsuke, Tokyo, Japan.
October, 9th... 10th? I don't really know.
Well, WE MADE IT! Our journey to get here was... interesting to say the least. We left my house at 10:00am to get to the airport, and took off at around 2:00pm. Uncle Real and I were sitting together, in the middle row, right behind "Business Class." Wow! Those seats are amazing! You get a bed, L.E.D lights, your own huge screen, everything is modified for your comfort! I kind of hated our seats... Not going to lie. We had a lot of leg room, but since the wall was so far away from our legs, there was absolutely no way to sit any other way than upright. And trust me- when you're sitting in the same position for 12 hours... you go a little crazy. Another thing that kind of bothered me was that the TV was so high on the wall, I had to stretch my back up in order to see the right image and the right colours. The TV screen wouldn't even tilt! And the earphone jack on my seat was broken and flimsy, so I had to keep adjusting my earphones every couple of minutes!! And trust me on that one, too- When you watch 5 movies in a row, it gets a little irritating. I watched "Monsters' University," "Epic," "The Great Gatsby," "Now You See Me," and "Bolt." "The Great Gatsby" was soooo good! I'd recommend the first three. And thanks to my mom for talking me out of downloading a $20 movie onto my iPad! Basically all the movies I wanted to see were on the airplane!
Anyways, a couple hours into the flight, they shut all the lights off. That reeeeaally screwed with my mind. In my brain, it felt like 8:00pm. Which was matching the visual input, but every time someone opened their window, a huge amount of bright light just poured into the airplane! My brain was like, "Oh my god, I'm so confused! I thought it was night time, but it's so bright out!" After that happened repeatedly, I just decided to give up on what time it was and tried to go with how tired I was feeling... Not a good idea. I didn't sleep once on the plane. In fact, the only time I ever closed my eyes was to blink... And that took a huge toll on me by the time we got to our Hotel. Which was at 7:00am Calgary time...
Before we got to our Hotel, though, we had to travel through Hell's maze. Apparently the travel home is the really hard part. So after yesterday, I don't even want to think about the journey home.
After we landed, we got off the plane, and walked through a really long hall to get to our luggage. The first thing I noticed was the sticky humidity in the air. The hall we walked through was half made out of windows, so we could see outside. It was so light out! In my mind, it was 1:30am on Wednesday. But it was actually 4:30pm Wednesday! Aaaah! My poor brain! The sunlight really helped to keep me awake, so I found some energy and walked through the airport. We got our Japan Rail Passes validated, and walked to the first train. The lady at the desk gave us all these maps and tips, and she gave us our first ticket and directed us to our first Hotel! She was really helpful! ...Or so we thought. We got on our first train, the Narita Line, and took it to Tokyo Station. A couple with a young baby came up to us and said, "Um, excuse me. I think you're in our seats." We pulled out our tickets, and found that we were in the right seats, but the lady at the desk had given them to us for October 11th! Not October 9th! What a dummy! The couple laughed with us and thankfully there was extra seats. The ticket man was probably thinking, "Oh, those dumb Canadians." I expect we'll get that look a lot within the next couple of days...
So, we sat and sat and sat. Finally I started thinking, "Man. This tunnel is really long and dark. We must be underground still." I cupped my hands around my eyes and glued my face to the window. I saw trees... and buildings in the distance. In fact, we weren't underground at all! It was simply PITCH black outside! "Okay now I'm REALLY confused," I thought. Just moments ago we were walking through that sun-filled hall way in the airport. Just moments ago it was only 4:30pm! My brain hurt. I don't think I've ever been more confused in my life. I turned to the screen on the train, and took a good look at it. Uncle Real said it's the most beautiful screen he's ever seen. It said that it was 5:44pm. How could it have gone from broad daylight to absolute darkness in just an hour and fifteen minutes? Right then I knew that Japan had a lot of surprises in store for us. I told myself not to expect things. And to take in everything as something new. I'm glad I came to that realization at such an early stage in our travel. Now I think I'll be able to take more of the country in. I stuck my face back onto the glass, thinking that I had missed some beautiful scenery or something. An hour passed and all I saw was trees, trees, old houses, and more trees. I turned to my uncle to see if he was watching out the window too- Nope. He had his neck kinked and his mouth wide open. I think there was even a little bit of drool there... That was when I noticed that we had been awake for nearly 18 hours straight. I shook the idea from my head because I knew that if I thought about it, I'd start feeling the exhaustion kick in.
We got off the train safe and sound, and took a look around. Everything seemed to be calm enough. Not too many people were around. I half expected to be trampled by thousands of Asians wearing masks and business suits by the time we got to this station. We weren't though! A little relieved, we continued along our path to try and find the Marunouchi Subway Line. Our JR Passes don't cover Subways apparently, so we had to find a ticket booth. There were signs everywhere. In Kanji, and in English, thankfully. We walked for what seemed like a longer distance than the Walk for the Cure we did on Sunday... Seriously! It was a never ending hallway if I ever saw one. Finally, we saw the opening that led out of that hall. I was so happy! I thought we'd turn the corner and we'd be right there at the main station! Boy was I ever wrong.We turned the corner, and sure enough, we were trampled by thousands of Asians wearing masks and business suits. In fact, by the time we actually got to the Hotel, I had counted 36 Asians with masks. I think I'm going to call it my Kokolowali Count. Well Mom, My Kokolowali count is at 36! And we haven't even seen anything yet! We were mesmerized. We took a deep breath, and kept following the signs. By the end of the long hall, we realized I had been following the wrong signs. I was so sad!!! I thought for sure I was leading us the right way! Finally I looked up and saw the right name. We had been following a line with similar letters, sort of... Masashi or something like that. But we needed Marunouchi Line. That's when I realized that it's SO IMPORTANT to read the word properly and make sure it's the right one! *Sigh* Thankfully I've been learning all these lessons the first day. We got the hang of it eventually. Walking through the whole area felt like the scene in "Finding Nemo" where the turtles have to time it right and jump into the flow. It was kind of fun, actually! We went up the final set of escalators, turned, and there we were! Outside, standing on the sidewalk of Akasaka-Mitsuke! I got the Garmin out, and had it searching for a satelitte for what felt like ages. We still haven't gotten it to connect yet... Hopefully it does. But we just looked at the map and walked to the Hotel. It was a short walk, but we made it! I was so tired- by the time we touched our heads to the pillow it was 7:00am Calgary time. So I hadn't slept for 22 hours. I'm pretty sure that's the longest I've stayed awake!
We got to our Hotel, "Monterey Akasaka Hotel," (which is beautiful by the way) put our belongings in our room, took a shower because I was really sweaty and gross from our journey, and walked to a camera store and to McDonalds. Yes, our first meal in Japan was at McDonalds. I wanted to see if the food is the same! It is, if anyone was wondering!
Well, It's 7:26am on Thursday here, so it's time to start our first day! I can't wait! I'll update you all soon!
Love always,
Lindsay Lehr