Tag: Getting There

Tokyo & going to Kyoto? Day 02+03

Combining 2 days into one since I KO’d the past few days

05/21/2023

Today we were scheduled to meet up with everyone at Shinagawa Prince Hotel. As our group arrived a few days ahead of schedule, we had to travel from our prior accommodation in Oshiage to Shinagawa. We left at around 10:00am.

Cam and I absolutely passed away today. We went from Oshiage -> Shinagawa, then saw the discord ping notifying us that Shinagawa was not the right place after we had already spent a good amount of time hauling our luggage from the station to Shinagawa Prince Hotel (we had to climb multiple slopes while getting lost around that hotel).

We were told to go to Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa, so while looking for the main entrance of Shinagawa Prince Hotel, we switched directions and had to climb up many more slopes to the Takanawa Hotel. We checked our luggage in early and thought all was well enough to go grab food before the check-in at 2pm. It was around noon at this point.

Cam and I met up with Skylar to go to our first family restaurant at Royal Host! I ordered omurice & garlic toast.

We also took a quick trip to Akiba to check out the Hololive x Kanda Matsuri collab since it was its last day!

On our way home, we saw once again another change in plans, in that Shinagawa WAS the right place after all. We had to make the walk of shame to the luggage desk and let them know that we wouldn’t be checking in at that location after all, but luckily there was a free shuttle to all the surrounding Prince Hotels so we didn’t have to carry our luggage through the heat back to Shinagawa.

After that very eventful travel journey, we met up in the hotel lobby at 6pm to get our rail pass vouchers exchanged for the real thing and we all went to the food court in the nearby station for dinner before retiring for the night.

Kakeudon for dinner!

05/22/2023

We woke up early today to grab breakfast before taking our trip to Kyoto! We were scheduled to stay in Shinagawa Prince Hotel for one night before heading to Kyoto, and I have to say, that hotel was severely underwhelming for how much extra facilities they had to offer. Shinagawa boasts an aquarium, bowling alleys, etc etc, but the room had pillows that were too soft and didn’t offer nice support, and the comforter!!!! was so!!!! uncomfortable!!! scratchy and thin….

Anyway, we got a small squad to get breakfast together consisting of Jess, Megan, and Belle, with Skyler and Liam joining us a bit later. We went to The City Bakery at around 8am. *takes note if I ever visit again in the future*

I picked up a croque monsieur, some thick bread slices & maple bacon french toast. I saved much of the bread for takeout, and then also ordered an eggs benedict set for dining in. Yummy!

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel to get ready to check out and travel to Kyoto. A bit before 2pm, we all met up once again in the hotel lobby to set out for the station. It was my first time riding the shinkansen, and it was painfully uneventful due to how cramped we all were. I had planned on getting some work done, but our group was packed into the space and I ended up taking many mini naps while sneaking peeks at the scenery outside and praying for my phone battery to make it through the day.

Once we arrived, we were greeted by KCG faculty and they were very hospitable and kind! Our luggage was loaded onto a bus while we were treated to an amazing 10 course(?) meal at a restaurant called Ganko(?).

My phone battery KO’d after the third course but it was all very tasty! (Minus the faux savory tofu dessert…)

Penguin Day!!! (+ travel to Kyoto)

For the first time, I was able to sleep in until 8! Previously, I had been waking up at 5 or earlier. We made our way to a bakery where I ate french toast and other bake goods. I also had a delicious smoothie and tried yuzu juice.

After, we checked out of our hotel and split up into groups. I was a part of a large group that went to the aquarium that was attached to the mall connected to our hotel. We were immediately welcomed by a swing boat type ride which we of course had to try.

While many of the earlier exhibits were more sparse and appeared to create a flashy vibe opposed to showcasing the animals, there were some interesting animals there.

This fish looks like he is eating sand.

Some of the later exhibits featured larger animals.

However, the most impressive exhibit by far was the penguin one (no biases here). I’ve never seen a penguin exhibit featuring different species of penguins in one exhibit space. They had King, Gentoo, African, and the rare Northern Rockhopper penguin native to only a few remote islands in the middle of the Atlantic. Truly a treat to see!

There was also an otter show where the otter did various tricks such as sorting garbage, speaking, and eating a shrimp larger than its head. However, we had to leave before seeing the penguin show in order to get to Kyoto…

I had to buy a bag from my favorite anime of all time, Pingu. A true masterpiece.

After riding the Shinkansen and playing more Hearthstone, we were greeted by KCG staff in Kyoto. They kindly guided us to a restaurant where we were treated to a traditional 10 course meal (+desert). This was a very new experience for many and not all of the food was everyone’s favorites, however, this was an amazing experience to experience the foods of a different culture. Personally, this compared to the Chinese banquet dinners that my extended family puts together for Chinese New Years so I was willing to try most foods. Familiar foods of Tempura, Sashimi and Sushi were also served following ice cream for desert. We also had the opportunity of making sushi under the direction of the head chef where I went first and had a great amount of difficulty putting on my glove (and ripped it). All things considered, I think I did a decent job.

We made our way to our hotel afterwards and am about to retire for the night as of the writing of this. Stay tuned, the Kyoto action has only just begun!

To be continued…

The Busiest of First Days

Brody and I boarded our plane at around 12:15pm in Los Angeles and prepared for our long flight, which happened to be an hour shorter than planned, giving us a landing time of 3:30pm in Japan instead of 4:30. After a comfortable flight with some of the best airplane food I’ve ever had, we finally landed at Narita Airport.

We planned on getting to dinner on time, but our fatigue from the plane combined with our extreme lack of knowledge for the Japanese rail system would prove to be a great enemy. We got onto Narita Rail 38 towards Ofuna, as Google Maps told us to, and we were already a little panicked because our cards were not working with the rail system, so we had to pay on the train. We then learned that, unlike what Google Maps had told us, our train would not be going to Shinagawa Station, meaning we had to find another way from Tokyo Station to the Shinagawa Prince Hotel. After getting off at Tokyo Station, we decided to take a cab, but ran into many issues in payment for trying to leave the metro – our enemy of the rail system striking back once again. Finally, we mare it out onto the street and waved down a cab, only to run into a little bit of traffic, turning our 15 minute drive into a 22 minute drive.

After all the trials and tribulations of Tokyo traffic, we finally arrived at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel and met with Professor Jacobs. Because the JRPass closed at 7, and it was close to 6:30, we didn’t have a chance to set down our bags, so Brody and I lugged our heavy bags over to Shinagawa Station to meet with everyone else. Exhausted and encumbered, Brody and I made our way back to the hotel by ourselves to check in while everyone else went to eat, and after a long line, we missed the final call for food at 7:30. Instead, we went to 7/11 to get some food and ice cream, which we would then eat while walking around Tokyo.

After a long day of travel, Brody and I went back to our room, showered, and passed out like no other. However, our first day of travel did not de-motivate us in any way, but was a good primer for the adventures to come!

Traveling to Japan

My trip from the US to Japan was a chaotic and anxious time, but was fun nonetheless. The trip started in Sacramento, CA at 5am PST, when I left my house to go to the airport. My flight began boarding around 7am and took off at 7:30am, bound for LAX. I arrived in LAX at 9:00am in the American Airlines terminal and no clue how to get to the international terminal. After asking one of the staff at the terminal how to get to the terminal I boarded a shuttle and arrived within a few minutes. Then I scurried off to Starbucks for breakfast and then metup with Vincent, who would be flying with me, at our gate. The 10hr flight straight over the ocean to Japan took off at 12:45pm on ANA.

This was by far the best airline experience I have ever had. Not only was the staff insanely nice and helpful, but they also offered us water and tea on a regular basis. The flight included 2 free meals that were so delicious. For the first meal, I chose the seafood option, which was a mix of various fish topped with rice. There was a salad on the side, as well as some meat and a piece of bread with butter. For the second meal, I chose the beef pasta option, which was a thick tube pasta topped with really yummy beef sauce. The sides for this one were a mayonnaise pasta salad and some seaweed. For desert we got a Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream. The rest of the flight consisted of either sleeping or playing Tears of the Kingdom. The seats were comfortable and there was a flipable table to eat on. They even gave us a blanket and pillow! Overall 10/10 plane experience.

Upon arriving in Japan we had to get through customs, which was a mess. I have never been out of the US so I didn’t know how customs worked. This caused some confusion when one of the airport staff asked me if I needed immigration documentation, which I took as documents for moving to Japan, so I said I didn’t need them. As it turns out I did. They were just the documents required for entering the country. This meant that I had to leave the line and fill out the docs, then re-enter and get everything checked. After getting through customs, which took longer than it should have, we made our way to the train station. This is were the chaos really ensued. We didn’t know how to get tickets into the train station or for our train, but we eventually figured it out. Unfortunately the train that should have taken us directly into shinagawa stopped for some reason or another, meaning we had to take the train to Tokyo Station and then cab to our hotel. This caused us to arrive at the hotel later than the intended time of 6pm JST, so we had to hurry to the Shinagawa station to get out JR rail pass for the trip.

Traveling to & arriving ✈ Japan Day 0

05/16/2023

Arrived at my hometown’s airport at around 6:20am after having slept a maximum of 2.5 hours to meet up with Cam. After a short 2 hour flight to Chicago, we met up with Belle to board our flight to Japan via ANA together!

On our flight, I ended up swapping my aisle seat with the man behind me, who had just wanted to sit with his family (which was the seat I was in). This actually turned out amazingly for me because the seats behind me only sat 2 people, so I just had one other person to let out to use the restroom.

We were fed well on the flights, and I was so thankful for the mild yet yummy airline food since I am notoriously awful at keeping myself fed on travel days.

First meal came 2 hours into the 12 hour flight. Consisted of edamame, small salad, chicken & rice, soba(?) and we even had a small Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream as dessert.

Second meal came a few hours before our arrival, meant to be breakfast (make sure to eat the in-flight meals, as they are meant to help you adjust to the new timezone!) and consisted of ravioli, ham & corn(?) salad, and a blueberry muffin.

Arrival: 2:56pm JST

Once we arrived & got past the final security gates, the three of us met up with Megan & Esther and we set off to get our IC cards & train tickets to make our way into Tokyo. I couldn’t find where to purchase a suica card in the airport so I opted to save it for later (big mistake on my part) and instead purchased a ticket for the Narita Sky Express (Access Express) to take us to Oshiage Station, where our hostel was a 5 minute walk away.

We took a wrong turn on our way to our accommodation and ended up walking right through Skytree (which I had originally planned to properly visit a few days from now).

Once we settled into our rooms, Belle, Megan, Cam and I went out to the nearby Family Mart to grab some quick food for our first night. There, I had my first taste of extremely affordable merch in Japan as well as my first taste of giving kujis all my money.

I pulled a C tier Kanae acrylic panel (he was the only one I wanted out of everyone that was available, so my gambling had thankfully come to an end immediately) to my surprise! Out of slight embarrassment at being so excited to pull my first kuji, I made small talk with the cashier by asking “にじさんじが 人気 です か,” since they are nowhere near as known in the states.

Honorable mention to seeing そらるさん on the first magazine I laid eyes on in Japan! As someone who’s been listening to him since 2012 as an indie musician, this was so surreal and exciting to see.

I had my first Bigプッチンプリン and it was delicious! Much softer than other purin brands I’m used to, and the flavor was wonderfully light and refreshing. They forgot to give me a spoon and I spent a few minutes contemplating my existence and gathering the courage to go back in the store and ask if I could have a spoon, but I got one in the end. After this, we all went back to our rooms and slept early!

My First 36 Hours in Japan

My first two days of Japan mode have been quite the adventure! From spending 15 hours in a plane to walking four and a half miles today, it’s certainly been a lot of exploration and new experiences.

I first flew from Atlanta to Chicago, waking up at around 3:45 AM to give myself enough time at the airport for security (I sat in the airport for two hours because I got through security in fifteen minutes. Oh how I wish I had the extra hour of sleep!) Then, I met up with Jasmine and Cameron at the Chicago airport to take our 13 hour flight to Narita. While the flight was comfortable, sitting in one place for that period of time has never been good for anyone’s body, and it certainly did a number on mine. Once we were through immigration and customs in Japan, we met up with Megan and Esther to make our way to our hostel.

I’ve never stayed in a hostel before, but this is definitely a great introductory experience to them! Me and Megan are staying in a room with two twin beds (not a dormitory setting, my social battery definitely couldn’t handle it) and they are very comfortable for the price! We have a sink in our room for brushing our teeth and washing our hands, but toilets and showers are shared down the hall. The showers are very nice, but the heated toilet seats are a bit off-putting for me. Maybe with time I’d come to enjoy them…

I thoroughly enjoyed the Nintendo photo op in the visitors center at the Narita airport!

After going to bed at 8:30 PM with my brain stuck in 7:30 AM mode, I woke up at 5 AM today ready to take on the world. Megan, Jessica and I set out around 7:30 AM, excited to explore before it got too hot. While almost nothing was open, I was able to get a very delicious strawberry frappuccino from Starbucks and take in the sights while we waited for the Tokyo Skytree to open.

We spent the day shopping for cute merchandise and gifts for friends and family at the Skytree, visiting the Pokemon Store, the Kirby Cafe Store, and many other iconic character shops. Personally, I picked up a handful of stickers, a couple of blind bag figurines, and some assorted Pokemon-themed gifts. We ate lunch in the Food Marche (essentially just the most overwhelming food court I’ve ever experienced, that was also a grocery store?) where I got some chicken nuggets and a chicken skewer that had whole cloves of garlic on it, which I wasn’t aware of before buying it. As a picky eater, the food scene in Japan is somewhat terrifying, so I feel like I am justified in easing myself into it. For dessert (because how could we not get dessert with so many options) I got a strawberry skewer that was coated in sugar and some small butter castella balls. The strawberries here are delicious, and I would love to go back and get some more that aren’t lathered in sugar as it was a little overwhelming.

After a quick power nap at the hostel, we finished the day by heading back to the Skytree and going up the tower to “watch the sunset”. Unfortunately it was very overcast by the time that sunset arrived so we weren’t able to see anything, but it is a super pretty view at night! It was very crowded though.

Overall, my first 36 hours in Japan have been quite the ride! I’m constantly left in awe by how different the culture is, which I’ll likely cover in another post as I could write paragraphs about that alone and this is already a bit long. I’m exhausted by 8:30 PM once again, but so excited to wake up tomorrow and do it all over again!

Some more assorted photos from my first two days.