Getting to Tokyo and Day 1

As you might expect, getting to and from Japan was the hardest part of the trip. Our connection was in Chicago. The flight to Chicago is around 2-3 hours, and then the flight from Chicago to Tokyo is 12-13. I have been on a few long flights (from the US to Paris, London, Moscow, Honolulu) so I knew what was coming, dreaded it before and while it happened, and now I'm working on suppressing the memories.

All of the air travel went as well as can be expected, everything was on time both ways, our bags were always where they were supposed to do, and I watched lots of mediocre movies.



Coca-Cola welcomes us to Japan!


Flying to Tokyo internationally usually takes you to Narita Airport, which is in Narita, not Tokyo. On the trip in, we took a charter bus that delivered us right to the entrance of our hotel, which I think was a good idea, because we were exhausted and did not want to cart our luggage around searching for our hotel from a train station we had never been to before. (Taxis are not really an option, costing about $350 a trip) On the way back, we took a train, which was around the same price ($35ish), and took about the same amount of time (1.5 hrs), but was much more comfortable. The leg room on the train made me upset about the lack of leg room that I knew was coming...but it's OK, it's all over now, and it was all worth it!

Our hotel was near Shinjuku Station (the largest train/metro station in the world), and after checking in we went out to look around and search for food.



Shinjuku area at night



Interesting beverage at a convenience store - convenience stores are everywhere in Tokyo and have a much wider variety of items than in the US.




Our first meal in Japan! Delicious. Don't expect me to elaborate much on food that we ate, usually I ordered something by pointing at a picture or from a set menu of a handful of choices. I'm not a picky eater so this worked out fine, although there were a few surprises. Pictures can be deceiving! For example, Peter and I are actually eating the same exact thing here, although we thought we ordered different dishes. I ordered off a list of specials and he ordered off the regular menu - two different pictures, same meal.

We went to bed early that night so we could catch up on sleep and be ready for Tsukiji fish market in the morning.