Japan is truly an adventure

We're here!

Sorry for the delay in the blog times, lots has happened in the past oh.. 18 hours or so.

Vancouver to Narita Airport!

We took the 9 hour flight with a little bit of sleep, 2 free meals (first was good, second was not so good) then arrived in Narita. We make it sound easy don't we! Our friend Mario kept us company for most of the way. Yknow... super mario! We got through customs with a breeze and got finger printed and photographed (new policy as of November 2007). No inky fingers here though, we're using state of the art finger biometic scanners! Love it!

Our first impressions of Japan were a little bit before customs, as the plane was making it's approach. It was an overwhelming feeling like a little person screaming inside (We're in Japan!!). We flew over rice fields and a little bit of industrial land on east side of Japan. The fields seem almost endless. Well I guess some might have been tea but I'm really not sure. It was quite amazing whatever it was. I think Joanie had pictures of that. It was just amazing!

So.. after customs we went through, got our bags, exchanged our JR vouchers for our 21 day passes and then stopped to take a picture (of a vending machine). Yes I feel like a tourist now!

This was my first official picture in Japan. It's amazing what they have in vending machines here and they are litterally everywhere!

So.. we got on the JR and were on our way to Tokyo! After an hour or two we were at Tokyo Station. From here we took two fairly PACKED subways to Tariwachi station where we tried to navigate streets to find our Ryokan. A really nice man helped us out and led us right to the door.

We met Fusaka, a really nice man who's been looking after us since then. This is his place that we are staying at. We were given the grand tour of our room with the tatami mats and paper covered screens for the windows and the shower, toilets etc. Most of the lights in here are automatic.

Let's see.. we're in Japan now, and super hungry, time to get food. We went to a small noodle shop down the street where we used a vending machine to purchase a food ticket. Shopping by pictures totally! You give the ticket to the kitchen and your food is ready in 5 minutes or less. I had some ramen with some shrimp tempura. Delicious (Oishii desu). Now the total tally for dinner for Joanie and myself... 8 dollars about. Amazing!

We followed this up by a quick tour of the Sensoji Temple. They light them up at night so they're beautiful. This was the first time we actually got to walk around and be amazed at Japan. Everything is so bright at night, lots of lights, some whole covered streets have flourecents lining the tops so it's like daylight.

I'll just put in a photo to show you the temple. Amazing!

After being fully amazed it was definitely time for bed. We each had an amazing shower (very efficient water use here). The shower turns on for about 30 seconds or so then stops allowing you to soap then you turn the water on again to wash off, same for hair, then you're done! At this point we had been up since 6am our time. That's about 28 hours or so. We fell asleep within about a minute of laying down on the futon beds (on the tatami mat on the floor) so comfortable. 

We slept amazingly for a solid 7 hours and woke up, got ready and spoke to Fusaka again. We were awesome, didn't do the research to find out the plugs here have no ground so the apple laptop power cables we had couldn't work (this is what happens when forget that little part that usually comes on the adapter) anyhow. Because of this, we set off for breakfast at the same noodle place. This time 6 dollars in total for both of us to eat some yummy ramen with leeks and rice. I was completely full.

Next task, letting everyone at home know we were still alive and having this amazing time in Japan. We set off to find a building by the temple, couldn't find it for the life of us and decided to go to Ichihabara (sp) an Electronic City practically to find an adapter. After some amazement at the transit system and trying to navigate in Japan (for the first time) we got there. Our destination was Yodobashi. A 5 story electronics store. Just amazing. Any gear head needs to come here just to go to that store. I could have spent days in the place! Not only do they have some amazing gear, they have it all out just to look at and try out. Huge pen tablets and tons of phones and laptops included. I think the whole first floor was phones. Lets just say we're way behind at home. boo to our phones and outdated phone networks! We found the adapters.. cough cough and some other fun tech gear that we couldn't pass up and found our way back. We had some coffee and a donut from a place called Mister Donut. Amazing! I had a custard donut. Amazing custard and a light and fluffy donut. It almost seemed healthy! And the coffee was superb! One thing.. packaging much? But we appreciated it because of how well the person doing it got it all done. easier to explain in person.

That's all of our adventures so far. We're about to get out of here for some lunch. We're starving and then we'll probably hop on the JR and get to one of the amazing places our great friend Rhiana was suggesting. (THANKS TONS RHI).

Oh.. funny story.. when you first take the subway (confusing) after that it's all good. It makes so much sense!! They have tons of lines and how they organize it is amazing. You buy a ticket to the place you need to go to (basically paying a certain amount) then you go through a set of gates. At the entrance to the gates, you put in your ticket. DON'T LEAVE YOUR TICKET IN THE MACHINE! We only realized these were the machines Rhiana was speaking about. So after that, following our well said instructions. To get out of the station, we stuck up our hands looked like foreigners and said to the man in the hat, "I lost my ticket!!" And he looked discouraged and allowed us to pass. You see.. you need the ticket that you used to enter to exit. It completes the transaction and lets you out the gate!

Anyay.. That's all for now. Time to go.

I love you all and say to you one thing.

You've got to come to Japan!!!