Note

If I keep up the same level of detail in these posts for every single day in Japan I might not have the energy to travel, so I will try to stick to highlights. As you probably know I am also posting pictures on Facebook and providing commentary there as well. So my Facebooking and blogging together should provide a pretty complete picture of my travels. Its amazing I can do any of these things with how jetlagged I am. I live in perpetual hope the next day will be better.

Introduction to Tokyo

We decided to take it easy our first day (sort of) by limiting ourselves to two city districts and just wandering around. I sketched out very general routes in the morning using various maps and guide pamphlets I've been obessesively picking up whenever I see them. I realized recently that this is my first big international trip where I (and my travel companion of course) am doing all the planning, paying, and navigating by myself. No itineraries picked out by my parents, or adult supervision guiding my way, getting me from point A to point B. I guess I'm the adult now (shudder). At least for today I seemed to take on the navigator role and did a pretty good job using mostly physical maps for someone who usually considers Google Maps her best friend. We started in Ginza, the fancy shopping district full of Gucci, Armani and Chanel, to window shop and get our first real views of the city. I expected the American brand names, but keep getting blindsided by restaurants and stores I never would have guessed would pop up in Japan. Today the winner was Shake Shack. My planned path did not take as long as I was expecting, so we took our time in the park I had chosen as our first real destination. It was gorgeous, sunny and full of greenery starting to show signs of fall. Highlights included a large pond that had one solitary giant carp in it and a grassy area where some outside the box thinker had decided a random circular patch of Palm trees would look good. We sat on a park bench to look up a good place to have our first Japanese meal and settled on an udon place. Google Maps' directions in Japan are pretty useless because so few streets have names and the directions say helpful things like "turn left at crosswalk" and "turn right at street". It's better to rely on the little dot that shows your current location, but I saw some mention of going down stairs. With that vague direction we headed off. We eventually found an underground of many restaurants that seemed to be located near the destination dot but couldn't see our specific restaurant. We headed down anyway to find most places closed since it was Sunday. We wandered for a bit until we found an open place. I compared the Japanese kanji on Google maps to the kanji in the sign and discovered it happened to be the exact place we were looking for. We ate our udon in triumph. Before we left the restaurant complex I stopped in a bathroom. It wasn't my first Japanese toilet but it was my most startling as it talked to me when I sat down and then played bird and stream noises until I stood up again. Japanese toilets definitely live up to their reputation with a bunch of buttons and features including a butt warmer and bidet.

We headed off next to a district called Roppongi / Asakasa. Our first stop after a few wrong turns was a store called Don Quixote. I don't think I can adequately describe what this store is but I'll try. It's like if a Target was combined with a department store and then squished together into a tall building. It was six floors of everything. Toiletries, food, high-end designer clothes and jewelery, electronics, candy, bedding, and I would go on, but it would take awhile. We stocked up on a bunch of candy and stuff we didn't know we needed. I decided we should do at least one really touristy thing and we finished our time in this area by going up Tokyo Tower for a view of the city. We returned to our hotel for some quiet time. Although I was reluctant to have another noodle meal I could not resist the allure of trying my first Japanese ramen. An experience I had waited for for a long time. It did not disappoint. We found a place with good reviews that was English friendly. In many Japanese noodle places you order by machine and then hand your ticket at the counter (America get on this!). Some places don't have any pictures or English but this machine was well marked. We got to see them make the noodles which are much thicker than your American instant variety. It was a great end to an overall successful day. 

Travel to Tokyo Continued

Three minutes after my last post we heard an announcement that our flight to Canada was delayed by an hour. Oh travel gods, you are so funny. Despite the delay we didn't have any timing problems. The two flights had minor annoyances like turbulence into Tokyo that made all the meals they randomly decided were dinner and breakfast despite arriving at 5pm not sit well. But overall our air travel went smoothly. Navigating the airport took some energy and searching as we had to pick up a few things at various counters (pocket wifi, train passes, currency etc) and then began our introduction to the famed Japanese transit system. We managed to hop on the right line and an express train at that. However, the trains were warm and further upset our stomachs, making us extra ready to be at our hotel. So imagine our joy and excitement when the exit we chose at our station led directly outside to an immediate view of our hotel. It was raining and chilly, but was such a satisfying antidote for our overheating and nausea. But not for our exhaustion. I managed to make myself stay up until 9pm, but not a second later. I. passed. Out.  

Abigail is going to Gigantor's ancestoral homeland

You thought this day would never come. And you had a 90% chance of being right because, I'll be honest, I'm lazy. But the blog is back, at least temporarily, as Gigantor once again has some stuff to say. Because Gigantor is going to Japan! The country where my namesake, the space age robot (look it up), was born. Since a majority of my past blog posts were about my travels I  figured it was only right to use this trip as an excuse to write again. I am writing this from the terminal of Dulles Airport in the hopes that this initial post will keep me accountable about continuing the documentation of my journey.

I awoke at 5am and drove over to my friend Stephanie's house. Steph will be my traveling companion for this trip. We went to high school together and both appreciate Japanese culture i.e. nerd stuff. Our chariot (the Uber) was already there so off we went. Until about 15 minutes later when our driver uttered those terrible words "do you hear that?" And yes, yes I did. A terrible noise of metal(?) scraping pavement. My mind imediately went to two memories. 1) that time my mom was driving my car and we heard what sounded like a helicopter landing on top of the roof, which turned out to be what a flat tire sounds like and 2) that time I was riding in my father's 18 year old Churchcarivan and an important part of the underside of the car partially fell off and dragged, creating a similarly terrible metallic scream. Uber driver pulled over but couldn't see anything since we had to park on grass that obscured the car's undercarriage. We took a gamble and continued driving. Whatever was caught under the car eventually fell off, the noise stopped, and since the car didn't stop moving, im/explode, or fall apart I guess it was nothing (?). Or the Uber driver's problem depending on what the mechanic he told us he would visit after he dropped us off tells him.

There was no line at the Air Canada counter, we got TSA precheck, and our terminal, Z, was confusingly the first terminal, which didn't require a long walk, or shuttle ride, so we got to our gate an hour early. And that is why I had time to write this post, which is now over because, I once again, temporarily, have nothing to say.