I know I know, I haven’t had a post in a while, and then when I have…it has been all about design.  Ok, so I’m back to travel.  This time, I’m heading to Tokyo, Japan.  Yes, that means an even longer flight than to Spain, but it’s ok, I have plenty of things to keep me occupied on the flight.  So how did the flight go?  Well, fortunately for me, all the flights were on time and I had no delays at the gate.  The only slight, and I do mean slight, hiccup was on my first flight; from Charlotte to  Atlanta.  We left the gate on time, but as we approached the runway, we were told that we would be experiencing a 15 minute  delay.  Normally, I would never worry about such a short delay, but then again, I had an hour from when I would be arriving in Atlanta, to get to the gate where my next flight would be leaving for Tokyo.  So let’s say, that I was worried that the “small 15 minutes delay” could potentially become a much longer delay.  It did not, and I was very happy.  The flight took about 45 minutes or so, and upon arriving in Atlanta, I began my long walk from Terminal B to Terminal E.  Fortunately, the airport in Atlanta has a metro system that links the individual terminals.  This saved me about a 15 minute walk (by my estimation).  Once I arrived in Terminal E, I asked an attendant at the Information Desk for the location of the nearest Currency Exchange Kiosk or shop.  I was directed to head towards the hallway to my right; fortunately for me, looking at the sign, it was the same direction as the gate from which my flight was leaving from.  I asked the Currency Exchange stewardess a few questions, and then exchanged U.S. dollars for Japanese Yen.  Again, what luck!  The Currency Exchange was literally right beside the gate of my departure flight, so I would have time to look around Terminal E for a bit.  After my transaction, I bought a bottle of water and one of those small packets that have ice tea powder inside.  That way, I could give my water a bit of taste, but seriously, I love water…I just wanted to try one.

The Metro at the Atlanta Airport

Inside the metro @ the Atlanta airport

Riding up the escalator...to Terminal E

Some artwork above the escalator

On a side note, I remember trying the old version of the Crystal Light packets and was completely put off by those; they added no significant flavor.  So honestly, I expected this Nestea version to be very similar.  Surprisingly, it was very good – not weak but also not too strong (which Nestea ice tea powder can sometimes be).

I got in line to board the plane and overheard one of the attendants ask another, “so how many people are we missing?”  The second attendant looked down at the screen in front of him and responded, “we’re missing 34…and there is definitely not 34 people left in this line.”  So here I was, 35 minutes before departure time, thinking to myself that I was early or at least on time, but hearing this made me realize that I was certainly “right on-time”, hahaha.  So I boarded the plane and upon reaching my row, I was immediately greeted by the sight of a man sitting in my seat.  But here’s the other thing, no one was sitting beside him, and then looking around, I realized that there were many seats that were open in the back section of the plane.  It seemed to me that there were more seats available than 34, but I suppose that the attendants were referring to the number of paid seats that had not been claimed by people arriving at the gate in order to board the plane, not necessarily the number of open seats on the plan – it was obviously not fully booked.  Either way, I looked at my ticket to ensure I was in the right row; it would be rather embarrassing to tell someone to move out of a seat that was not yours.  Well, he was in my seat.  I told him and he graciously moved to his seat.  The plane was a 3-4-3 seat configuration.  I reserved a window seat (Seat A) and without any body in seat B, the man moved to seat C (the aisle seat).  After realizing that the pull-down tray in front of him had tape saying, “Unserviceable – Do Not Use -” he asked a flight attendant if he could move.  Just as she looked around, the captain said that we would be leaving the gate in 5 minutes.  Considering his message and the amount of available seating, the attendant told him to sit wherever he would like.  He smiled and headed to the back.  So guess what?  I had a complete row to myself – 3 seats deep!  AWESOME!!  So I certainly stretched out, put my carry-on under one seat, a magazine, iPhone, etc in the seat beside me, and then sat by the window.  With the few minutes before take-off I had left, I updated my status on Facebook, Tweeted what I was doing, and even had a quick second to take a photo with my iPhone and upload it to Facebook.  Well, we then began to roll backwards and the Captain came on and told everyone to shut off all electronics.  So I did, and we were off.  And it was so great, no delays on the runway this time.

2 seats empty beside me...time to get comfortable

One thing I’ll admit, the plane was a bit older than I expected, but oddly enough it seemed sturdier.  When I traveled to Spain, I traveled on an new A330 and it had monitors in the back of all the headrests, yes, even in coach…or the term used these days…economy class.  Anyways, this older airplane did not have monitors mounted in the headrests.  It in fact had the old style, screens that were located in front of the middle aisle, forcing me to look towards the right…so hard!  Yeah, that’s right, the guy who has a complete row to himself is complaining about looking to the right to see the screen, hahaha.  Well I normally wouldn’t complain but as I looked around, there were enough people with entire rows to themselves, and others who had the middle seat unoccupied…at the least.

A quick reminder that let me know I was heading to Japan was that I was given a Japanese newspaper.  It was fun looking at the photos!  The guy behind me asked if I could read it, I laughed and said no, hahaha.  Other than that, they passed around our meal card that stated what we would be eating on the flight.  For lunch, we had: Shrimp cocktail, Season green salad, and our choice of braised beef with BBQ sauce, roasted potatoes and vegetables or Asian Soy Chicken Breast with rice and carrots.  Needless to say, I went with the beef.  Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with chicken, but two things irked me…the fact that it was chicken on a flight and the fact that the word “soy” came right before the word “chicken”.  Oh well, the beef was ok, it certainly was not BBQ…not even that super tangy KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce that most middle and high-schools use when they announce BBQ for lunch.  I prefer homemade sauce, but it’s ok when you don’t have the time…but this airplane BBQ was not BBQ at all.  The reason I say that, the sauce was just brown…had some bit of gravy flavor – which in this case was probably water and powder mixed together – gravy and BBQ are not the same.  No just kidding, the meal was not that bad at all, just not the advertised barbecue.  But I’ll admit, the lunch/dinner meal I had on-board the flight to Spain (which was United Airways vs. Delta) was much better.  Our mid-flight snack consisted of a small egg-cheese-cucumber sandwich, grapes, and some cookies.  After that, I just took a small nap and then started watching a movie on my netbook.  Remember, since I have an entire row to myself, I have room to literally lye down and sleep.  I slept for an hour or two when I was awoken by an attendant asking me what I would like for breakfast.

I'm pretty sure that that is the name of the newspaper, hahaha

Newspaper front-page

The bottom part of the menu card

A ¥10000 note

Shrimp cocktail

The first meal of the flight...kind of a full tray

This is how I warm my bread & butter, put them above the hot entrée

I really did spread out huh?

Mario 64 on Nintendo DS

Looking down at the clouds

I choose Eggs, Sausage, and Baked Potatoes Wedges – all of the choices came with orange juice and “fresh” cut fruit.  This was the best meal of the flight.  Can’t really mess up eggs and sausage…wait, never mind…Waffle House just came to mind.  Anyways, the meal ended, I listened to some music, and then the Captain came over the intercom to announce that we were about 25 minutes away from Narita International Airport.  Our approach was slightly turbulent, but on a cause of a lot of cloud cover in the area.  The nice thing was that the turbulence was more side-to-side motion versus up-and-down drops, which can sometimes be unnerving.  The landing itself was one of the smoothest that I’ve ever been apart of!  I heard one of the passengers compliment the pilot for such a smooth landing.

Breakfast time!

Eggs, Sausage, and Baked Potatoes Wedges

Finally over Japan!

Upon arriving at the airport, I went to customs and then baggage claim.  Then the adventure really started.  Back at home, before leaving for Tokyo, my father and I had reserved a phone for me at Mobal – a phone rental shop, located on the first floor of Terminal 1 of the airport.  I looked at all the maps and could not get a bearing of where I was.  So I started walking in one direction and looked at another map.  The key to me figuring out my location was the huge red dot stating, “You Are Here”.  I noticed that on consecutive maps, the dot moved farther from my intended destination, so I realized I was moving away from where I needed to be going.  I turned around and then walked a little distance and saw the rental shop…I felt kind of dumb, and with people looking at you because you are foreign anyways…my pride was certainly taking a hit.  But if you know me, that lasted all of two seconds.  The attendant was very nice, calm, patient with me, and best of all, she spoke English; as do most of the people at the airport.  But like most countries, English is becoming popular enough that many people have at least a small grasp of the language – I noticed less in Spain since I can speak Spanish and didn‘t have to rely on speaking English at all; but I know that people speak English there as well.

I like how the bushes spell out "NARITA"

After getting my phone, I looked for the Tourist Information Booth/Shop.  Fortunately, it was located four or five shops down from the cellular phone rental shop.  Asking for directions to my hotel was simple enough.  The attendant simply looked at a guide that had every hotel in Tokyo listed; under each hotel listing where directions from the airport.  That seemed either very handy or kind of like cheating.  Then again, we are talking about one of the largest cities in the world which also has a incredibly large number of hotels, so I understand that no one can really know how to get to all, nor have the time to figure out routes to whichever hotel a person may ask directions to.

So the attendant directed me to go downstairs to a shop where I could buy tickets for the N’EX (Narita Express) and a Suica (a general expense card that can be used for subways, JR [Japan Rail] lines, shopping, dinning, etc.).  Here is the thing, the next Narita Express train was leaving in five minutes.  Luckily, the station was two minutes away, but considering I had to follow signs, I was a bit weary when the attendant gave me general directions on how to get there.  She did offer me a ticket for the following train, which would be leaving in two hours!  I took the chance and bought the ticket for the one leaving in five minutes; plus she offered to exchange my ticket (no charge) for the later train if I missed this one.  I was very happy, and then realized I had to run my butt to the station.  So I began weaving in-and-out of groups of people, all rushing to their destinations as well.  I arrived at the station, but there were two trains, I asked a woman while showing her my ticket and she pointed me to the right train car, thank goodness!  I sat in my seat and then took the train to Tokyo.  The N’EX takes about an hour to hour and fifteen minutes to arrive in Tokyo.  Narita International Airport is not as close to Tokyo as I would have thought.  Considering I had taken a 12 hour flight, let’s just say I was tired of sitting.

My Suica card - I have to return this before leaving Japan

So upon arriving at Tokyo Station, I looked for the Yamanote line which would take me to Yurakucho Station.  I found it, and took the train to Yurakucho.  Here is where I spent 15 agonizing minutes trying to figure out where I could take a subway, not JR train, to Kojimachi Station.  I looked at three different maps and could not figure it out.  I was so fortunate that a man was standing nearby, looking at the same map.  He asked me where I was headed.  I told him Kojimachi and he actually went to ask an attendant for me.  The funny thing is, the attendant had told me to go outside to another station, but with some persistence from the man helping me, told him the right way.  I think he didn’t know for sure, since he had to look at a map too.  Anyways, the man told me to follow him, since he was going that way too.  We went down into the subway station (not located in the Yurakucho Station – but outside across the street) and through about two underground shopping areas, and then arrived to an escalator.  During our long walk, we spoke to each other.  He was a scientist (with a petroleum chemical specialization) and had traveled to Knoxville, Tennessee.  He told me he had gone last June for about a week for the purpose of business.  Anyways, at the escalator, he told me to go down, take the train on the right heading towards Ikebukuro, and then get off in three stops, at Kojimachi.  I thanked him endlessly (bowed about five times) and then told him that I really appreciated all of his help.  He said, “No problem, and good luck on getting to your hotel.  And please enjoy your stay here in Tokyo!”  I thanked him again, and then went down the escalator.  I took the train, got off at Kojimachi Station and then walked about two blocks to my hotel.  As I entered, I was greeted by four front-desk staff.  That was odd, in the United States, typically at such a late hour, you might see two, but you usually see one front-desk staff member helping all arriving guests.

Looking around Tokyo Station

Very busy people...just walking fast everywhere

Where the heck am I? hahaha

On my way to Kojimachi Station

Once I filled out some paper work and what not, I was given a key to my room on the tenth floor.  It is small, if you haven’t been to Japan or other countries in throughout Asia – but it is a normal size, but I hear other hotels are fully westernized where they are much larger.  The room is simple and yet has everything I need…in a very compact amount of space.  To compare, about the size of half a dorm room in college.  You have about two or three feet of walking space around the bed and then you are meet with drawers, a television, and a desk.  I actually forgot to take photos upon going inside, so I’ll be sure to take some photos of the room later on.  So I took a shower to freshen up, and then began to use the complimentary high speed internet to send emails, communicate with friends, and update my status across the many social media groups that I am apart of.

I called my friend Ayaka who will be showing me around these next few days.  It was about 9:00PM local time when we got in touch.  Can you believe that she was still at work?  She apologized for such a late call but I told her that she had nothing to be sorry about.  Either way, we agreed that we would meet at 9:00AM the following morning.  So, let’s just say, I am SUPER excited for tomorrow and the rest of my week here in Tokyo, Japan!!

Filed under: Travel by Giancarlo Deleon