February 2009 - Japan

Things have been a little crazy over here. In fact now I have about 10 minutes to write this before getting ready to hit Shibuya with Emi and Miyo for dinner.

I like to start by saying it is NOT fun being on a Qantas plane in the only two seats that have a problem with their entertainment system. We managed to get it reset once and it worked... for one movie, which I fell asleep in anyway. Then I couldn't get to sleep because my headphones weren't on. At least I know for next time, I need the background noise... Whether that comes from an ipod, laptop or my seat is another story. PS. I did use the battery up on my laptop due to Qantas' FAIL.

We arrived at 610am and did not experience the efficiency that we did on the last trip. This is not to say it is as bad as Sydney airport, by no means. We waited in a queue for about 25 minutes to validate our Japan Rail pass, then because we weren't using it from our arrival we dished out close to $100 (for two) for the Express Ride in.

I was very impressed with myself because the tickets were just given to us without explanation. I assumed for the price they were reserved but the ticket was of course, all in Japanese. To my delight I translated and said to Jonno, "I can read!" to which he replied, "That is more impressive then it sounds."

We found our seats and had a comfortable train ride in and arrived at Tokyo station shortly after.... on BASEMENT LEVEL 5. Secretly cursing as I never realised the station went so far underground (navigating from the 1st floor was doable I thought to myself). So we followed the people to higher ground and with a quick check with the information booth we were heading in the right direction and bags and all enter the Four Seasons Marunouchi.

And that is all I have time for this evening. I will connect tomorrow night again to the net and post the remainder of our three days. Stay tuned!