It's been a long day of travel, but a short day overall. I mean,literally. We boarded a plane a little after 6pm on Saturday in San Francisco, and 10 hours later, we touched down in Tokyo at 10pm Sunday night. You'd think with all the traveling these days, I'd be used to the rules of airports. Apparently I'm not. Apparently....neither are the agents working at San Francisco airport. I found two bottles of water in my carry-on bag that I had totally forgotten about, after I passed through security. Whoops!
Arriving in Tokyo is so exciting, and yet so routine. Nobody around us seemed to be ecstatic to be setting foot in Japan for the first time ever! (This did little to dampen our enthusiasm.) True to stereotype, the Japanese customs officials were extremely kind, friendly and welcoming. When one saw we were Canadian, he asked (in perfectly fluent English) whether we speak French. He then spoke to us in French for the rest of our (very brief) exchange.
The office to exchange our JR Rail Pass vouchers to the actual passes was closed, so we had to buy subway tickets for the trek to our hotel. Then we had to spend some moments trying to figure out the subway system (and did enlist the help of some friendly locals...who laughed at us).
Arriving in Tokyo is so exciting, and yet so routine. Nobody around us seemed to be ecstatic to be setting foot in Japan for the first time ever! (This did little to dampen our enthusiasm.) True to stereotype, the Japanese customs officials were extremely kind, friendly and welcoming. When one saw we were Canadian, he asked (in perfectly fluent English) whether we speak French. He then spoke to us in French for the rest of our (very brief) exchange.
The office to exchange our JR Rail Pass vouchers to the actual passes was closed, so we had to buy subway tickets for the trek to our hotel. Then we had to spend some moments trying to figure out the subway system (and did enlist the help of some friendly locals...who laughed at us).
More friendly locals helped us on the walk to the hotel from Mita Station, and now we are here - noon Toronto time, 9am San Francisco time (I think that's the way the time change works, but I am pretty zonked right now) and 2am in Tokyo, the next day. Time to get a few hours of sleep before a tour tomorrow morning.
I'm ready for bed!
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