Vacationing in Japan seemed like a great idea when we made our travel plans months and months ago. But the night before our 9:00am flight out of DCA, after having finished packing well after midnight, I realized that we had about 20 hours of travel ahead of us. Yikes!
We flew to Newark on Saturday morning, rushed to our gate, met Maki's best friend, Kevin, and boarded the plane for 13 1/2 hours non-stop to Narita Airport in Tokyo. About halfway through the flight, after having watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix twice, CJ finally fell asleep and I was at least able to close my eyes. At least the food was decent, the flight attendants were attentive, and there was plenty of room on the 777 to walk around and stretch.
At Narita, we met the rest of our party: Jonathan, Tree, and Maki's parents. Immigration and customs at the airport wee very efficient, and we made it out to the terminal to pick up our reserved cell phones. Since we have 10 people in our party, we decided cell phones would help us stay connected. There is whole row of cell phone rental companies at the airport. In case you didn't know, Japan is cell phone crazy. EVERYONE carries a cell phone and people seemed to be forever on the phone, checking e-mail, sending SMS or playing games. As a result, cell phones are inexpensive and there are a multitude of phones and plans.
We took the Narita Express to Shibuya, then walked to our hotel. The Shibuya Tokyu Inn is in the heart of the youthful, hip Shibuya area (what are we doing here, you might ask, since I in particular, am neither youthful nor hip?) and is stylish and friendly. After a long day of travel and a quick meal of soba noodles, we stumbled into bed. Tomorrow, the Tokyo adventure truly begins.
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