1st August - Travelling to Japan

After an exhausting 11 or 12 hour plane journey I finally touched down on Japanese soil. The trip was pretty exhausting and I think I only managed to get an hour’s sleep (which I believe was 1 hour before we landed and was subsequently awakened by the air hostess), The food on the plane was surprisingly good, with a choice of 2 meals, both of which were Japanese style and neither of which were brought back up, so a good result I would say. My seating position was unfortunately in the middle of 2 people, although there was no fat French man this time so it was more bearable, even so, I would have killed for a window seat as I constantly had to avoid napping on someone else’s shoulder.

When I got off the plane I could feel the force of the Japanese summer, but I just had to put my head down and work through it. Our first port of call was immigration and it was probably the longest I’ve have ever had to wait to officially get into a country. For a start the queue was never-ending and it literally took about 1 and a half hours to get to the main desk, where we were photographed, fingerprinted and stamped. I guess my plans of becoming a master criminal and escaping Japan undetected have been ruined. After I managed to make it down the stairs I had to pick up my luggage, which was graciously waiting for me beside the turnstile, a big relief I can tell you. Then off I went through the entry doors of Japan, minus a short bag inspection of course. As I passed through the doors I had a friendly greeting from some American Jet as she said “Welcome to Japan”, which was surprisingly said rather energetically even though it must have been the 1000^th time she had probably said it. I was then directed along a corridor of Jet helpers that made it practically impossible to wander in the wrong direction in my sleep deprived state. At the half way point for a short information stop I felt like getting a drink, however of course I only had a 1000 yen note and the vending machine gave to change. “Oh crap, I thought to myself” so I asked for change but no-one had the correct amount. Though as I was about to resign myself to the fact I wouldn’t have a drink for awhile, one of the Jet helpers bought me a bottle of green tea, it really made my first day in Japan a good memory and made up for the exhaustion from the plane and the airport, its just a shame I wanted a coke….

Once we left the airport on our jet bus we headed to the “Keio Plaza” hotel in the heart of Tokyo, well Shinjuku. We got to see the beautiful smog eclipse city of Tokyo as we crossed the bridge on the way in and although the majority of people were half asleep I tried to see as much as I could. When we arrived at the hotel we went through a pretty painless checking in procedure (everything along the way from the airport to the hotel was done perfectly by Jet and really helped everyone). As it was about 8.30pm by that time and everyone was confused as to whether we should be awake or asleep, I decided I would have an early night after some food, so me and my roommate Richard headed over to the nearby family mart (remembering every step we took so we could get back without trouble) and bought a bit of food before we headed back.

And so was the end of my first day in Japan (for the 2^nd time) aside from the fact that I got like 1 hour sleep if that and the rest of the time was spend staring at the ceiling wondering why the hell I couldn’t get to sleep.

31st July - Leaving England

There is going to be a load of writing here which dates back to the 31st of July so you can just skip by this if you already know of my adventures so far:

Waking from my travel lodge accommodation I set off on what was to be the final leg of my journey to Japan. I was accompanied by my parents who had brought me from my hometown of Hull to Heathrow from where I would be catching my flight to Tokyo. However as the flight was not until 7pm our first stop was to some beautiful stately Abbey, which was surely a true representation of how beautiful England can be. With acres of lands, interspersed with small monuments and overwhelming trees the abbey was more the size of a small town rather than that of what I guess would be classed as someone’s back garden. Through the antiques and grazing deer I was presented with what was to be my last taste of the English countryside, the start of where I would trade cows for rice fields, county manors for pagoda’s and a light rain for blistering heat.

Our next port of call was to be the town (city or whatever) of Windsor from where would experience both the elegance, hustle and kitsch approach of Britain’s historical ways. With a view of the canal myself and my parents sat with fish in chips in hand to savour another part of England’s famous delights. Savouring the taste of cooked cod and batter for what would surely be replaced by sushi and tempura I began to think more about all the things I would miss in England, the weather (on some occasions) the local events (which may at times be lacking but they do try) the British pint of ale and bitter from our local pubs, my home-cooked Sunday dinners with the accompaniment of my grandmother, but perhaps most of all I would miss my girlfriend, who after over 4 years has for some reason stuck with me. Through my bad habits, my time away at University, my laziness and my bad cooking, she had decided to love me and now in the most difficult test of our relationship we are parted once more. Through bad luck and timing she in fact left before I did to go on holiday with her parents to Canada, a nation ironically from where many of my new friends are from. It was almost torture to say goodbye to each other and even though I managed to stay strong I felt like I was falling apart inside. Perhaps we were fortunate to have said our goodbyes before I left so that there would be no tears at the airport, no last minute changes of hearts and no long ride home. Canada would keep her occupied for the time being and anymore tears can be said through a webcam.