FINALLY... PATRICK KWAN HAS ARRIVED IN JAPAN!

First off, I must give a shout-out...

Happy Birthday Wayne Gretzky!

Ok then...

I will start this one by describing my plane ride - basically, it was a pain sitting on my ass for 8 hours while cramping my legs in this somewhat small legroom space. Then again, that's what I paid for economy class tickets. You see, for economy class there will be 2 seats on each side of the plane, plus there wll be 5 seats in the middle; therefore, you can imagine that the seats will be pretty small in terms of width. Anyways, my seat was on the second left of the middle section, and the whole plane was full. I had to get up from time to time and walk around the plane to get the feeling back in my ass and legs, but it would not do much good at all when I sat back down. It was not a fun ride - besides, most of the movies and TV shows were not good. The only movie that was really good was Ocean's Eleven, but I would not survive watching the same movie 3 times in a row. Also, the head jacks were pretty crappy quality... I had to constantly play with the headjack connection and shift the jack up and down so I could hear audio for around 2 minutes before it went dead on me and I had to readjust again.

Well, at least I was sitting to a nice elderly lady who had to transfer on a couple more flights to her final destination - Burma (Myanmar). Wow, she is definitely an adventurous traveller - I wish I had the financial resources to save up and travel more. (Damnit Lotto 6/49 - why can't I win the jackpot?!?) Also, my excitement of arriving in Japan kept my mood high.

Finally... Iron Chef America sucks. Plain and simple. (It was one of the TV shows that United featured on its flight - it's NOTHING compared to the original Iron Chef)

Anyways, the plane arrived at Narita Airport - the plane arrived an hour earlier than scheduled, so that was really great; however, it took 20 minutes before the plane actually stopped at its... umm, I guess you can call it its "parking spot". Narita must be one big airport if it had to take a 20 minute ground ride from landing to its "parking spot". But once the doors opened and I stepped outside to a pretty bright Narita afternoon - I HAVE FINALLY ARRIVED!

Now, where do I go? :P

Anyways, the passengers hopped on shuttle buses to the arrivals terminal where we had to go through the baggage pick-ups and customs procedures. It didn't take too long for me to find the baggage pick-up carousel, so I waited for my bag and eventually got it...

SON OF A BITCH!!!

The US Transportation Security Administration (US TSA) broke my locks to my luggage! Man, did they ever mess up the contents inside my luggage - everything was a freakin mess inside. My closes were scattered, my gifts were someone scanned through (although they didn't open the packages)... damnit! Again, I understand the reasoning for this, but fuck, it gave me ANOTHER reason why I will never go through the US again. Also, I did wish Alicia told me about the locks thing before I left (apparently, she knew that the US TSA would break any locks). FUCK!

Well, I finally got to experience conversations with the Japanese in their own country when I went through customs - damnit, my education from Japanese 100A and 100B was long gone. I thought it was going to be a mighty struggle, but the customs agent did speak English, so that was a relief. No illegal items brought over - sniffer dogs didn't sense anything bad on me - all good! I'm on my way!

Now, for those who plan to travel around Japan (instead of staying in one or maybe two cities) in any future date, I HIGHLY suggest you pick up a Japan Rail Pass. It's THE BEST thing a visitor can use when travelling around Japan. Unlimited rides on most Japan Rail (JR) Group shinkansen (bullet trains), normal trains, local trains, buses, etc. However, you have to be a temporary visitor and you have to purchase the Pass outside Japan. Check out the official Japan Rail Pass link for more information.

Ready for some pictures?

	This is Narita Airport, and that is one HUGE Arrivals notice board.
	Starbucks. Yeah, they have pretty much invaded the world.
	One of the missions I wanted to do was to take pictures of all the different vending machines out there. Japan is Vending Machine country - it seems that EVERY block has a vending machine. Madness, I tell ya! Anyways, here's the first one - it's for cigarettes. It's relatively cheap to buy cigarettes in Japan compared to Canada.
	Some more vending machines. From far left: phone cards, Nestle drinks, Asahi drinks, and Lotte ice cream. Man, I miss the refreshing cold green tea drinks already.
	The Narita Limited Express (NEX). This is the train one should take to go to Tokyo (which is an hour's train ride away from Narita Airport). This would be the first of the MANY trains I will take advantage with the Japan Rail Pass.
	My viewpoint from the NEX train. You will notice from time to time that my pictures will be a bit blurry - I'm sorry that I am not a professional photographer. :P

Anyways, my first stop would be located on the Northwest side of Tokyo called Ikebukuro. Personally, I do not know how to describe Ikebukuro... it's not too bad of an area - it has some tall buildings and it has its attractions. Also, it has its stories which I will tell you later. All I cared about at the time was that Ikebukuro was the place I needed to go to find my first accommodation.

Here's a pointer - if you are given an address in Japan, chances are you will NEVER find it. The addresses in Japan are so out of whack - the numbers do not go in any type of order whatsoever compared to other countries. Therefore, it is REALLY important that you have a map to the direction you need to go. I just wonder how postal service workers and pizza delivery guys manage to survive with their jobs.

	Ikebukuro Station. If I remembered correctly, this is the second busiest station in Tokyo (after Shinjuku). I could be wrong though...
	My room at the Kimi Ryokan. A ryokan is basically a Japanese-style inn, but the type of ryokan that exists in Japan vary VERY greatly, from very basic (such as the one I stayed at) to EXTREMELY luxurious (which would break a few banks). For the Kimi Ryokan, I found it as a really good place if you are looking for something VERY inexpensive plus good English-speaking staff. However, my room smelled like cigarette smoke - but then again, I have friends and co-workers who smoke, so I am somewhat used to the smell. And for 4,500 Yen/night, it works for me!
	Going through Ikebukuro at night.
	Well, I was somewhat lost around Ikebukuro for 45 minutes before I found what I was looking for - internet access! However, the major adjustment I had to learn was how to use a Japanese-style keyboard. Obviously, it was very different as some keys are placed differently than North American keyboards, and there were special buttons I had to be careful of; otherwise, the text will switch from English to hiragana, katakana, or kanji symbols. In the end, I did manage to figure it out.
	You see the female cartoon character on the left? When I took a quick first glance, I thought the only thing she was wearing was a red robe. Then I realized that she was wearing a beige dress as well. But seriously, I thought she was semi-naked! :P
	Ahh... beef and cream cheese sandwich from Subway!
	No matter which country you go, you will end up finding McDonald's. The best is the Fish McDippers (bottom left box) - Canada needs to bring them here! Also, the Arch Deluxe burger exists as the McGrand burger (top left box)! Sweet!
	My first Japanese McDonald's meal - the Teriyaki Burger (aka. a sausage patty coated in teriyaki sauce with lettuce and bun), a cup of cola, and a Ronald McDonald display stand indicating that my side order is being prepared. In Japan, you can select what side order you want instead of just fries. You can go with 5 piece Chicken McNuggets, a cup of salad, or hotcakes! Sweet! However, what I didn't learn in the McDonald's I went to was that there were two different floors - upstairs and downstairs. The waitress asked where I would be so she could bring my Chicken McNuggets when they were ready, and I just said upstairs - I assumed that either floor would be no different. Unfortunately, I quickly upstairs was the smoking section whereas downstairs was the non-smoking section. Man, did it reek upstairs - much worse than my room at the Kimi Ryokan - it just smelled like my co-workers Jason, Chris, and Jaclyn smoking up a storm before, during, and after work all in one session. :P (I expect a beating from my co-workers after they read this) Also, this pic is blurry because I was not aware of the macro button until WELL AFTER I returned home. As I said - I ain't no pro!
	Going through some street in Ikebukuro. It's somewhat interesting that while I was in some areas of Ikebukuro, there would be a number of sharply-dressed men that would approach me and promote their product (and of course, they would speak in Japanese since I look somewhat "Japanese") - basically, it was for sex shops, brothels, strip clubs, soaplands, etc. I must have went through the red light district of town. :P If you feel like you're being approached and they wouldn not go away, try using this method - SPEAK ENGLISH and just say "Sorry man, I do not understand Japanese." They would understand, apologize politely, and leave - wow, the Japanese are really polite people! It's great! :-)

Eventually, I decided to head back to the ryokan to rest up - I still have 2 full days to explore Tokyo and jetlag has not settled in yet! But based on what I experienced so far - I think I am going have one heck of an adventure.

And finally, if I was back in Victoria, I would have been playing ice hockey on this night. DAMN. Oh well - I'm on vacation, and I need to rest up on some injuries anyways (sprained left pinky finger, mild right groin sprain, and recovering right rotator cuff). :P

Go to the next page...