Japan, Day of Arrival

25 August 2009, Tuesday, 8.30pm
I had my Healthcare UT this afternoon and I'm totally out of mood. This applies to everyone since it was the last paper and my mind was flooded with Japan, Japan and Japan. It distracted 80% of my mind.

Right after UT, I rushed all the way to TRCC since Chris was waiting to fetch me from there. On our way back, we bought several necessaties for travelling. We slept and slack till about 9 plus before uncle and auntie fetched us to the airport. A million thanks to them.

We reached the airport around 9.30pm since it was just a 20 minute drive through from his house. Upon checking in, the staff offered us seats on the upper deck. It's our very first time taking the air bus A380, therefore we had no choice to reject this offer. We can always have the main deck upon return.

Alright, we'll just take the upper deck. (It might be disastrous, read on for more)

By the way, we are at Terminal 3 this time round. Previously, we used to fly at Terminal 1. I guess Terminal 3 aren't that bad, more shopping and food. As usual, we had some time before boarding. Christopher walked around in search of his camera lens.

As for me, i tired and worn out after this afternoon UT and haven't had any good night sleep since i had been doing my real last minute packing.

It was about boarding time, we had gotten ourselves ready for the flight.

Haha, that was me sms-ing my Ah Tard before flying. That shows "She's always on my mind" even before i fly. Oops, that was mushy. Haha.

Finally, I board my flight. This Air Bus was seriously gigantic. I guess I'm lucky enough to get seatings near to the entrance otherwise it would take a longer time for me to walked all the way till the end.

Let me summarize a few pointers:
Never choose upper deck if you were to take A380. Well, it's not as comfy as you thought. For upper deck, there were lesser seatings and more squeezy. Main deck is more spacious as compared. Seatings in upper deck doesn't seems very new.

We were give a row of 4 seats. There are no other passengers beside us. This was offered by the staff upon checking in as well. Although I don't agree that the seats was spacious, but 4 seats for 2 person was perfect enough.

Movies and Games were the best entertainment. We were glad that they provide us with very new movies like Hanna Motanna, Angel and Demons, 17 again (Zac was really cool).

Below was the refreshment provided. Chris took the Tuna, while I took the Turkey Ham.

26 August 2009, Wednesday, 12.00am
Above was the breakfast we had. It was egg, bacon with hashbrown. Bread, muffins and salad was served with hot coffee. Everything taste fine and acceptable. But still I prefered Emirates flight food more.

During the flight, we pass by China Sea and the plane was jerking like hell. Chris actually panic, oops, pretend i said nothing. The plane was swaying from left to right, right to left. Although it's not our first time taking flights, but the swaying and jerking really scares us.

Finally, we arrived in Japan, Tokyo. My heart was still thumping fast as lots of questions filled my mind. It's all about the JR network, Skyliner, Keisei, Metro.

We were on our way for baggages collection when I had a need for toilet. Poor Chris, always irritated by that. I was very amazed by their toilet and technologies. I had some hygiene habits whereby I would wipe the seat and wrap around with toilet paper before using. In their toilet, we were provided with readily cut paper for seatings. As for their toilet bowl, I shall summarized all the functions which fascinates me.

1) It can wash your butt.
2) It can wash your "ahem".
3) It can set water temperature.
4) It can set the spraying strength.
5) It can blow dry.
6) It can play music.
7) It can deodorize smell.
8) It can lift the lid up and down with just a click.

These functions are really cool and I did spent time meddling with it.

By the way, the checking procedure was really strict in Japan. Therefore one should abide law carefully and seriously. Our next stop shall be Sunroute Hotel Shinjuku. Based on my research, Keisei Line would be the cheapest among all transport. Skyliner and Narita Express aren't worth the price at all. Therefore we bought the Keisei Skyliner to Shinjuku.

Tickets for your transportation could be purchase at outside the arrival hall.

You can ask for direction to the Keisei Line, or just simply take the escalator one level down to the train station. The staffs may conduct a simple check or search which is common, therefore don fret or panic about it.

We finally got onto the right track and was waiting for our train. It's my first time in Japan and their network fascinates me. Trains may not go in same direction at the same platform. Therefore look at the signage above and look carefully at the train you are taking, time and direction. Otherwise you might ended up in the wrong place.

Unlike Singapore, they had little provision shop on the platform. At times, you might even find pancakes shop. They have no strict rule for eating and drinking in the train as long as you cleared your own rubbish. By the way, I find it real hard to throw my rubbish in Tokyo as always. You can hardly see any rubbish bin, unless after a great walking distance to somewhere or in a shopping mall.

In Japan, people don't really threw rubbish right into the bin. They are environmentalist. They will seperate rubbish into burnable or unburnable before discard. This is really great, as there are things which could be recycled.

Finally, our train came.

We board the train to Ueno station before switching to the Yamanonte Line. During the transfer, we came across these shops. Omg, your mouth will be watery upon stepping in. It's all about food. Chicken chunk, sushi, wraps, cakes, red bean, fried prawn, cake rolls, you name it, you have it.

I wanted to buy but I'm seriously stuck with my luggage. One luggage may sound easy to you, but its seriously tedious for me. I'm small sized and my luggage was nearly half of my size, it's gonna be tough for me. Thanks to my luggage, I hurt my ankle upon dragging it our of the train.

Tsk, Tsk.

From Ueno, we transfer to another train to Shinkuku and off we go to Sunroute Hotel.