Return to the Rising Sun, Day 1: Getting There is Half the Fun

It was a journey 4 years in the making.  After the end of our escapades in Japan (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), my friends, Mat O’Donnell and David Sundberg, and I decided we would one day return to experience it anew.  With Mat’s impending wedding in November, it was decided that the adventure would take place in August 2016.

After months of planning and preparation, the day finally arrived to begin our return to the Land of the Rising Sun.

It takes a lot of time to get to Japan and I mean a LOT of time.  On August 16, Dave and I awoke at 2:30am.  Our first flight of the day would leave at 6:20am.

Dave is bright eyed and bushy tailed for the day ahead.

My good friend, Jeff Bevirt, picked Dave and I from my home and drove us to Eppley Airfield where we met Dave’s niece, Amy Joy, who would also be joining us on the excursion.

We would be using United Airlines.  This was my first time utilizing their services and it was pretty good all the way around.  When we arrived at the nearly empty airport, a friendly desk agent took our passports and quickly checked us in and checked in Dave’s suitcase.  Using the “gussie” system of packing, I would be checking no luggage so I’d have one less thing to worry about.

Transportation to Japan provided by United Airlines.

United likes to board early and we started getting on board nearly an hour before our flight started.  I happen to think this is a good business practice as if everyone manages to get onboard early, we can leave a little early which is exactly what happened.

After a brief flight, our little group laid over in Denver for an hour, where we scarfed a quick breakfast from McDonald’s (oh, how I hate to rush a meal) and boarded another plane set to take us to Los Angeles.

At LAX, I made my only miscalculation of the trip.  I decided to change my dollars over to yen while I was there.  I got a pretty good deal, but would learn that I should have waited until I reached Narita International Airport in Japan as they give you a much better deal.  My dough would have netted me an extra 15,000 yen had I waited.  So take my advice, if you go to Japan, always exchange your money at Narita.

We waited through a 2.5 hour layover at LAX before finally beginning the long haul of the trip.  I love to fly, but 12 hours is an awfully long time to be on a plane.  They do their best to distract one with a wide variety of entertainment from movies to music to TV shows.  To pass the time, I read a new Sherlock Holmes pastiche, began a new Nero Wolfe novel, watched a little TV as well as the films Money Monster and Insomnia.

There was something profound about this trip, especially as I was taking it in the daytime and could look out the window.  There’s something deep about looking down on the majesty of the Pacific Ocean and seeing nothing but blue as far as the eye can see.  We also went from day to night to day in a flash as we crossed over to the other side of the planet.  And there was something about flying over the edge of Alaska that put a smile on my face as I looked down upon it.

The food wasn’t too bad on the flight.  United prides itself on its 3 course meals and served us a lunch of teriyaki chicken, rice, vegetable medley, and salad with southwestern rice.  For dessert, they served us a wonderful vanilla bean gelato which was some of best ice cream-type food I have ever eaten.  Before touchdown, they served a breakfast of Udon noodles, though Dave had to be a rebel and order the scrambled eggs.

As I said the journey was long and I only napped for about an hour as excitement fueled my body.  Upon arriving at Narita, we waited for Mat who was delayed as everybody on the planet decided to land at Narita at the same time he did.  This slowed down his going through customs and immigration which my little group blew through in about 15 minutes.

Japan, I have arrived.

We collected our resident expert, then got our J-Rail passes so we could travel through Japan.  Then we hopped on the Narita Express for a 90 minute journey to Shinjuku to arrive at the first house we would stay at through Air BnB where we met Mat’s friend, Mauricio, and his girlfriend, Allison, who would be joining us on a part of the adventure.

Despite being beyond the point of exhaustion our little group went out to dinner at a place called Pronto’s which is a bar/restaurant.  I normally don’t like to eat late, but one thing I appreciate about Japan is that we share a similar size appetite as all servings in Japan are small.  I had some juicy fried chicken with a splash of lemon.  After dinner we stopped at a mini-mart to get some things for breakfast.  I grabbed an orange juice and some of the famed pancakewiches of Japan.

Pancakewich

I passed out and I mean passed out on my tatami mat to end this day’s adventures.

A Journey Beyond Imagination, Day 1: Traveling to Tokyo

In “The Arizona Chronicles”, I alluded to a trip I took to Tokyo, Japan and now I think it would make for a good series while I am between escapades.

It was 2012 and my old friend, Mat O’Donnell, had announced that he was going to return to Japan.  Mat loves Japanese culture and even studied the language in college as a part of his major.  He had taken a tour to Japan back in 2010 and gushed about how amazing it had been and vowed to one day return.  Two years later that vow came to fruition and Mat planned to go back to Japan in style.

Mat was going to take advantage of the 5 week paid sabbatical offered by his company and top it off with a few weeks of vacation so that he could enjoy Japan properly.  Once again, he was going to take the Tokyo Maximum Tour offered by Destination Japan, but he was also lining up a number of other things before the tour, including a climb to the top of Mt Fuji.

Mat had invited me to join up with him for the tour portion, but I had declined.  The tour took place in September which is always a very ugly month of work for me at my current place of employment.  So I always felt that asking for time off would be an impossibility.  Not long after Mat had made the announcement of his impending tour, I learned that he had somehow, and miraculously, talked our friend, David Sundberg, into joining him for the entire duration of his journey.

So now two good friends of mine were going to be going on a fabulous adventure and that’s when something clicked in my head.  I realized that it wasn’t right that I should miss out on opportunities like these, so I talked to my supervisor, who agreed that I shouldn’t miss out on what could be a once in a lifetime opportunity.  We worked out a deal where things could be reasonably covered while I was absent for two weeks.  I messaged Mat and let him know that I would be able to meet up with him and Dave as part of the Tokyo Maximum Tour.  I could hear the glee in his FB post when he said he would make sure I had the time of my life.

Things progressed quickly after that.  Despite the fact that only 7 people signed up for the tour, Destination Japan decided to go ahead with it.  The company also allowed Mat, Dave, and myself to share a room (at a discount) which was a big thumbs up.  I found a bank in Omaha where I could exchange my dollars for yen at a good exchange rate, arranged a flight to Los Angeles, and had Destination Japan arrange a flight from LAX to Tokyo at a reasonable price.

The hardest part about preparing for the trip was working to get my body adjusted to Tokyo time.  I stayed up for nearly 48 hours straight by cleaning, exercising, playing video games, and sheer force of will in order to acclimate myself.  I caught my early morning flight to LA and snatched a little sleep on the way.  About 1pm I met our tour guide, Yukie, and two other tourists, Gavin and Mike, and we headed to the Singapore Airlines counter to get our boarding passes for our flight.

We flew to Tokyo on a double decker plane and I got a window seat on the upper deck (woo hoo!).  The trip from LA to Tokyo means that the plane is fighting the Gulfstream the entire way, resulting in an 11.5 hour flight.  I had hoped to catch a good long nap on the flight, but excitement kept me revved up and I only managed to catch snippets of sleep here and there.

Singapore Airlines was a very comfortable way to travel.  I found that they try to make things as pleasant as possible on international flights.  Although I was flying coach, it was the equivalent of flying first class on a lot of domestic flights.  I freely admit I would like to travel business class on an international flight at some point so I can experience the seat that turns into a bed.  They had a large variety of movies to choose from and I watched The Avengers and read the mystery novel, The Magic Bullet. 

Another thing I learned was that airlines apparently use food to distract the passengers on these long flights.  After we were in the air for about 90 minutes, supper was served.  I had the traditional Japanese dinner which was pretty good, though I mistook the soy sauce for my noodles as a cup of broth and drank it.  At some point during the flight, I was offered an apple and just before touchdown they offered a “snack” which was really another meal that I declined. 

After sitting for over 12 hours, I was grateful to walk around and stretch my limbs.  My companions and I quickly retrieved our luggage and made it through customs before hopping on the bus which began our 90 minute ride from Narita International Airport to Hotel Tokyo Metropolitan in Ikebukuro.

My jaw dropped when I entered the hotel lobby.  This was easily a 4 or 5 star hotel, complete with bellboys and elegantly dressed personnel.  I found that Mat and Dave already had my key, so Yukie took all of us up to our floor (a high one, which I prefer).  My room was at the end of the hall.  I knocked on the door which was opened by Mat, adorned in his Chopper hat (from One Piece, a popular manga and anime series).

Mat and Dave quickly filled me in on their adventures and we chatted for about an hour before we were all ready to hit the hay.  Especially me, as I was about ready to collapse.  I jokingly asked Dave for a bedtime story who replied, “No!”  Mat supplied one, instead.

“Once upon a time there were three guys trying to sleep only one of them wouldn’t shut up so I smothered him.  The End!”

Ah!  Good times!  Within minutes, I was in the land of Nod, dreaming of the adventures which would begin later in the morning.