Here comes the days in Japan

Here comes the Japan posts. Shall try to update more frequently to thank the loyal readers of my blogs for this past few years. Although you wouldnt be seeing so much crappy posts and random kope-from-google-image photos, i shall still try to not make things so dry around here. Anyway, there will be more texts for the Japan posts since i wrote down a draft on that very day itself when all the memories were still fresh, so the posts will be slightly lengthier as compared to the HK ones. Nevertheless, Enjoy.

5th July 2011 - Day 1 of Japan

The journey to the land of the rising sun begins at our sophisticated Terminal 3. Most of the stores inside were high end goods and its 101% better looking than our Terminal 1 and 2. Everything just feels so grand inside and its always of much joy to fly off from here as compared to the other terminals.

This is the first time im riding on the A380, which is also a double deck plane. I used to think that the fares were alot more expensive than the single deck planes but realised that its still the same price, as least for the Economy Class. Most of the things look similar, except for the extra storage space for the window seaters and the back of the seats where my much-welcomed screen awaits me. Another difference will be during the take offs, where it is alot more quieter as compared to the single deck planes, which is much to my dismay because i like the roaring sound of the engine.

SIA also will provide you with a warm towel to freshen up yourselves before the flight which i like alot, but you have to be quick because they turn cold real fast. Onboard there is also a WIDE RANGE of movies and tv shows to watch, so you can easily guess, but i made full use of my time onboard watching movies. Watched 3 movies and took a little nap in between so as to rest my precious eyes. They also serve unlimited cups of drinks, be it juice, cocktail or wine. Tried the Singapore Sling but didnt like it at all. I still prefer my apple juice which i drank at least 3 cups back there.

Ding ding! Lunch time is here. Pardon the flat hair i got there but its much to blame of the air pressure in the cabins. Anyway, another great thing about SIA is their free meal onboard. The standard of the food is usually very appetizing and i have always look forward to them, but was quite disappointed this time round. However when the lunch was presented before my eyes, it wasnt the food that caught my attention but the METAL cutleries provided. I aint sure whether they changed it recently but when i used to ride on the SIA, they only provide business and first class with metal cutleries. The economy class were given plastic ones which were quite a pain especially with the cutting of the meat. Of course i am not going to complain why the plastic ones were not given instead and so i digged in while enjoying my movies.

Perhaps it is just me not riding on a SIA plane for quite some time but i was beaming with joy when they served us Magnum Ice Cream. Yummy. The tap onboard also has to look so complex that it made me wonder for a moment on what i am supposed to do to get my hands washed. And lastly, something you will not find on a single deck plane is the spiral stairway. Just out of curiousity and for fun, i walked down and up before going back to my seats.

Finally, we arrived at Japan but we still need to take a 2hour train ride because reaching our hotel. Most of the day 1 were just travelling especially with the 7hour flight and 2hour train. By the time we reach the hotel it was already 9pm and most of the shops were already closed. One thing to note about in Japan is to know exactly where and how you are going because you will be buying single ticket to the destination and the train system there is far more complicated than our 4 color lines.

I was quite surprised by the emptiness of the train, especially after seeing many of those photos where the trains are packed like sardines and the train operators have to help to squeeze the commuters in. Perhaps it is not this line that is congested i guess but im glad it isnt because it would be terrible to squeeze with all the luggages. Anyway, in Japan, there are the JR lines and Subway lines which is like 2 different things, express and every-stops train, and also like 10 different color lines heading to different part of Japan. Luckily we were mostly in the central area, so we did not have to change that much throughout the stay in Japan.

This is the first picture i took when i stepped out onto the Japan land but it was totally not like how i imagined it to be. I guess i watched too much tv shows and animes that shows another part of Japan but this just remind me of Hong Kong instead. Eitherway, welcome to Tokyo Japan.

Reached our hotel which is about 4 star. There is a huge lobby with many seating place around. However there is no wireless internet in the hotel and I had to use LAN cable to connect my laptop to the internet. This restricted me a bit especially when my smart BB was unable to surf twitter or anything online.

The room was small but cosy and does not give you the cramped up feeling. The toilet was well furnished and there was bottles of soap provided for the guests too. I didnt use them though because i came well equipped with my own.

Our stomach were growling for food so we went out of the hotel and searched along the streets to find a restaurant to settle down for dinner. Had Curry Udon which tasted similar to what i had in Singapore. Fun fact: In Japan, it is not considered rude to slurp on the noodles loudly. I purposely slurpped loudly on my first few mouths before choking on my own breath and went back to eating normally. It was not that filling as we ordered the small bowl so we went down to their family mart and bought some YongTauFu and it was amazingly good. Their noodles were super Q and i simply love their white raddish as it is soft but not too soft when chewing onto them.

With that, i conclude day 1 by going back to the hotel, chatted a little with my gf before getting some sleep, so that i can wake up to a fantastic Day 2.