planes, trains and jetlag in chidori-cho

hello all! this is the first post I'm writing to you from lovely sunny Japan and its about flights and stuff so sorry about that but I'll try to get it out of the way in a summarized not-too-boring kind of way. So here we go:





England - 5 AM


We wake up and i have a shower, its only been a few hours since i packed and we went to the pub where i had a couple more than i had intended (Not to say I've got a handover, I'm just not as fresh as I'd like, then again who is at 5 in the morning?). Have a cup of coffee then shift on out at...





6AM


Jump in the car. My mum [bless her for getting up and driving us to heathrow] drops us off at the terminal. No fuss, all good.





7.30AM


We're at the airport and go through without any fuss. make some phone calls, send some texts untill we have to turn off our phones "and all electronic devices" when we get on the plane for take off at...





10.30AM


We take off. The plane is small and there is no entertainment whatsoever. I dread to see the next plane we have to catch in helsinki airport for the long leg of the flight. The trip to Helsinki is only 2 hours. The one to Tokyo is about 10 [still, better than the 13 we thought it was going to be.





[have now lost track of the time]


We land in Helsinki then get on the next plane soon after.


All our fears were unfounded. Everyone, FLY FINNAIR! THEY ARE YOUR FREINDS! Films, TV shows, Games and lots of leg room. The only downside is that i now have stomach cramps from the beer the night before and the plane food a few hours ago and so have to serrupticiously drop gas every now and then for reasons of comfort and my own sanity. luckily we are sat next to the toilets,which did not smell at all but hopefully everyone else assumed they did.


There, i admited it, it was me, I'm sorry. But Ha.





8.30 [Tokyo time] [About 12.30PM British]


We land, thank god! No sleep since we woke up on the 14th it's a confusing time in the morning, we're shattered and Lauren is NOT HAPPY! Oh, no.

We`ve had no sleep on the journey so far, which sucks. I cant sleep on planes and I dont think Lauren even tried, and we still have about an hour and a half on the Tokyos trains before we get to our hotel [Ryokan really but I`ll get to that].

The first train is fine except it is the first really comfortable seat either of us have sat in in hours so both of us are now struggling to not fall asleep after so long of struggling for it.

Between long blinks we can see tree covered hills and small groups of houses and paddy fields glide past until the scenery changes gradually to an urban landscape.



We arive in Kamata train station over an hour later and stumble through the crowds trying to find the right place to buy a ticket for our next train.

Westand for about 10 minutes staring at a board trying to match the Kanji symbols on our maps to those on the wall before an American stops and tells us that we are at the wrong ticket point! Durr.

Japanese train stations can be VAST, I mean HUGE. In the main stations you can walk down what start to look like entire underground streets to get from one platform to another, and they have shops and cafes to match. So the ticket stations are split up so that if you want to buy a ticket for the Chou line you have to walk to the gate first. This is the first time I`ve been in a Japanese train station and it is nearly 24hours of travel since sleep! :P



Ryokan Kangetsu:

To get here go to Chidori-Cho station.

The first train here is a bit of a blur for me and we quickly found our way to the hotel with a map I had printed in England (I did SOME research, yay for me).

The hotel, if a bit out of town, is really veryu pretty. it has a small, well kept garden with some old looking trees, small stepping stones leading to our room over a little pond thing, small bridges and seating areas and an outside bath (seperate baths for men and women).

As soon as we get into the room Lauren falls asleep but I head for the shower and it soon wakes me up so i decide to have a little walk around the town to see what its like.
It turns out quite quaint, the train station is small and has a level crossing, the streets are on hills but there is no view because all of the buildings are close together and some quite tall.

Later on, when Lauren finally wakes up, we decide that its time for food so we go for a drink in a local bar called `The Dauphin Bar` (thats Dolphin to you and me), which turns out to be a tiny room with a bar with stools and three tables, but no food.
I find this out when I get my limited Japanese muddled, wanting to ask "do you have food?" instead I simply blurt "I want Food!" to which a bemused bar man passes me a bowl of Pistachio nuts and backs away.
While sitting and drinking Lauren decides that she wants to own a bar just like this.

After a drink and still hungry we decide to get something from the convenience store (combini). It is like any other 27/7 anywhere except the food we take to the counter is heated for us.
The man at the counter is extreamly polite, chattering in Japanese shop talk and bowing everytime he scans an item, packs anything into our bags and as we leave the store.

We head back to the hotel, eat and promptly fall asleep.

And so ends our first day in Japan. A lot of planes, a lot of trains, a LOT of people and some garbled language.

sorry i took at lot of time to tell you about not much at all :p

Japanese:

Introductions:

I am (Matt) - Watashi wa (Matt) desu

This is (Lauren) - Ko chira wa (Lauren) desu

What is your name? - O-namae wa?