Posted on June 9, 2008 - by trisnadi
Japan Day 1 – Tokyo
We arrived at Narita airport (Tokyo) feeling tired and dazed but excited. It was a rainy day, much like Sydney when we left. Everything went smoothly until the moment we wanted to validate the JR Pass – we forgot to bring it!!! somehow it accidentally got left behind at home. Aargh!
Panic kicked in… T ran around trying to sort things out while I stayed with the luggages. We ended up buying a Suica Pass (turned out to be a good thing) and the Narita Express to go to Tokyo. We left the big suitcase at the airport (500 yen per day) and headed off with the smaller ones.
We thought we’d have to carry all our luggage all the way to the train platform but we were pleasantly surprised to find out that all trolleys in the airport works with all escalators (not travelators mind you). This was the first of “why-can’t-we-have-this-in-sydney” moments we often experienced in Japan.
We went straight to our hotel (Akasaka Hotel Monterey) and had to walk 3 blocks from the station to the hotel in the pouring rain while dragging our luggage. It felt like a miserable start to the holiday, but we didn’t let it ruin our honeymoon. It’s all part of an interesting holiday!
Another interesting sight we encountered was a locker for umbrellas which was strategically placed outside the hotel. The locker allows you to place your umbrella and lock it in position by using a combination number you choose yourself so you can have the peace of mind knowing that someone won’t steal your umbrella whilst it was unattended 
We arrived at the hotel 2 hours prior to their normal check-in time, but thank God we were told that our room is ready. We took a shower, change into complimentary pyjamas provided by the hotel, and went to sleep until around 6pm. Nothing feels better than a hot shower after hours of travelling. After the nap, we still felt exhausted but were eager to go out and explore the area, and satisfy our hunger.
It was cold and windy and we weren’t sure what to have for dinner and decided to stroll around Akasaka area. To our surprise, we found a Jangara Ramen shop which specialises in Kyushu style ramen and was on our “to-try” list. Apparently they just opened another shop here in Akasaka. Ramen was good… the broth was good and it was a very satisfying experience for our first day in Japan. We’ll write a separate post about this one
We then walked around Akasaka area on the way back to the hotel. We stopped over at the Kinokuniya supermarket and bought some goodies just because they looked good!
Photos
