2013 Trip Day 1 & 2 - Monday & Tuesday - Travel Days

Japan Trip Diary

Travel Days Monday & Tuesday

 

5:00 am

Leaving for the airport I was a bundle of anxiety and excitement.  I arrived at the airport and checked in....hoping for a miracle upgrade to business class...no such luck.  My Samantha Brown luggage - so far loving  it! It is  much easier to travel without carrying anything and just rolling your 2 pieces of stack able luggage on your side. 

The line at security was long (of course) but once I got through I went ahead to the gate and had a seat.  It wasn't too long until I met up with my in-laws at the gate and we had breakfast.  Our flight to Denver was on time :) 

The flight to Denver was the pits! 4 hours in economy - squished like sardines and the underneath of aisle seats are now almost completely obstructed by the direct tv boxes so you can't even fit anything under your seat (including your legs...and mine aren't long people I'm 5'3").  I'm super spoiled by JetBlue.  United isn't exactly my first choice but I was optimistic that the flight to Tokyo would have a little more room.

When we arrived in Denver we had about an hour layover so we found a nice place to have lunch - and I have to say the food we had was great - I'm a sucker for turkey sandwich with sliced apples on it and made on whole wheat cranberry walnut bread - OMG it was soo good!  It cost me $16 for an iced tea and a turkey sandwich but it was worth every cent!

We noticed A LOT of Japanese children were going to be on our flight.  We spoke to their chaperon -- who was actually one of their teachers.  They had been on a summer school trip to the U.S. for 6 weeks. They were 10 years old and ADORABLE!  They were in NYC for most of the trip but the last part was in Denver so they got to see the Rockies. I have to say on our 12 hour flight they were THE MOST WELL BEHAVED CHILDREN I'VE EVER ENCOUNTERED!  Not a PEEP out of them! 

The flight started out no so great. Don't get me wrong - I liked the look of the dream-liner - it's gorgeous.  We had economy seats and we had plenty of room.  My father in law had the window, mother in law the middle and I had the aisle. We immediately started playing with the in flight entertainment - Japanese language lessons, games, movies and TV shows.  My all time favorite movie - Auntie Mame was on there so I had to watch it!

 After sitting there for 1/2 hour the pilot informed us of a maintenance issue with the fuel pumps. Not exactly what you want to hear before  you cross the Pacific! The pilot said mechanics were working in it. This lasted about an hour and a half. We were supposed to depart at noon we departed at 1:35 or so.  Of course with all of the dream-liner issues of late I was a little nervous.   Soon after take off I started watching "The Guilt Trip" with Barbra Streisand ...soo funny.  About 1/2 way into the movie our first meal was served.  I had chicken teriyaki with white rice, a garden salad, a roll and a brownie :) it was actually really good! I was surprised how yummy it was.  After Dinner I took something to help me sleep and I put Mary Poppins on my on demand system.....I was asleep within 10 minutes!  I woke up after it had ended, hit Play again...and fell back to sleep. I woke up and there was about 8 hours left of flight time.  I stretched about the cabin, went to the bathroom, discussed making WDW plans with my in-laws for March (I'm already booked for the Grand Floridian Villas but they are new DVC members so they wanted to try and book this too). I restarted Auntie Mame and fell back to sleep. Not a good sleep either.... I know it sounds like I slept a lot but its not a sound sleep. It's probably 20-30 minutes then you wake up, try to get comfy and doze off again.  Oh and I was FREEZING! I had 2 Blankets and a scarf and I was wearing a sweater and I was freezing!! When there was 5 and 1/2 hours left they came around with Turkey and Swiss Cheese sandwiches and Vanilla Gelato.  My stomach was bothering me from the airplane air so I just ate the roll of the sandwich and tried to get some more sleep.  When there was about an hour left they brought us breakfast - Swiss cheese omelet, mini bagel and a raspberry tea biscuit cookie.  Before I knew it we were landing!

The airport was immaculate and huge! We made our way to immigration where we were finger printed, photographed and released to baggage claim.  We went through customs and our tour guide was there to greet us.  We then quickly used the ladies room and I purchased a few bottles of water and boarded our motor coach to the hotel. It was about an hour and 1/2 because we were at the height of rush hour (we boarded at 5:30 pm).  I fell asleep about 2 minutes into the bus ride!  I tried really hard to stay awake and peer out my window at Tokyo but the exhaustion from traveling got to me. 

When we arrived at our hotel (The Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa) I had to change my watch to 7:00 pm Tuesday - Tokyo time  (we lost a day traveling) the  hotel was very nice.  Clean - of course, bright and lovely.  The people who worked at the front desk were gorgeous and I loved their uniforms!  My wifi to go from EconnectJapan.com was there waiting for me at check in --which was great because I wanted to go Skype with Thomas and my mom once I got to my room.

Here are a few photo's I took of the lobby....

Upon check in completion, we were escorted to our rooms by this tiny girl who pushed a cart with all of our luggage on it (and I felt bad because she was about 20 pounds) Our rooms were on the 11th floor.  My in-laws hotel room was right next door.  We said goodnight and I checked out my room - which I LOVED. It looks like the Contemporary at WDW! I took a nice shower, played with the high tech TOTO Toilet (which I must now buy) unpacked, set up my wifi to go & Skyped my mom and Thomas (in that order because Thomas didn't pick up his Skype at first)

 

I fell asleep at 8:45 pm....woke up at 2:40 am and could NOT fall back to sleep. 

Here's some photos I took that first night after checking in to our hotel...

Yay! I'm here in Tokyo in my cool hotel room!
 

I LOVED my room!  Very large, very modern.  I'd stay there again in a heart beat!
 

 

My Awesome View! Every night I left the blinds open so that I could fall asleep looking out Tokyo, my new favorite city in the world!

When you are too tired to figure out which channels are in English you watch baseball!

Next up....

Wednesday - August 21-  full day Tokyo tour!