JAPAN TRIP - DAY 1 (May 17/18, 2003):

On Saturday morning (5-17), we hopped on a Korean Air plane at LAX and, after an 11+ hour flight, arrived at Narita Airport at 3:08pm on Sunday May 18th. The flight was pretty good, but very long. For some reason, I just cannot sleep on planes. It just doesn't happen, no matter how tired I am. The food was pretty good, except for the 2nd meal. Whatever you do, do not get the "pasta" from Korean Air. It just wasn't very good. The movie on the flight was The Recruit, which I watched but did not listen to, and some Japanese movie with English subtitles about a kickboxer who gets injured and has to stay in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He then learns some kind of martial art that allows him to throw people using only his upper body. Let's just say that I am really glad I had my ipod for this flight. I did end up getting an exit row seat, so that was great, and the flight attendants were all pretty attractive, so that helped as well. So, all in all, the flight was pretty good, considering that it was about 11 hours.

We then took the Narita Express (a train) from Narita to Shinjuku, which took about 1.5 hours. So, after sitting for about 11 hours on a plane, standing in line to go through customs, and getting our bags, we have to spend another 1.5 hours on a train? It actually sounds worse than it was, cuz I for one was really excited to be in Japan. Also, the scenery flashing by the train window was actually really beautiful. Lots of green, and lots of farms growing rice. Most of the landscape I saw on the train seemed pretty rural, at least until we got closer to Tokyo. Then, all you saw were really tall buildings and apartment complexes, which makes total sense because Japan is an island, and the only way they can really expand it is by building up.

So, we arrive at Shinjuku station, and all I can think is "Wow, I'm actually in Tokyo". Ok, imagine me, standing in the middle of a huge station carrying my really heavy bag, tired as hell from all the travelling, and all I can do is look around in wonder and amazement at the very fact that I was actually in Japan. That moment was very surreal. I think it was really the first time that it hit me that I was actually standing in Japan. I have always wanted to go to Japan, and now I was finally there. Well, that feeling quickly wore off as we trekked for about 20 minutes through the station carrying our heavy bags to meet up with Taeko's brother Eiichi and grab some dinner.

We ended up at the Hyatt in Shinjuku for dinner, where I ordered the Teriyaki Chicken. Now, you mgiht be thinking to yourself, "Damn, he travelled all the way to Japan just to get Teriyaki Chicken? WTF?", but this place seemed to cater more to foreigners and thus it was mostly westernized foods (the restaurant was in a hotel). My first impression of Eiichi was that he was a cool guy, and could be a little silly at times, which turned out to be pretty accurate. He spoke English fairly well, and we really didn't have a problem talking to him throughout our stay there. We also met Taeko's father at dinner, who paid for the meal.

Eiichi then drove us over to his parents' house in Saitama, after a brief stop at Toys 'R' Us (yeah, I know, first Teriyaki Chicken, now Toys 'R' Us? What, did I travel about 6000 miles just to check out western things?), and we met Taeko's mother and youngest sister Honami. Again, I must stress at this point that Taeko's family really went above and beyond what all of us expected (as you will be able to see in the following entries). Such great hospitality. Ok, getting back to my story, we hung out there for a while, and then eventually went over to Eiichi's place and met his wife, Miho, and his 1 year old son, Tatsuki. Since we were all pretty tired, we ended up throwing the futons on the floor (again, a big thank you to Taeko's family for the shelter and the futons) and crashed. All in all, it was a great first day.
Posted 1:58 PM by MZ

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