Hello from Tokyo
Konnichiwa!
It's 4am here as I'm writing this, having been in Japan for about half a day so far.
We've had about half of our night's sleep, plus a nap earlier when we got in. Lucinda's not long dozed off again.
It kind of goes without saying when you're travelling halfway across the world, but it's been an interesting journey.
We woke up at 4.30am British time on Tuesday 20 November, and arrived at the hotel around the same time the next day.
One of our worries was that Lucinda's ears would cause problems at takeoff/landing, but she was more or less fine, and the first flight was very straightforward. KLM are great and we got a free Dutch cake, which was a lot less dry than it looked.
At Amsterdam we had our first "incident" of the trip. I was taking a photo of the sign below when some security guards asked me to move along. It was only when I took my eye away from the viewfinder that I saw three armed guards to the left of me making an arrest.
Lucinda was apparently watching all of this, and decided to let me get the all-important photograph. I'm sure you'll all agree it was worth it.
After a few hours at Amsterdam, we set off again for Narita. We picked our seats the day before and went for ones over the wing to avoid turbulence, but unfortunately that meant we had people either side of us, which made getting up and going to the loo a bit less straightforward!
There was plenty to watch on the in-flight entertainment, and the meals were good - a choice of Japanese or Dutch. We went "half and half" on pork sukoyaki and beef meatballs in jus with red cabbage. It all came with a side salad, cheese and biscuits and carrot cake.
We slept on and off, before being woken up by breakfast - an omelette type thing with hash brown, yoghurt, fruit and coffee.
This was Lucinda's first long-haul flight and she was impressed with the whole thing, but a combination of sleep deprivation, heat and turbulence conspired against her. Apparently sick bags are unreliable when wet... design flaw if you ask me.
We made it through security and headed for the train station, which was right at the terminal. I managed to eventually sort all our tickets, and the Narita Express took us through the characteristically-Japanese suburbs, with pagodas, colourful signs and distinctive houses. At each station, there's a different musical jingle to let you know where you are.
After ruining a nice jumper on the train and shutting her eyes for half an hour, my lady wife was feeling a bit better, and we arrived in the city to 20 degree heat and sunshine.
Some policemen helped us with directions to Tobu Hotel Levant, which was a 5-10 minute walk from the station. The woman who took our luggage up to the 20th floor was very friendly and congratulated us on our honeymoon.
Thankfully, they do have a lift.
The room itself is a decent size for a Japanese hotel room but still very Japanese, with waffle-textured pyjamas, slippers, a super toilet and a skyscraper-filled view. The hotel provides a free smartphone for us to use during our stay, and it comes with unlimited data - very handy as WiFi hotspots aren't always easy to come by.
After settling in we both grabbed a shower and napped for a few hours, before wandering down to Tokyo Skytree. Wikipedia says it's the tallest tower in the world, and the second tallest structure. It is officially pretty damn big.
Along the way we walked past about fifty vending machines on the streets (I ended up buying a Fanta Grape), and saw some kids practising baseball (one of the biggest sports over here).
We looked in some shops at the Solomachi mall at the foot of Skytree before grabbing some food.
I had a rice bowl with tempura of king prawn, white fish, pumpkin and okra, plus miso soup (all for about £3.75). I also picked up a pork cutlet sandwich (£1.20) and some squid nigiri sushi (£1.50) from the supermarket. Just in case I got hungry.
Lucinda waited until we got to the 7 Eleven convenience store and tried hot gyozas with dipping sauce (£1.60) and a creme caramel (£1). I bought a "Thunder" chocolate and cookie bar (20p) which I'd fancied since I saw some guy talking about it on YouTube. It didn't disappoint.
Hopefully we're both fresh as daisies for our first lunch tomorrow at a French restaurant called Lature in Shibuya.
You might hear from Lucinda as well if I can keep her awake long enough :-)
George
It's 4am here as I'm writing this, having been in Japan for about half a day so far.
We've had about half of our night's sleep, plus a nap earlier when we got in. Lucinda's not long dozed off again.
It kind of goes without saying when you're travelling halfway across the world, but it's been an interesting journey.
We woke up at 4.30am British time on Tuesday 20 November, and arrived at the hotel around the same time the next day.
One of our worries was that Lucinda's ears would cause problems at takeoff/landing, but she was more or less fine, and the first flight was very straightforward. KLM are great and we got a free Dutch cake, which was a lot less dry than it looked.
At Amsterdam we had our first "incident" of the trip. I was taking a photo of the sign below when some security guards asked me to move along. It was only when I took my eye away from the viewfinder that I saw three armed guards to the left of me making an arrest.
Lucinda was apparently watching all of this, and decided to let me get the all-important photograph. I'm sure you'll all agree it was worth it.
After a few hours at Amsterdam, we set off again for Narita. We picked our seats the day before and went for ones over the wing to avoid turbulence, but unfortunately that meant we had people either side of us, which made getting up and going to the loo a bit less straightforward!
There was plenty to watch on the in-flight entertainment, and the meals were good - a choice of Japanese or Dutch. We went "half and half" on pork sukoyaki and beef meatballs in jus with red cabbage. It all came with a side salad, cheese and biscuits and carrot cake.
We slept on and off, before being woken up by breakfast - an omelette type thing with hash brown, yoghurt, fruit and coffee.
This was Lucinda's first long-haul flight and she was impressed with the whole thing, but a combination of sleep deprivation, heat and turbulence conspired against her. Apparently sick bags are unreliable when wet... design flaw if you ask me.
We made it through security and headed for the train station, which was right at the terminal. I managed to eventually sort all our tickets, and the Narita Express took us through the characteristically-Japanese suburbs, with pagodas, colourful signs and distinctive houses. At each station, there's a different musical jingle to let you know where you are.
After ruining a nice jumper on the train and shutting her eyes for half an hour, my lady wife was feeling a bit better, and we arrived in the city to 20 degree heat and sunshine.
Some policemen helped us with directions to Tobu Hotel Levant, which was a 5-10 minute walk from the station. The woman who took our luggage up to the 20th floor was very friendly and congratulated us on our honeymoon.
Thankfully, they do have a lift.
The room itself is a decent size for a Japanese hotel room but still very Japanese, with waffle-textured pyjamas, slippers, a super toilet and a skyscraper-filled view. The hotel provides a free smartphone for us to use during our stay, and it comes with unlimited data - very handy as WiFi hotspots aren't always easy to come by.
After settling in we both grabbed a shower and napped for a few hours, before wandering down to Tokyo Skytree. Wikipedia says it's the tallest tower in the world, and the second tallest structure. It is officially pretty damn big.
Along the way we walked past about fifty vending machines on the streets (I ended up buying a Fanta Grape), and saw some kids practising baseball (one of the biggest sports over here).
We looked in some shops at the Solomachi mall at the foot of Skytree before grabbing some food.
I had a rice bowl with tempura of king prawn, white fish, pumpkin and okra, plus miso soup (all for about £3.75). I also picked up a pork cutlet sandwich (£1.20) and some squid nigiri sushi (£1.50) from the supermarket. Just in case I got hungry.
Lucinda waited until we got to the 7 Eleven convenience store and tried hot gyozas with dipping sauce (£1.60) and a creme caramel (£1). I bought a "Thunder" chocolate and cookie bar (20p) which I'd fancied since I saw some guy talking about it on YouTube. It didn't disappoint.
Hopefully we're both fresh as daisies for our first lunch tomorrow at a French restaurant called Lature in Shibuya.
You might hear from Lucinda as well if I can keep her awake long enough :-)
George
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