LEX > ORD > NAR > Shinagawa

LEX

Called a cab a little bit later than I probably should have. I did the online check in thing tho, so I had a few extra minuites to spare. Security check was speedy and I arrived at the gate just as they were calling my seating group. Take off from LEX was a little bit bumpy as storms had just started to roll in. It was in any case, pretty cool to see the lightning in the clouds from a different perspective.

ORD

About a four hour layover, meh. Anyway, I wasn’t able to get a boarding pass to my ANA flight either online, or in Lexington. It was early in the morning when I arrived in Chicago, so there weren’t many customer service places to ask where I was supposed to get it really. They said at the ANA counter, but there wasn’t an ANA counter setup anywhere. Didn’t waste too much time looking and instead grabbed some breakfast at McDonald’s. Eventually the flight showed up on the departures screen and I was told that ANA wouldn’t be setup until a couple hours later. Parked next to an outlet, tethered my iPhone/MacBook and just wasted some time on the internet.

ORD > NAR

The long flight. Was a Boeing 777, which I think is the biggest one flying now. I was in a window seat in the front of the economy section, which wasn’t too bad. If I recall correctly, I had an isle seat when traveling to Sweden; gave me some extra leg room in a way, not that the room here was bad, but it could have been better. The seats were overall comfortable. For long flights in the future tho, I think I’ll try and book premium when I can, just for the fun of it. Plus I’ve got special benefits with United Airlines/ANA through my bank and stuff.

The flight was pretty uneventful. I listened to a special RIP SLYME summer mix thing; they have a pretty good summer sound, which is what first caught my interest with Taiyou to Bikini last year. Watched a movie, Oppia Volleyball -_-; It was alright, not great. Other than that, I listened to my iPod most of the time. I had originally planned to sleep a lot, but only got in one to two hours.

The food was pretty good, if not a little much. But I guess it made sense for a 12+ hour flight. Steamed salmon with creamy dill sauce; Vegetable lasagna with tomato marinara; Sandwiches, ice cream and other various snacks and sides.

NAR

Customs was a bit easier than what I remembered. Tho, maybe it was the flight back from Sweden that I was thinking about being a bit more thorough. Through luggage and customs it took a little more than an hour. Exchanged the ~$200 cash I brought with me, with plans of using ATMs &c as needed.

Was going to take the train to Shinagawa and get the special discounted ticket thing they had going on. The train that stopped there wouldn’t leave for another hour tho, either that, or I would have to do a transfer which I wasn’t interesting figuring that out on my first day here. Took the bus straight to the hotel, as was originally recommended to me anyway.

Shinagawa

Check in was painless, just showed them my passport and they made a copy of my credit card. My concert tickets were there waiting for me as well, which I admit, I was just a little bit worried about. The room is nice, cool view, with a queen bed and internet access. The room also has American style plugs, which I don’t need, but it’s still nice. ‘Twas recommendation that I made use of and am happy with it.

Didn’t do much the last few hours of the day; walked around a bit, stopped by an ATM, grabbed a quick bite. I also explored the train station and grabbed some tickets for my trip to Nagoya and back. I talked with one of the ticket sellers rather than trying my hand at the automated machines. Time, date, number of people, train number, destination to/from &c is all pretty easy speaking Japanese I think, so I was able to get in and out pretty quickly. They more than likely spoke English anyway if I needed it.

Oh, and, first impressions. Well, there’s a bunch of stereotypical(?) stuff, or stuff you see I’ve seen movies and such that stood out. Sailor fuku, umm, the automatic doors, the overall housing, buildings side streets, escalators (sand on left) &c. Looking forward to exploring more.

So far so good. Well, except for the lack of pictures… I’ll get on that eventually, maybe.

Photos are up on Facebook.