Getting There

It's been a long day.  I mean, really.  I don't even remember how many hours we flew.  I'm sure it's in my ticket somewhere.  But I'd like to write a bit about how we got here.  While I still remember it and while I can still be awake to do it.

First tip: If you are flying from LAX, and your terminal happens to be terminal B (Bradley something or the other terminal), go eat something at the food court upstairs after checking in with your airline.  You know you're there early (it's an international flight after all) so if you want some variety, eat something BEFORE going through the security check.  After the security check, you are stuck with deli sandwiches and pre-packaged muchies.  Not bad if you're not hungry, but remember...you got there early.

So we took Singapore Airlines as our international carrier.  We were able to choose our seats as soon as we reserved the tickets, so we picked exit row seats...in the upper deck. Our plane was an Airbus A380-800, and for those of you who haven't seen one, click on my link for it.  It is huge.  I never saw the main deck, but I think our bus had three sections--suites, business class, and economy.  I saw the business class (NICE!) and I of course sat on the economy class, but I never saw the suites in person.  Only in pictures.  However, after having seen the business class, those damn suites must be rockin'--in a non-literal sense.

Cool thing about the upper deck--less competition for the bathrooms.  The only sad part about this flight is the extra steps I had to take to go to the bathroom at the back.  The bathroom nearest me was for the business class only. But other than that, flying Singapore airlines in economy class was...superb.  Let me start with the food and beverages.  How cool was it that the first thing out the flight attendant's mouth when she addressed us was "beer, wine or orange juice to drink?"  Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of our first meal before it got devoured.  But here's a pic of our dessert.  I decided to have wine with it.

We were served a "light meal" past midway our flight (I'm not even gonna mention the various other food stuffs that were offered in between).  Here is a mini version of our actual lunch.  The lunch had extra stuffs like salad and sushi...

As for the actual flight experience.  Restrooms were pretty decent.  Free toothbrushes and there was barely any line.  The other passengers were very respectful of your place.  My two complaints: guy hacking with lots of phlegm sitting behind me and lady who liked spending her time standing in front of us by the exit door.

Still overall a pretty nice flight experience that ended at the Narita airport.  Customs was a breeze...except for the part of me forgetting to write down (in English) the address of the ryokan we were staying at for our disembarkation stuff.  Luckily, I had a pretty detailed map of it from the website and the customs agent accepted it.  BOOYAH!

Narita airport...oh the toilets to choose!  No pic of this...I was a little distracted trying to go about my business so I didn't even noticed.  But James said the men's bathroom had four different options!  Anyway, after getting through customs, it took us awhile for our bags to get out and it took me slightly longer to communicate to someone that I was looking for luggage storage.

So, just an FYI.  Luggage storage by GPA in terminal 1 (where we landed) is past the exit that you go through after baggage claim.  Pretty much, you get your luggage, then show your papers and luggages again to someone before exiting that area.  Once you exit that area and unto where people actually meet other people who are picking them up, you will see a sign for airport information.  You can either ask them where luggage storage is, or you can turn left an walk PAST towards the sign for the railways.  In a counter to your left, you will see a sign for GPA.  They do the luggage storage in terminal 1.  It's not a coin operated locker.  I'll try to take a pic of it when we pick up our stuff.  But for James and my luggages (two mediums, two smalls), it is about 8000 yen to store for five days (and yes, the day you leave it counts, so we stored from 09Feb to 13Feb) and it counts as five days.

After that, we headed towards the signage indicating the rails and paid 1000 yen each to ride the Limited Express (90 min to Tokyo).  Here is the rail platform from terminal 1.

 And so begins our trip to Japan!