This was my breakfast at the Frankfurt airport. Bread itself fits to my image of German food and the smoothie was heavenly. Put me on nice vacation mood right away!
I started writing this entry while on plane over the Russian. So far travel has went fairly well though about 2 hours from liftoff there was bit of extra excitement when plane started to shake,violently. Nearby lady put ion seatbelts which I thought bit excessive but sure enough right away put on seatbelts lights turned on. I have to admit it gave even me pause for thought.
Frankfurt airport was much busier than Helsinki-Vantaa though admitedly time I was there accounted for it partially. But the Frankfurt airport is BIG. Reaching departure gate(Z66) from passport check took quite a while as I had to walk seemingly endless corridors.
Initially I was having easy time finding things to do with reading,, eating lunch and watching movies but after finishing Lincoln film the boredom started. Getting sleep has proven to be suprisingly difficult. Usually I'm able to fall asleep pretty darned fast regardless of my surroundings but guess the excitement of almost being in Japan. As I'm typing it's 3 hours 55 minutes according to onboard flight info screen.
Oh and personal victory. Last time I was on airplanes was back in 2007 when I spent year in England,.Back then I had much more extra weight and indeed needed seatbelt extensions but the "lose some weight" project of past years has worked well enough and now I don't need any stinking belt extensions. If I could be tad shorter so that my knees wouldn't be bumping to seat front of me this could be even considered pleasant.
Funny thing I noticed at the Frankfurt airport. I knew japanese people are big fans of covering their face when they are ill(I suppose it helps reduce diseases in the very crowded cities in Japan) but I wonder if japanese are particulary careful when traveling or was there major epidemic going amidst japanese travelers? Seemed every other japanese was wearing face mask. Particulary females. As a matter of fact both other passengers in same 3 seat row I'm sitting are wearing it.
Actually after experiences in Japan I'm wondering if they are not protecting themselves from virus or something. Seems in Tokyo too lots of people wearing it. Maybe it's against pollen or something?
Anyway flight went well and we arrived to Narita without further hickups. Proceedings there went without issues either. Japanese have organized it pretty damn well and as I was not carrying anything suspicious it was off you go. Transport to Tokyo proper was easy enough to find as the limousin bus I had been recommended was right off the bat. I think train would have been ever harder to find? Anyway here I got first chance to practise japanese and got myself understood and soon was on my way on bus. Something to note on japanese public transports is that they are non-smoking and phone's are to be silenced and phone speaking is strongly discouraged. I only heard phone ring once and japanese person quickly silenced it too. Guess he had forgotten it. Japanese favourite activity on trains seems to be reading book or sleeping. Particularly sleeping!
This view from the bus was when the size of Tokyo started to hit me. So far all had been fairly similar to what I could see in Finland but this one started to get lot busier.
Nice little crosswalk to go across...Good thing lights didn't change in a hurry!
On the contrary to large streetways there's also this sort of narrow streets. Actually they feel quite cramped when car is coming toward you! And there's even narrower walkpaths I have just seen but not visited yet...
Two pictures from my room. Sorry about mess in 2nd picture. Hadn't yet unpacked stuff but now they are in the alcove. Next would be practicing how to set the futon! For those who don't know much about japanese rooms note the area next to door in first picture. That's where you take out your shoes and voe besides anybody trying to step up from there without taking shoes off first. That's considered extremely rude!
But first day was definitely marked by case of not-fitting adapter. I had bought adapter to use my electric equipment in japan. All other equipment works except the charger of laptop which doesn't fit to the adapter. Stinking non-standard charger cables! I borrowed another adapter from first other person in this floor I met(Indian guy who's working here and has lived in this apartment 2 years) to send emails to parents and friends and then off to find new adapter. And it was a Search! Luckily I encountered japanese person who hearing about what I'm looking spent about 2 HOURS walking around guiding to different stores but alas none had suitable fit. Finally I headed on my own to rail station and straight to Akihabara. Being famous for electronics I figured that would be good place to find. Didn't find but did find new cable for my laptop's charger that fits charger and has the japanese plug as standard. Also was practically dragged to store that sells tables and found one smallish one that I liked(small good so I can actually get it back to finland!) and ended up buying. Dangerous walking around in Akihabara! You never know what you'll end up buying :D
After all was done I had walked around 8 hours practically non-stop, only stops being basically standing in trains, and 10 hours without eating. I was exhausted! And either from that or from getting used to shaking feeling in trains when you are standing I'm feeling like worlds swinging even now.
Also got to experience nice little 6 afternoon crowd. Nice to be in train shoulder to shoulder. Had to practice japanese style of jump out of train, let guys pass and back to train.. No other way for others to get out of train!
Something I have also noticed is that I'm going to stand out like a sore thump. I'm so much taller than...well pretty much anybody here! Haven't seen that many non-japanese either. Japanese females are in particularly so short it's sometimes hard to believe they aren't still school kids...
Anyway tomorrow goal is to go visit nearby shrine I spotted on map provided by Sakura houses to help me find the apartment(nicely easy to find btw when you get to the rail station). It's like on neighbourhood so why not check it. Might practice bit train traveling and head to Harajuku perhaps. Not that far so shouldn't be too expensive.
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