Havent wrote here since i've arrived but finnally had a chance to sit down here and document a bit of what me and Jim have been up to so far.Guess i should start at the appropriate start,the beginning
16th April: Arrived in terminal 5 pretty sharpish,the buildings pretty awesome as it turns out.Check in was remarkably straight forward,no worries apart from the possible non arrival of bags on the other side(ooohh errr)Got to our departure gate via a subway system under the runway,one of many which were to follow in tokyo.Plane was on time and was suprised to find a TV in the back of each and every seat.BA IS AWESOME!!got to see any film/tv programme we wanted out of a vast selection,food was really good,especially when compared to other airlines stodge.Drinks etc were all free and last but most importantly my knees werent in my face,the leg room was better than usual and there was no-one in the seat to the left of us.While this would normally allow passengers the comfort of sleeping,sleeping was a no go area,we stayed awake the whole flight which may have been rather foolish.Suppose that takes us to...
17th
Arrived in Narita airport at around 9,spotted a disproportionatly large amount ofgolf courses when coming in to land,this did not bode well at all.However,coming through the arrivals gate was hassle free,and shock of all shocks BA hadnt decided to throw our bags (including jims guitar) in the mongolian desert and they all arrived safe and sound.Got a bus to shinjuku from the FRIENDLY LIMOUSINE BUS COMPANY at 10 (that was quick wasnt it)and went to sakura house.Bus journey was around 2 hours and first impressions of japan were 'green,building,green,building,tree,building,strange sign,building (and upon getting closer to tokyo) building building,BUILDING,BUILDING!!
all in all pretty cool.Went to sakura house to sort out our accomadation.,easier said than done when shinjuku's train station has a daily turn over of passengers of over 3.5million,and all these people unload straight onto the street where we departed our bus.Managed to drag our bags through the crowds (feeling TALL right now) and managed to sort out our accomadation,unfortunately the previous occupant hadnt left just yet so we had to wait till 5pm to pick up the keys,leaving us a bit of time for a walk around shinjuku.Shinjuku is a plethora of glass and metal,MANLY,and our new friends,neon lit vending machines.got our first meal at a vending machine restuarant,lot more of them to come,noodles,rice and some unknown spices and vegeatables are tasty and are now our staple diet.aaaaaaanyway,finaly picked up our keys and shunted our way through rush hour subway traffic to Nihombashi Hakozakicho and found our room for the first time.Room is basic with a fridge,tatami floor,TV and enough room to sleep without violating each others personal space but in esscence being everything that we need to get by.Upon primary inspection and throwing down our bags we went to meet our house mates,this may or may not have greeted them with a great first impression seeing as we had been up 36 hours at this point.Miles is from birmingham and teaching english in harajuku.turns out to be great for helping to translate the kanji,hirigana and katakana on leaflets etc.Monica has been staying in her room for 3 years and is a pop singer from taiwan,should be going to see her in concert 2nd May,theyve got a buffet there 2 it seems so that helps.Knack is studying something and has come from thailand with her room mate.Dong (yes that is his name) is from china and happens to be killer at languages,speaks chinese and japanese fluently,his english is also very good though jim confused him a few nights ago by saying to me,'hey man,want to do a broccoli attack?'the intended meaning being,'dude,wanna cut up the broccoli?' And now back to the tale in hand,after 37 and a half hours of no sleep we decide to COLLAPSE (as it is the most appropriate phrasing) for the night,waking at 1pm the next day.