Japan, the journal : days 1-2

What does a writer on vacation do?  Write.  Every day of our ten day trip, we jotted down notes, impressions and detailed lists of everything we saw and did.  We also took hundreds of photos.  Over the next few posts, I’ll give you the summary of our adventure.

Day 1 (kind of):  We started out on Saturday morning, driving to the airport before the sun came up, riding the bus and tram with luggage in tow.  After check in, much of our time was waiting- waiting to board, waiting to arrive in Toronto, waiting for the connecting flight, and waiting and waiting and waiting to reach Japan.  If you’re ever going on a 13 hour plane ride, invest in the premium economy seats.  It makes a world of difference, especially if you’re tall and have achy knees like my husband.  Then, there was waiting in immigration, waiting for luggage, waiting in line for customs inspection.  Finally, we could consider ourselves officially in Japan on Sunday evening.  First order of business- waiting for the Skyliner train from the airport to Tokyo itself.  From the Keisei Ueno station, we walked to our hotel like zombies with luggage.  It was about a half hour away, but the directions we were given by the helpful tourist information kiosk kept us from wasting time wandering around.  We checked in at Candeo Hotel Ueno Park and discovered the trick to turning on the lights.  This was our home for the first five days.  After our long journey, we had no trouble getting to sleep right away.

Day 2: Ohayo Gozaimasu !  Our first morning in Japan, we ate at the hotel restaurant, where there was a buffet of Japanese, Western and Chinese dishes.  Typical breakfasts included rice, fish, and salad with small cups of very strong “American” coffee.

Though we had left Illinois in a particularly cold and brown April, Japan was warm, sunny and dry.  Colour was everywhere as Spring had already brought out leaves and flowers we were yearning for.  We went out into the city, returning the way we had travelled in the dark to find the main Ueno Station.  After a bit of a search, we located the proper ticket counter to purchase our tickets for Friday.  It was good to get familiar with the place that would be our transportation hub during our stay.

After that, we took a walk through Ueno Park, where there are

Really big crows.

A whale.

Cherry blossoms! And ...

many museums to choose from.  We visited the Metropolitan Art Museum which was showing special exhibits on calligraphy, pastels and modern art.

People really enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere in Ueno Park.  It was an oasis in the middle of a busy city.  Everywhere, people were relaxing in the sunshine.

In the afternoon, we returned to the hotel to create games with our portable white board and a pocketful of change.

The hotel staff recommended a restaurant called Café Gasuto (Gusto) for dinner, so we tried it, but soon decided we would find our own restaurants in the future.

Afterward, we wandered the streets for a while getting to know the place and admiring the sights of Tokyo at night.

We went to bed early, but John got up again later and took a bath in the middle of the night, discovering that there was a hidden drain in the bathroom floor for taking Japanese style baths despite the more Western set-up of the shower in the tub.  In Japan, cleaning is usually done outside the tub, followed by soaking inside it.  The drain caused a bit of a panic when it backed up from the draining tub, but it explained why the room was built in an elevated “pod” that threatened to trip sleepy visitors.

He went to sleep knowing there would be many more surprises ahead.

Next Post: More Tokyo sightseeing  with day 3