♥Japan 2014! Trip Report → Day 0 (Travelling)♥

 Hello everybunny!♥ Yes, I'm finally writing posts for my Japan trip ww and just in time too! It's just over a month until I'm heading out there again ahah..;; Originally I had planned to study in Japan for a month or so with a view to then seeing if I wanted to study there long term, but it was decided that it wouldn't be such a good idea for me to go somewhere on my own for so long, in case I didn't feel so comfortable or got too unwell etc. So my lovely friend Jen and lovely boyfriend Josh joined me on a fun 3 week holiday!♥ I'm really glad they came along (Josh was there the whole time & Jen was there for two of the three weeks♥), I don't think it would have been so great on my own.>< I would like some sort of adventure on my own at some point though, but I guess I need to wait until the time is right. c: 

If you ever get the chance, definitely travel somewhere foreign & stay there for a while. Experience what it's like to be a foreigner somewhere if you haven't already had that experience. Though of course many people don't have the luxury of choosing to experience it, I think you'll gain a new level of respect for people who live their lives as foreigners whether they made the choice to do so or not. That isn't to say I didn't already have respect for people making their way being a foreigner, but just being in Japan for only three weeks really opened my eyes. Not to everything of course, but to a lot of things. c: Unfortunately, there's only so much that one could experience in three weeks, albeit we experienced a lot!

In this post I'll be talking about travelling to Japan & getting through Tokyo♪ It's probably a good time to mention that I'm not a seasoned traveller at all haha;;; As far as travel abroad goes, I've been on a school trip to Bonn in Germany & a school trip to Disneyland Paris (The furthest I've been on a family holiday is Scotland, which was amazing!). We took a plane to Germany on the school trip, but everything was done for us by the teachers so I didn't have to worry about anything other than being at the airport when I was told to be there ww. This trip was my first time having to organise & get through these things myself. ;; Luckily Jen & Josh were there who were more experienced than me. c: So you'll be seeing this trip through the eyes of a travel newbie! I hope you'll enjoy this post and those that will follow.^^

 

Josh's first holiday snap... of me!♪(Photos in this post are a mix of mine & Josh's, we both collected all our photos together^^) Since I live on the other side of the country to Jen & Josh, I ended up arriving to the airport before them. I was lucky enough to have my sister & her boyfriend accompany me on the train and tube. c: I was stood here watching the runway while I waited. Yep. Watching planes take off!♪ I've loved planes ever since my parents started taking me to air shows at the US bases when I was little. Sadly they stopped doing them quite a few years ago though.. :c But that meant that watching the planes here was a real treat! I've actually made my dad promise to watch the planes with me when he picks me up from the airport next time www.. 

We were flying from Terminal 2 at Heathrow, which is the newest I think? It was really quiet there which was good.♪

 

After meeting up we actually sat around for ages waiting for baggage check in to open. Getting through that & security was very easy! After security there were a few shops & restaurants, it was interesting to have a look around.

 

I felt a little bad seeing people walking around in suits at an airport. Flying wearing a suit can't be comfy. ;; I think this person in the photo would have been more comfy in a tee and comfy trousers.

Duty free! :D Giant Toblerones! Kinder chocolate!

 

A lot of the flights seemed to be heading to Ireland. But ours was the one headed to Tokyo Haneda!♪ Athens looked pretty tempting too though ww

 

Plane! :D

 

Selfie time! I was in comfy clothes, but next time I'm going to wear something even comfier. I'd wear a onesie but that might be awkward when going through security ww

It was quite a walk to get to the boarding area, lots of escalators as well ahah.;;

 

View from my window seat! More planes!

-inserts an Evangelion joke-

The plane driving around the airport to the runway was fun. We went past different hangars and the weird plane above. I'm not sure what it was but it looked pretty old.

I guess a plane driving to the runway is like the chain lift on a rollercoaster? ww Except instead of a drop, the plane starts flying haha.

It was a little cramped, which I was expecting. I was a little worried that I would be super anxious being in such a small space with so many people but I felt fine!♪ I think I was too busy being super excited about flying and such. (It was really fun. Really really fun.) There was apple juice, my favourite! And rice cracker snacks! Snacks that I can eat!♥ It was off to a very good start.

 

The tvs had movies and cartoons on. :D Sadly not whole series, but I did watch an episode of Happiness Charge Precure (which was almost everywhere in Japan once we got there ww)

It was pretty cute but most of the animation was awful. OTL

 

I think it was because all of the budget when into the opening, ending, and transformation sequences ww

 

Food! The point where I think 'should I have requested a vegetarian meal...?'

There were two choices; Japanese style or Western style. I went for Japanese style since there was a lot less meat.^^; There was fruit and edamame!♥ Super yummy.♥

 

I'm grateful that Josh has a big appetite because he helped me with the meat. The main meal was fried chicken which he helped with too. :3 I'm not sure what the creamy thing next to the salami was, but it was delicious! The mixed beans were very yummy too.

 

We also got miso soup. It was pretty good but.. Josh helped me with that too ahah. ;; 7 ;;''

 

We departed at around 7:30pm, so for a lot of the flight it was night time.♪ Seeing all the clouds that we flew over was incredible! At one point I woke up and saw ice on the outside of the window, it must have been uber cold flying over Russia!

 

I took this picture because I noticed us heading over water again! Not too long until Japan ww

Sorry the photo isn't so clear, but this was just after we had begun to fly over Japan! It looks a lot like the UK from above ww.♪ The more mountainous areas weren't so much like England though, but reminded me of Scotland a little.^^

 

Breakfast!♪ I spy more fruit! :3 I donated my bun & yoghurt & miso soup to Josh, who gratefully received them ww..

 

I chose the Japanese breakfast option, since the western one was like... sausages, meat meat meat www This breakfast was so... happiness inducing.♥ I get along a lot better with fish than meat, as long as it's not fried fish.;;; This was delicious.♥

 

Almost at Tokyo!♪ Getting off the plane, we were hit with a sudden burst of heat... that lasted the entire holiday ww.. At first we thought 'well it's a glassy building, I'm sure it's just absorbing a lot of heat! It'll be cooler outside!'.

It wasn't ww

Admittedly we were expecting 30-33 degree (that's in celsius for any non celsius users ahah;; ) weather, but it was above that for a lot of the holiday OTL

 

Ticket for the monorail & Yamanote line! In Tokyo, the Yamanote line is your friend.♪ Your sometimes incredibly busy... sometimes very cramped friend. I don't understand people who run for the trains when they go every few minutes. ;;

 

Not even ten minutes out of baggage collection and Pokemon already! www This was an advert for the stamp rally! Sadly it was only on for a few days of our holiday, but we managed to get a couple stamps. c:

View from the monorail station, what a gorgeous day! It was around 3:30pm♪ From there we headed to Hamamatsucho station on the monorail, then switched to the Yamanote line to get to Ikebukuro. It was incredibly hot & sticky, which pretty much set the standard for our entire trip ww Luckily we made it to Ikebukuro in one piece, managed to find our way through the station and to the hotel! 

The hotel was called Sakura Hotel, there are actually a few in Tokyo! I was very reasonably priced, and it also has a 24hr café! It doesn't serve food the all day, but it does have a fully equipped kitchen for anyone to use.♪ There were also vending machines outside and a seven eleven on the corner of the road.♪ Josh & I had a small and cute room, it even had a mini fridge and tv! Which was awesome since we were going to be there for three weeks ahah ;;

 After resting for a while at the hotel, we went out to explore Ikebukuro.♪ Our hotel was on the west side of the station, I later learned that although this side is pretty neat, the east side is awesome!

Our hotel was around the corner, just to the left of this huge building.♪ We later learned that it was a karaoke place ww

 

These little streets were a quite crowded in the evenings which made me a bit anxious at times. :c

 

  

Taito Station :D We found this and another small game centre. They weren't as fancy as the ones we saw around Sunshine city ahah. ;;

 

 

Josh spotted the odd innuendo on our travels...(www)

 

Little restaurant.

 

Sonico was everywhere in game centres. Everywhere ww

 

Snufkin & Little My!♥♥ (Moomin fan over here ww Josh loves them too♪)

 

 

I'm not a big anime or manga fan, but I quite like SNK. It was cool to see lots of merch around. c: I didn't buy/win any from UFO catchers though.

 

We kept saying we'd go to this crepe place but never did.^^;;

 

After having a look around, we decided to just crash for the night www I think I was a bit tired while we were walking around to really pay attention to anything or get excited haha. The plan for the next day was to have a lay in and spend some time looking around Ikebukuro some more, mainly Sunshine City. c:

Day 1 post coming soon.♪ Thank you so much for reading!♥

Love, Eliza♥