Moshi Moshi: Japan Trip Live Blog


Starting today I will be embarking on a nine-day trip to the Land of the Rising Sun, and just as I did for my Mexico trip, I will be doing a live blog of sorts (will update as much as I could, depending on the vagaries of WiFi availability) for this journey. I still have a backlog of posts for my trip to Seattle, Chicago, St. Louis and Taipei, but this will do for now.



My rough itinerary would be Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka-Nagano/Hakuba-Tokyo. Hope you guys can join me as I explore Japan in the next few days.

Dec. 4, 11:01 am, QC 
All set to go. Got my passport, visa, Japan Rail Pass,  and packed up already. Going to the airport in a bit. 



Dec. 4, 1:54 pm, NAIA T3
Done checking in and with immigration. At the boarding gate  9 now. Thrilled to see that I will be flying on the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner !



We left Manila around 3pm. 



Meals on board. They have real, stainless steel cutlery :). And Haagen-Dasz for dessert. 



The cabin of the 787 is so impressively modern. The windows do not have roll-down blinds, rather they can be dimmed electronically using a dimmer switch.

8:00 pm. Touchdown Narita. Cleared through immigration and heading to Customs now. I went to buy an LTE SIM before heading to the train station.



9:16 pm. I took a Skyliner train to Ueno. It was fast. After Ueno I took the Ginza line subway to Asakusa where my hostel is. 



10:35 pm. Finally found the Khaosan Tokyo Hostel. It's on a small side street so I had difficulty finding it at first, I had to ask a policeman. It looks comfy. The one manning the desk actually went to Manila to study English. 

10:45 pm. I went around Asakusa to look for dinner, ended up in a Burger King. I am so unimaginative with my meal choice. I went to a 7-11 too to pick up some snacks and water. I might sleep in a while soon, have an early start tomorrow.  

Day 2: 
9:00am Shibuya
It's a busy day today. First I went to Shibuya, Tokyo's answer to Times Square, to meet my friend Melissa who's going to accompany me around today. I also went to a Tower Records there to pick up a CD for a friend. After having breakfast in Shibuya we proceeded to Tokyo Teleport station

1:00 pm. Tokyo Teleport 
We actually got in the wrong train on the way to Teleport Station we kind of lost some time as we doubled back. We got there around 1 pm. Right next to the station is the Diver City mall, where giant Gundam robot stands. It was actually cool to see, almost a real representation of the ones we see on TV. There's also a Hello Kitty store there, so it's  kawaii overload. 



3:30pm, Yokohama
After a series of rides in the metro we went to Yokohama to meet Melissa husband. Then we went to the Minato Mirai to see the Nippon Maru, a museum ship docked in the port. We passed the Cosmo World theme park on our way to the Raumen Museum, which displays nothing but ramen-related memorabilia. I'd say it's one of the most unique museums I've been to. 

6:00 pm. 
It's dinner at a noodle place called Kookai, and I had some soba with pork. After having our fill we took the Shibuya bound train, Melissa dropping off to her place and me continuing to Asakusa. 



8:00 pm, Asakusa 
I got back to the hostel around 8, and after freshening up, I want out to explore the neighborhood. I ended up in the Asakusa Shrine where I took some photographs of the temple. 

10:30pm, Khaosan Tokyo Kabuki hostel 
I'm back at the hostel having some grub I bought from Family Mart, and plotting my itinerary for tomorrow. Originally I plan to go to Hakone but I might just skip that and explore the rest of Tokyo instead. 




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