Trip to Japan, 3. The Sunroute Hotel

It was not until we arrived the Sunroute Hotel that I started to admire the place. The street the hotel was located on wasn't one of the big, wide, major street, hence the crowd and traffic were both relatively limited. The hotel had a loading/unloading area of its own (unlike some hotels that require you to do so at the curbside; well, this may probably due to the fact that the street was not wide), and it also had shuttle services to the Narita International Airport. The price was about the same as riding NEX. Now I had another option to ride back to the airport.

Upon entering the hotel, the lobby looked nice and neat, with proper decorations. There were a few people sitting in the lobby, apparently checked in already. Since I was going to have a room of my own, I walked up to the counter and started to check in. The process is pretty smooth, except that I asked for a non-smoking room, and it took a little while for the hotel personnel to get me through that. Although my check-in was relatively smooth, it took a short while for the whole group to complete the process. Then, we head up to our own rooms. Oh, before that, we picked a time for everyone to meet downstairs a bit later to go out and have our dinner.

Upon entering my room, I could only say... Small. When I opened the door and stepped in, the first thing I encountered was a tiny cloth hanging space (it wasn't even qualified to be a closet in my standard) on my right hand side, followed by the washroom, which is actually of the decent-size standard. After that, against the wall to the washroom, is the full-size bed, and then a counter acting as both TV standard and desk. There were also two pajamas placed on the bed. Never really wore any pajama for sleep, I thought to myself, "Hmm... I'll try those tonight..."

After I have placed my luggage and pulled out my notebook computers (yea, I brought two...), I hooked up with the Internet, and the process was easily done. The computer had to go through some kind of firewall scanning to ensure that it's save and not infected with virus. I went online, and sent some messages out. Checked the time and thought, "Hmm... Still too early to call home..." Then I decided to call afterward. Surfed and chatted a bit, then it was about time to go downstairs. So, I stood up and went down to meet the gang.

Trip to Japan, 2. The Train

The plane landed at around 15:52 Tokyo time in a cloudy afternoon on July 22 of 2009. It took approximately six minutes to get to the gate. At first, I thought since I arrived in day time, there may be a long line to wait for getting through the immigration procedures, but wrong. To my surprise, I got through the whole thing in around 40 minutes, and that includes getting all my baggage from the convey belt!!! Within minutes, I found the NEX/Suica ticket office and purchased both by 16:45.

The NEX (Narita Express, dedicated train serving to/from the Narita International Airport and the major cities) train I took was scheduled to leave for Tokyo at 17:16, so I spent a few minutes exploring the surrounding area. Not many shops around, probably due to the fact that I was in arrival area, where passengers were less likely to have spare time walking around. The train station really didn't look like one for me. Maybe due to the fact that it really was not crowded at all?

I hopped onto the train about 10 minutes before the scheduled departure time. Nearby the entrance, an area is dedicated for passengers to keep their luggage so they do not have to bring the luggage to their seats, which definitely have no enough space if the luggage is anything bigger than carry-on or backpack. The train departed the station as scheduled. the whole trip took around 1.5 hours. My stop is Shinjuku, the 4th stop. Once arrived, I had to haul my luggage to the hotel I was staying.

Along the train ride, I had a window seat. Looking through the window, I actually felt that the scenery was very similar to those I've seen in Taiwan when I took train from Taipei to Kaohsiung. Green hills and small roads. If it was not because of the Japanese style houses, they were almost identical. Oh, and there were some drops of rain along the way, which made me concerned. I did bring an umbrella with me, but it was not big enough to cover everything and me. Luckily, there was no rain when I arrived the Shinjuku station.

By the time I arrived the Shinjuku station, it was close to 7pm. I has already pulled my luggage out the storage area, and standby next to the exit. Once the train stopped, I hopped out, and looked around to determine which way should I go. Since my car was the last of the train, the choice was pretty simple: To the front cars. So, I turned accordingly, and started to walk toward Car 1. Along the way, I encountered an escalator going up, so I decided to go to surface first.

As I approached the escalator, I was still wondering how should I get in touch with other BLYA who stayed in the same hotel, but then, there was something flashed into my eyes that I felt very familiar... CARMEN!!! It's Carmen Liu of Toronto, and from her, I see the 8-people gang of Vancouver~ I never thought we'd actually took the same train, as they arrived the airport approximately 2 hours before my arrival. Now the rest of the trip to the hotel is simple. I just follow them all the way...

Trip to Japan, 1. The Flight

Los Angeles International Airport, entrance of runway 25R...
"Tower, Northwest 001 with you. Ready to takeoff. Request permission to takeoff Runway 25R"
"Northwest 001, please standby."
"Northwest 001, you may takeoff. Contact ATC at xxx.xx. Good day."

With an increase in thrust, a Northwest Airbus A330 airplane smoothly taxied into Runway 25R of Los Angeles International Airport, sped down the runway, gracefully lifted off, and opened the first page of my first trip to Japan...

The date was July 21, 2009, and I just purchased my ticket only a few days ago. This was going to be my first time standing on Japan, a country I've been wanting to visit since who knows when. The ticket purchasing part took longer than I expected, but good thing is that the price was also lower than I've expected. I'm pretty certain that it's linked to the swine flu. (No, not the delay in purchase part...) Although I originally hoped to take JAL flights, but hey, US$400+ difference in airfare, most sentient being would choose the NWA flights.

On board the airplane, I had an aisle seat. No complaint here, since I purchased my ticket late, but when the meal time came... My agent didn't request vegetarian meals for me..... F.i.n.e... Well, it's not like I am not a vegetarian, but there are times/situations where I have no choice except keep starved or hurt someone. Hence, whenever possible, I do prefer vegetarian over regular food. And since the food was already prepared, they certainly would throw the whole thing away even if I didn't touch it at all, which means w.a.s.t.e. Result: I emptied the whole plate...

On board the flight, two meals and one snack were served. What's special? Well, the first meal included shrimps... Gotta say that's the first time I see any shrimp at ~30,000 feet in the air. The snack was an ice cream sandwich, and there's another meal before the plane started to descend for landing. I don't think there's anything special about it, as I can't recall any of them. XD

The flight was a bit bumpy from time to time, but should be considered smooth overall. I watched Dragon Ballz and two other movies during the flight, and I had a short nap in between the two meals. Not long, but enough to take me through this flight.

Shortly after the second meal is completed, the plane started to descend. As the altitude decreased, I was getting more and more closer to Japan, and the next chapter is about to begin...

"Narita, this is Northwest 001, request permission to land."
"Northwest 001, cleared to land Runway A. Proceed to final approach accordingly. Contact ground at xxx.xx after landed. Good day."