First thoughts from the airport

Fawn: I’m so excited for our journey. Jasmine and James picked us up at the boat. Getting through security and checking in was a breeze. ANA Air opened their terminals with a greeting. That was a first for us. We are now sitting in the Centurion Lounge. It’s hard to believe in about 10 hours we will be in Japan . . . Tomorrow.

James: It’s really cool to go to the lounge. I’ve never been here before. Security was easy enough and our flight is on time. I am very excited to see Japan.

Jim: I’ve been looking forward to this trip for a long time and today is the day we begin! Very nice to be traveling with both Fawn and James. ANA is supposed to be a great airline and we’re flying to the Tokyo airport that is closer to downtown (HNA) but we’ve never been there before.

First day in Tokyo:

Fawn: We arrived last night after our 10 hour flight. Jim and I had some trouble sleeping. Unfortunately, there was some turbulence that triggered a very unhappy baby. Luckily, James was undisturbed. That being said it was a really pleasant flight. Our friend Anthony, told us that the Japanese airlines are extremely efficient and boarding everyone very quickly. We boarded 30 minutes before our flight and the flight left the gate on time. It’s really amazing.

After deplaning and traversing an extremely long path to customs we arrived at the cue. For those traveling to Japan here’s a pro tip: get your customs code online. The experience will be much faster. It wasn’t bad for us. James and I had trouble with our photos and finger prints, but Jim’s went through easily. The process takes one computer stop, two forms and two manned-stations. All and all it took an hour.

Getting a cab was easy and we made it to our hotel, The Grand Hyatt, about 30 minutes later and the efficiency with check in was impressive.

This is a great place to begin our journey. After we dropped off our luggage we explored the nearby food options and munched a late steak & fries dinner before getting into bed. We all slept well and had a pretty normal evening.

With some rain and wind expected the next couple of days, we ventured out early for some wandering in Tokyo’s Roppongi District in search of some pretty cherry blossoms.

We imparted the important travel wisdom of finding a good local bakery to James and found one very close to our hotel for breakfast before heading out on our sojourn.

It turns out that James is pretty spectacular at navigating with a real map. He has the gift! Which is fantastic because his young eyes are very good at reading the incredibly small type on most of our maps. Jim did a great job walking around and we found some blossoms, experience the subway and grabbed second breakfast at the local McDonalds before heading back to our hotel. All this accomplished before the rain started.

We’ve enjoyed the pool and workout area. Tonight we head out for an early dinner to a place recommended by the concierge called GonPachi.

Tomorrow, we will celebrate Easter at a nearby church, hopefully watch some of the Final Four games and maybe head out to Takashimaya Shinjuku by train so James can experience the giant food court at the bottom of the shopping mall there.

James: Japan, in summary, is a lot different than back home. The sidewalks are giant, there are ads everywhere, and apparently McDonald’s has two floors. The farthest outside the US I’d ever been was Canada, so this is a big step up. Grandma and Baba are used to it, but I still find all the differences really interesting. It is a very clean place. There are no trash cans on the sidewalks, and there is almost no trash on the ground. They are very strict when it comes to littering. It was a very nice temperature here before the rain, which was nice for our walk. I was able to get a good workout/swim in, and we are going to have linner at 4:00 (We didn’t have lunch and it’s too early for dinner). Tomorrow we will go to an Easter service and do more exploring.

Jim: I love Japan, especially when the cherry blossoms are putting on a show. We walked a couple of miles together, exploring the area closest to our hotel, where there are a lot of tall office buildings, separated by small but beautiful gardens. Before we walked to dinner, the wind picked up and the cherry blossoms were falling like snow!