This year's big trip is a 2-week visit to Japan, with our friends Sarah and Michael. Long-time readers might recognize them from the Scandinavia 2019 trip.
Sabrina and I left the house at 5 AM, getting a ride to ABE airport for our 6 AM "flight" (that is a bus) to Newark. Our friends were meeting us in Newark, and we all took the same direct flight from there to Tokyo.
The 14-hour flight is long enough to merit two meals and a "midflight snack", plus the usual pretzel-type things.
The direct flight goes directly north from Newark, up through Canada, over Alaska, skirts the edge of Kamchatka, arriving at Haneda airport around 1:30 PM local time (13 hours ahead of EDT).
The airport was somewhat hectic, with staff holding colorful signs in multiple languages, trying to direct confused-and-tired tourists to the appropriate lines/locations.
We eventually made it through, and then met up with Eva, a friend of ours (and former coworker of Sabrina's) who is living here temporarily.
Wanting to stay awake and on our feet, we immediately ventured out to walk around in the light rain. We passed through Tokyo Station on our way to walk around the outside of the Imperial Palace.
Eva's husband, Mike, joined us as we left the station. The weather was overcast and drizzly, but it wasn't a problematic amount of rain. Yet.
It was about three miles around the outside loop. It's too early for the cherry blossoms, but there were some plum blossoms already blooming along the walkway.
Just about at the halfway point, the rain started getting heavier.
As the sun set, we got caught in an absolute downpour.
Drenched, we completed the loop back toward the train station. Michael and Sarah peeled off, heading back to the hotel to find some dry clothes and dinner. Sabrina and I accompanied Eva and Mike back to their apartment for dinner, where we were able to put some clothes in their dryer.
After a lovely dinner, we took the train back to Tokyo Station and returned to the hotel.
The hotel free-snack area was open until 10 PM, so we headed down to the second floor for some local delicacies and a complimentary sake tasting.
Exhausted from being up for almost 30 hours with just a few mediocre hours of plane-sleep, we turned in early.
Tomorrow morning, we're heading to Kyoto by train.
1 comment:
Oddly enough, I loved the photos of the drink machines. I remember being in Tokyo many years ago, and the huge ravens would hang out waiting for some bumbling tourist to drop a coin and they'd pick it up and take it back to their nest. They also watched for change and I recall watching them pull the change out of the machine and do the same thing! Cheeky and a bit scary.
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