Day 1 – Tokyo 15 Feb 08

Day 1 – Tokyo

A 6-7 hours flight from Singapore and we reached Narita airport. Thanks to Joanna, sweet heart and myself get a free lift to the airport.

The flight was a quiet affair as it was shortly before midnight when we flown off. Ronnie and myself are chit chatting about what show we should be watching on the TV console before the flight head skywards. Once the flight came off the ground, we had KO-ed. In fact, it was 2 hours+ later that I recovered from it! We even miss a snack during this brief period!(At least according to the menu, we should have a light snack).

We reached Tokyo 7:10am(local time). We fixed up our JR pass and meet up with Chong. We proceed to take the train to Sakura (Jimocho) hotel. The weather was COLD. Well, the body have not adapted to the weather yet. Nothing to be alarm of. We have lunch at one of those cheap “vending” machine fast food restaurant. In case you are not aware of the Jap culture, there are budget restaurant which have a vendor machine which we need to select, pay and get a receipt to go over to the counter to collect the food. This kind of self cashier (have been around for many years). I have not seem any countries that practice this except Japan, after the first encounter about 6 years ago.

The weather is pretty cool around 10 deg cel the whole day. The wind was strong, thus making it more challenging for those that are not use to the cold weather.

After check in, we proceed to the Race Expo. We meet Ray and Joanna there. We spend quite a few hours there, walking, shopping, etc. The damper was the closure of Toyota showroom, we are arrived at closing time, after dinner and some shopping. Sigh...the operating hours in Japan is pretty short in the evening. Or is it that we are use to the longer shopping hours back home.

Hotel is dormitor style. Mechiam like army days, must get a bit use to it. As a whole, a good start in Tokyo.

Pictures here.