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Hi!
This is my experience and some photos of my first trip to Japan a few weeks ago in January. I hope you enjoy it!
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It all started in Monterrey (my hometown) from where I took a short flight to Mexico City and then a 15 hour long flight to Narita International Airport. To be honest my flight experience was not the best, not because of the airline or airports, but I guess I was not ready to be stuck in a plane for such a long time. The flight was fully booked and my seat was next to the window so everytime I wanted to walk around a bit I had to wake up the two guys next to me so I could get to the aisle/restroom (I only did it a couple of times so I would not became annoying). I don't know if it was because I was really excited and impatient to get to Japan that I could not sleep very well in the plane. The food was average, a weird mix between mexican-japanese flavors.
DSC_0660 by Roy Vidales, en Flickr
At the end it was all worth it. I left Mexico City around midnight and arrived at Narita around 6:00 am, but 6:00 am of the the following day. I "lost" an entire day due to the flight duration and the time zone differences. I was sort of getting part of that time back in my return trip. After a really quick check at migration I made a quick stop at the restroom to freshen up and immediately bought my bus ticket to Tokyo Station.
DSC_0666 by Roy Vidales, en Flickr
The view from Narita to central Tokyo was amazing, to see how "urban" everything became the closest we got to the station was just incredible. I was so excited to start my adventure that I almost forgot my carry on backpack in the bus. :lol: But this is when it got complicated. It was my fault for not being completely prepared with my hostel's address and how to get there from the station, but I honestly thought it was going to be easier to use the WiFi in the city. I still don't know if it was just a problem with my phone, but I just could not connect to any wifi hotspot. Usually all the available ones appear in a list, you click on the one you want to connect to and it takes you to a sort of login site where you agree to terms and conditions so they let you use the network. But that was not working for me, no site appeared, it was just a message from Google saying that the website couldn't be displayed. Even if I had the name of the station closest to my hostel I would not have known in which direction to walk to if I had the chance to get there. After about half an hour of wandering through the station trying every single wifi spot I found, I remembered that yahoo was still really big in Japan. I chose a hotspot, the google message showed up again, but now I typed "yahoo.com" in the search bar, and suddenly it worked, the log in website showed up. :nuts:
I finally got to my hostel. Because it was still really early check-in was not yet possible, so I only left my luggage, grabbed my camera and stepped outside and start exploring the streets of Tokyo...
This is my experience and some photos of my first trip to Japan a few weeks ago in January. I hope you enjoy it!
____________________________________________
It all started in Monterrey (my hometown) from where I took a short flight to Mexico City and then a 15 hour long flight to Narita International Airport. To be honest my flight experience was not the best, not because of the airline or airports, but I guess I was not ready to be stuck in a plane for such a long time. The flight was fully booked and my seat was next to the window so everytime I wanted to walk around a bit I had to wake up the two guys next to me so I could get to the aisle/restroom (I only did it a couple of times so I would not became annoying). I don't know if it was because I was really excited and impatient to get to Japan that I could not sleep very well in the plane. The food was average, a weird mix between mexican-japanese flavors.

At the end it was all worth it. I left Mexico City around midnight and arrived at Narita around 6:00 am, but 6:00 am of the the following day. I "lost" an entire day due to the flight duration and the time zone differences. I was sort of getting part of that time back in my return trip. After a really quick check at migration I made a quick stop at the restroom to freshen up and immediately bought my bus ticket to Tokyo Station.

The view from Narita to central Tokyo was amazing, to see how "urban" everything became the closest we got to the station was just incredible. I was so excited to start my adventure that I almost forgot my carry on backpack in the bus. :lol: But this is when it got complicated. It was my fault for not being completely prepared with my hostel's address and how to get there from the station, but I honestly thought it was going to be easier to use the WiFi in the city. I still don't know if it was just a problem with my phone, but I just could not connect to any wifi hotspot. Usually all the available ones appear in a list, you click on the one you want to connect to and it takes you to a sort of login site where you agree to terms and conditions so they let you use the network. But that was not working for me, no site appeared, it was just a message from Google saying that the website couldn't be displayed. Even if I had the name of the station closest to my hostel I would not have known in which direction to walk to if I had the chance to get there. After about half an hour of wandering through the station trying every single wifi spot I found, I remembered that yahoo was still really big in Japan. I chose a hotspot, the google message showed up again, but now I typed "yahoo.com" in the search bar, and suddenly it worked, the log in website showed up. :nuts:
I finally got to my hostel. Because it was still really early check-in was not yet possible, so I only left my luggage, grabbed my camera and stepped outside and start exploring the streets of Tokyo...