What I did on my Winter Vacation: Japan Day 1

After hauling our junk to check-in (and getting assigned seats in different rows), eating bad airport mexican food, and standing in line through security with what looked like a big sweaty bike gang from Sweden, we got to our gate and all made our last-minute/pre-boarding phone calls home. I was ready to slip into a coma. I mean, I couldn't even remember the last time I'd pulled an all-nighter.

Evan phone-calling in the background and Brian studying some maps or something.

I was stoked to be flying Singapore Airlines - finally, after all those newspaper ads, brochures, billboards etc. we'd done at Hamon. It was trippy experiencing the SIA girls (and guys) in real life, after seeing so many headshots and stiffly posed service scenarios. I woke up just in time for in-flight meal #1. Eel bowl, soba, and Ben&Jerry's ice cream for dessert! Hiro was right!

I easily fell asleep again, and woke up to Brian still studying one of the guide books. Man, it really WAS like finals.

KrisWorld (the SIA in-flight entertainment system) telling us we were almost there, when we were about half a plane's length off the coast.

After landing, we had to sit and wait while the plane was boarded by a team of plastic-wrapped Swine-flu checkers. I told them I'd no fever, and was handed a piece of yellow paper that indicated I'd been cleared to enter the country. These worker bees swarmed the plane as we walked to immigration.

I used Brian's rental phone to call Hiro to let her know we'd landed, and to get directions to her and Rin's house. Then we found the JR office to trade in our vouchers for train passes, and got on the very next express from Narita Airport to Tokyo station.

We were going so fast!

Useful map in our car, telling us how far along we'd gotten/how far we had til Tokyo station.
After a couple more train changes, we got to Kawasaki, and Hiro guided the cabbie (remotely, via our rental cell phone) to their apartment.