Japan - Day 1 - Oct 6 2006

Before the trip I decided to but the HP IPAQ RX1955 from Circuit City for around $275 after taxes. It's one of the smaller PDAs that has 802.11b wireless built-in. The processor isn't the fastest but I'd rather have something I can carry around easier than more power and features. I was able to buy a 2GB Sandisk card for $45 from Office Depot. So I loaded up a bunch of songs, installed a Japanese dictionary from here for $18, got a freeware Metro program for the trains in Tokyo. They also have other train/subway layouts for many other cities and countries.

Took off for Tokyo on Japan Airlines at 1130am from HNL. The food on the flight wasn't too bad. I had seafood curry and some soba. The movie for the flight was "The Breakup" which I give a 7/10 stars. Jennifer Aniston looked good and there were some funny jokes albeit cruel in a sense. The movie was a primarily a comedy but it showed how difficult communication is in any relationship. It looks so clear on the screen but not so in real life. K, nuff with the depressing stuff! The 2nd movie was "Click" but I crashed out so I wasn't too tired getting into the city.

Arrived in Tokyo at 230pm Tokyo time. I just carried on my luggage so I didn't have to pick it up. Just went to get my train ticket to Tokyo via the Narita Express. I had some time before my train left so I figure I would get my email fix taken care of before I left the airport. They had 10 minutes of access for 100 yen (around 85 cents at the 117 yen / dollar rate) It took only 1 hour 20 minutes to get to Shinjuku for 3000 yen. You can also take the Airport Limouse for the same price which will take you right to the hotel but it takes longer because of the stops and traffic. My friends took that bus the day before and they got to the hotel at 7pm after arriving on the same flight as me. I got to the hotel at around 515pm. The rain was crazy! A typhoon was just passing by the city and I was getting the tail end of it. Really strong winds and heavy rain. I was thinking - "I came here for this???"

We stayed at the Tokyo Hilton in Shinjuku which was a really nice hotel. I met up with Mike and Beef at the hotel. We were on the executive floor because Mike is an executive Hilton member. Free Internet access in the room! Das all I needed! haha! We were all hungry so we went to grab something to eat. Wasn't too fun walking in the nasty rain - the kind that destroys the cheap umbrellas. These were strewn all over the place! We found this small hole in the wall place that served ramen and it was pretty good. The broth was really thick but it was very tasty. The beer tasted great! No gyoza there though! Boo! After eating way too much, we headed back to the hotel to meet up with our tour guide Nancy.





We headed to Roppongi to meet up with some other friends Todd and Mimi. Met them at McDonald's Roppongi. Had some fries there, tasted just like back home of course. Not liking the liquid sugar in Japan cuz it's not as sweet as Equal but they don't have too much of the artificial sweeteners here.

We went to a bar with an 80's music theme which was interesting. The crowd on the floor had their own dance routine going for all these songs and we felt a bit out of place. The guys seemed a bit fem but they were really enjoying themselves. Must be stress relief!

Next we went to this cool open air bar called Heartland. We had a beer here and moved on to the next stop...