Arrival + First Day

First, let me just start by saying that the 11 1/2 hour flight I had was one of the longest, hardest experiences I've ever had. I could've sworn I was in the air for days, but then, I'd only had 1 hour of sleep in 2 days up till that point. On the bright side, no jet lag upon arrival.

Upon entering Narita, the first thing I noticed was that it felt like a Sauna. Honestly, I thought people were exaggerating when they were talking about Japan being a steambath in August...turns out, it's pretty much true. So on the bright side, I'll have lost any water weight I had by the time the trip is over. After picking up my JR Pass, we hit the train for a 2 hour ride to Kokubunji, where we grabbed a conbini bento (Boxed lunch from a convenience store) and called it a night.

First Day: Shinbashi, Ikebukuro, Odaiba

The night before, my friend Chris informed me that Comiket was going to be in Odaiba, so we headed out to see it. First things first, we stopped down the street to get money changed over. I soon discovered one weird thing about being in Japan: A small amount of coins can be a lot of money. Right now, I've got about 10 coins in my pocket and it's close to $30 worth. I hit a 7/11 for breakfast...quite good, actually! They have a lot of good pastries and Cafe Au Lait. After picking up a cellphone, I was ready to head out to Odaiba.

The trip to Odaiba was actually pretty nice, mainly because the AC was a godsend, but Odaiba Bay is also very nice. My facebook page has videos of the trip, but we'll also be going back tomorrow to check out the Gundam 1/1 model (They've got parts of it at an expo there) and a few of the other attractions. Reason being, it was packed yesterday due to Comiket, an anime/manga convention. The con was pretty fun, especially considering it was free.

After we had enough of that, we decided to head to Ikebukuro for some fun. After a brief dinner, we headed to karaoke. This was a blast, and I dove right in with a few anime songs under my belt. 2 hours of singing for 10 dollars, and it comes with a drink bar for free! We also stopped at a Super Potato, which is a retro video game store. They have some of the things I want to pick up, but I'll be going to Akihabara when I get back form Korea to do my shopping instead since they generally have more. Finally, we went to the Kamen Rider: The Diner restaurant. It was a lot of fun, complete with Kamen Rider toys and a throne you could sit in to take pictures. I've already got pics posted on my facebook, as well as some video.

More to come!