6 days in Japan
Flew via Air Canada. Last minute spontanious upgrade to First class for the flight from Vancouver to Narita, since 16 hours = loooong. Don't think it's really worth it though. While I could lie down completely flat, I don't think I fell asleep at all. Still, I did get complementary champaign and a small travel kit with toothpaste and other nice essentials. And the food was slightly better. Meals were served on a tablecloth.
Jumping backwards a bit, vancouver airport was pretty. Looked more like a mall than an airport.
Arrived at the Narita Airport. Bought the Suica + NEX (Narita Express) combo which gave me a smartcard precharged with 1,500¥ and a one-way ticket from Narita to Tokyo. Got lost in the Tokyo station for about 20 minutes before finding the girlfriend. Had Ramen. Twas yummy.
Saw the Tokyo tower. Paris' Eiffel tower was bigger, taller, and better though. Sorry, Japan.
Traveled to Asakusa.
Crashed at a rather nice, but small hotel room with one of the most efficient looking bathrooms I've seen in my life. Apparently, they're pretty standard. The shower and sink share an incoming connection, and I suspect the waste water share one outgoing connection as well. The room itself was a set of tatami mats - I didn't count how many.
Spent the following day exporing the nearby temple and streets. Lots of cute schoolgirls in schoolgirl uniforms. Yes, it may be a fetish of mine. Shush.
Had lunch at the Japanese McDonalds - got a Teriyaki burger (not too bad) and Raine got a Ebi-Fillet burger (pretty awesome: think fish fillet but with shrimp instead of fish).
Saw a Taiko drum museum and a number of Inari (fox) shrines. There were a few other large shrines, but they were under construction... :(
Walked through Tokyo University. Unfortunately, school wasn't in session, so we didn't get to see Tokyo collge students in their native habitat.
The night included time spent in Akihabara, walking through a really large electronics shopping mall. I also got a picture of a horde of people in the park, all playing on their Nintendo DS.
Dinner was an awesome burger that used a layer of rice as the burger bread from MOS Burger.
The following day included an unsuccessful trip to the Ghibli museum. (Tickets turned out to be sold out until April something or other. It was sad.)
Then another shrine. A laaarge one. And Shibuya? I think? Followed by a late trip to Odaiba (Daiba?) to see the smaller version of the Statue of Liberty. Dinner was a pretty awesome Egg-wrapped Rice covered in tomato sauce and mushrooms.
That night, we stayed in a capsule hotel - it was a tad bit unusual, since they had capsules that fit two people. It was small, and not all that comfortable, but rather interesting.
The next day, there was curry for lunch, a japanese wedding at a temple, and Yokohama, where we wandered around, saw a Chinatown.
Then we traveled to Hakone for the night. The following day was spent exploring Hakone, where it was said you could see Mt. Fuji during clear days. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and foggy, so we couldn't see anything. We did see sulfur vents and try some black boiled eggs though... and we rode on a rope lift and a pretty ship. Wandered around some more, passing through a garden in the area.
Had a train bento on the way back to Tokyo, which was midiocre. I think Taiwan's was better. Grabbed some interesting buns (Yakisoba and curry buns) for breakfast, then hit up DisneySea, which was a bit of a disappointment. There weren't a lot of scary or awesome rides, unfortunately, and wait times were terribly long. The Japanese used a strange "FastPass" system where you'd line up to get a FastPass using your entry ticket, then the "FastPass" ticket would tell you what time you could line up to use the "FastPass" to get on the ride. Essentially, tons of lines.
We left the park briefly to see Cirque De Solei, which was really awesome. Oh, and to grab lunch as well, which was one of the strangest, but pretty yummy salad+fruit mixtures.
Night included a pretty normal dinner, and then BraviSEAmo, a DisneySea show with water and pyrotechnics, which was really shiny, rather impressive, and awesome.
The last day included a trip to the Imperial palace, and then another failed attempt to get to the Ghibli museum. Then, after grabbing about $40 worth of really strange flavored KitKat bars, I flew back (it only takes 8 hours to fly from Narita to Vancouver, but 16 hours to fly from Vancouver to Narita? Interesting...).
Exchange rate during this trip was about 85¥ to a US dollar. Which is not all that awesome.
Pictures will be uploaded eventually... XD