Tokyo ’14, Day 1 – Flight and Arrival

Hi everyone, I am back from my trip to Japan! I’ve had an a-ma-zing time, had a lot of adventures and saw, did and bought many great things! I can’t wait to tell you all about it! :3 I will do my best, as usual, to describe things in the best way that I can, but forgive me if I forget things or tell things twice! Also, if you have any questions or remarks, do not hesitate to comment! Ok, here we go. I hope you enjoy my reports!

On Tuesday, April 22nd, I woke up and realised that the day had finally come. The day my mom and I would leave for Japan! After four days (I had extra days off from school thanks to holidays) of running around packing and taking care of other important things, I woke up nauseous but excited! I had been so nervous the days before, that the morning of that day is all a bit of a blur in my mind, but I vaguely remember some last minute cleaning. x)

My hand luggage! It has become a tradition to make this
my first picture in my travel reports! ^^
Then finally it was time for my mom and me to drag our suitcases down the stairs, put them in the car and say goodbye to the doggies. It was strange for both of us to realize the day we had been looking forward to for quite some time had finally come. It all seemed so… unreal! Anyway, my dad would drive us to the airport and since my brother didn’t have any school, he tagged along as well. So the four of us went on our way. ^^
After about 45 minutes of driving, we arrived at the airport parking garage, where my dad put our luggage onto a cart and we entered the airport itself. I quickly spotted our flight on the departures screen!

Can you spot our flight? ^^
The hall was quite busy, filled with people walking around. We walked through the hall, passed the newly renovated shops and then went up the moving escalators to the baggage drop off.

My mom and dad. :3
Like last times, we had to send our luggage off ourselves. My mom and I had to put our suitcase into a niche where it got weighed, scan our passport and confirm the details about our flight. It was clear we had learned from our previous trips, since it all happened a lot smoother this time. :3 After we had sent off our luggage, my mom and I walked back to my dad and brother to say goodbye.

Ready to go!
My dad and brother walked to the passport-checking with us, where we hugged for the last time (my mom cried ♥) and then we went to stand in line. It made me laugh a little that in the line next to us, the Sky Prioritiy line (aka the ‘you-pay-extra’-line), were two girls around my age, but looking so posh you could easily have predicted they would enter that line instead of ours. XD
We got our passports checked (when the staff member asked where I would be travelling to I proudly responded ‘Japan!’) and waved one last time at my dad and brother. Then, we were left on our own. *dun dun duuun* Hm yes, this sounds a little dramatic, but you have to realize usually I rely on my dad’s amazing sense of direction and logic, and now I was the one with those responsibilities! Hence my incredible nervousness the days before. It was quite scary but also a pretty cool feeling…
My mom and I went to find an ATM machine, after which we proceeded to the exchange desk to trade our Euros for some Japanese Yens. But damn… we were standing there for ages, even though the line in front of us wasn’t exactly long! There were three staff members behind the desk, but only one woman was helping customers. The other two men were just… well, sitting or walking around! It was quite annoying. Finally it was our turn, but then it took a while to have the money sent to the desk! Finally, we got our money and we could walk around.

Money, money, money! ♫
First, we browsed the big perfume store we like so much. I especially loved the new Viktor&Rolf fragrance, ‘Bonbon’, since the bottle is shaped like a bow! *_* Shame it didn’t smell so nice… They also had a really cute Bambi fragrance! I really love perfume stores, it always smells so great there (well, duh! XD), because all the perfumes get mixed into one. I wish I could buy a perfume that smelled like a perfume store!

The Viktor&Rolf and Bambi fragrances. The bottles are just so pretty! *_*
After browsing around a bit, we went up the escalators to get some food. After some doubting, we decided to get some sandwiches from the same Italian place like last year. I think I even had the same sandwich! XD We also shared a piece of cake, which turned out to be divine. It was like a caramel sundae ice cream, but then in cake form! *_* ♥

Our sandwiched and the amazing cake on the left! ✩
After that delicious lunch, we went on our way to our gate: F3. While walking down the moving sidewalks (I love those things!), we passed the restaurant with Dutch food and giant pots with tulips for decoration. We also passed the toy store with a big Nijntje statue (Miffy in English) and, like last time, I just had to take a picture!

Miffy is part of my childhood and I love her! ♥
After taking a short look at Swarovski we arrived at our gate, where we went to stand in line to get ‘scanned’. x) After we were deemed save, my mom and I sat down until it was time to board.

My mom took this picture when I was in the bathroom. It’s her ‘I am so nervous’-picture.
It didn’t take long until it was time for us to enter the plane! We entered the tube to the airplane and my excitement was growing, my mom’s fear as well (she doesn’t like flying particularly much).

Our beautiful blue airplane! :3
We entered the plane and walked all the way down the alley between the chairs to our seats. And might I say: best seats ever. Even though we had picked these seats ourselves, we had forgotten about them already! Our seats were the window and middle seat, all the way at the back of the plane against a wall. So we had no one behind us, still room to lie back a bit and we had an extra back window! *_* It was perfect!

Airplane selfie! We matched with the wall behind us. XD
My mom and I sat down next to the Japanese woman in the aisle seat and got settled. We had put all the stuff we would need during the flight from our hand luggage into separate tote bags, which we placed into the spaces in front of us. It was super handy (except for the fact I later discovered I had forgotten to put my head phones in it, but it wasn’t a major issue)!

Settled and ready for take off!
Sooner than expected, the plane started moving already! It quickly proceeded to the take off strip and I had to contain myself from pressing my face against the window in excitement, since my poor mom hates taking off. So instead I held her hand and filmed with the other, while enjoying our take off (because I, on the other hand, love it)!

Me enjoying the view.
Quite soon the stewardesses started moving around and my mom calmed down again. Head phones were handed out (yay!) and my mom and I checked out the entertainment on the flight. I was very happy with the selection of movies: there were at least six I wanted to see! I ended up only watching two on this flight, but still. :3 We could also watch series or keep track of our plane’s path.
After a while, the stewardesses came by, handing out nuts (my favourites!) and drinks. My mom and I talked, looked out the window and just generally enjoyed ourselves until dinner. Well, there was one incident though. While we were just talking in the middle seats row, a Western man started to yell against his Japanese neighbour. Apparently the Japanese man didn’t want to stand up to let his neighbour get past to let him, in his words, ‘take a piss’… It gave me quite a scare, he was yelling so loudly! Eventually, the airplane staff resolved all the problems and later it turned out the Japanese dude was a giant douche bag, also against other people. Oh well, adventures, adventures.
So anyway, it was dinnertime. We could choose between Western or Japanese food and my mom and I both chose Japanese, which was a very good choice!

Airplane food; some despise it, others love it (like me)! ^^
Later my mom and I switched seats, which we had to do in quite an interesting way thanks to lack of space. XD But in the end we found an easy way!
We quickly received the immigration forms we had to fill in to be able to enter Japan. This surprised me: during my two previous trips, they handed these out quite late, like at breakfast. But well, we filled them in right away. ^^
After that, I decided to watch a movie. After some doubting, I chose Wreck-It Ralph, because I had wanted to see it for ages and the theme song of the movie is the song I am planning to use for my Japan trip video. So it was just meant to be! I really enjoyed the movie, even though the sound wasn’t so great. It was probably thanks to the airline earphones.
In the meantime, the window curtains had been closed, creating a night feeling. I didn’t quite feel like trying to sleep yet, so after getting out of my seat for a while to stretch and get my ear phones out of my hand luggage and receiving ice cream, I decided to watch Frozen (even though I have seen it 1½ times already). I had told my friend at home I would watch it if the entertainment offered i tand since it did and I felt like watching it, I started the movie. It was a lot better with my own ear phones.
During the movie I felt myself get sleepy, so after it was finished I tried to sleep on my mom’s shoulder or lap. I might have slept for 10 minutes total, but no more than that. I am just not an airplane sleeper…
My mom opened the window curtain once in a while and it was very light outside again. After a while, all the curtains were opened and it was breakfast time! It was very good!

Except for the grapefruit, I loved everything!
And then finally, after some more time, we were almost there!

So clooose! >o<
Our flight tracker showed us we were flying over Japan and finally, we reached the beach! The airplane made a turn and we started to descend. My ears were okay this time again,
luckily! ^^

I love this point of the flight the most: seeing Japan’s shore and then making a turn!
The sun reflected into the water on the rice fields so beautifully! It was hard to capture it on camera. Then suddenly, we were above the airport and the wheels of the plane hit the ground and we slowed down! Then the plane drove to its gate.

Narita airport!
We had arrived in Japan!


Even though our flight, arrival and first day in Japan felt as one long day because of timezones, I count the flight and arrival as day 1. ^^