Day 1: Mission accomplished!

So and we are finally here in Japan. Have to start writting to let you guys know that we are still in one piece. I am still quite fine but Sparky here is completely dead. So he plans to sleep right now while I am writting. Sparky's laptop is running out of battery and the charger does not fit. Haha. Have to look for another one tomorrow.

However, the day started like this:

I woke up early in the saturday morning and took a nice warm shower. Packed the last few things and breakfast and waited for Sparky and his mom to come and pick me up. Before they came, sisters challenged me to some Brawl matches. And of course... I won... ;P

First stage: Off to Nyköping
We left Katrineholm at around 9am to head for Nyköping. We had a ticket from Nyköping to Arlanda which is a little cheaper than Katrineholm - Arlanda. Well, at least if you can get a ride from Katrineholm. We got to the train station in time. But of course.. SJ is late as usually. It’s never in time when it's needed and always in time when you are late. Train arrived at 10.35 (original time: 10.13). So we went on…

Second stage: Train to Arlanda
Nice calm trip to Arlanda.

Third stage: Checking in at Arlanda
We had to check in so we queue in the luggage line but she told us to check in first. Our e-tickets didn’t work out very well on their computers there even though she used another method so we had to go to the check so the lady told us to queue again and let her help. It took awhile and it didn’t look like it would work when we looked at her face so we got a little worried. But after a few minutes we got our boarding passes and checked in our luggage. Since my travel bag had 3 long bands on it I had to check in at the special luggage place. That guy there were so pissed and looked like he could kill someone anytime..

Fourth stage: Pass control and boarding
Went through pass control without any trouble. Waited their for a little more than 2 hours. Played a little DS and got some snack. After that, we boarded the plane. Plane took off at 14.45.

Fifth stage: Flight to France. Paris Charles De Gualle
Hrm, were nothing special here actually. The plane heading to France, airport Paris Charles De Gualle. Sparky read his book and I tried to study some japanese. Landed at 17.25.

Sixth stage: At Paris CDG
Wow. Paris CDG is huge. We thought Terminal 2F were suppose to be near Terminal 2E. But no.. it were like a maze at the pass control but very linear. Haha. Went through smoothly until we got to the metal detector thing. I forgot to check in my brand new scissor to but my hair it and he asked around the staff but decided to say that it’s forbidden to go on with it. I could if I would check it in but meh, I abaddoned it.. T__T Oh well, can always buy a new one. A little more walking. Terminal 2E gate 39 ahead. Alots of asians here now. Sat down, went to the bathroom, did some kind of a survey then boarded the plane. Plane took off at 19.20.

Seventh stage: Flight to Japan. Narita International Airport
Really long fly time. Almost 12 hours. But wow. They’ve got a little monitor on the chair in the front of you. You can watch movies, listen to some music and they even have various type of games on it that you can play. Like chess, bejeweled, pacman etc etc. The most interesting game I found were a game called Berlitz World Traveler. There are 25 different languages there you can learn through four categories and a mini-game in the end of each one. I chose to learn japanese through english. The four categories were:
Numbers: Learn from 10 – 100 and higher. End game: Numbers Invasion. Were like Space Invaders in a very easy version. A japanese number pops up and you have to shot the right ship between three.
Dates: Learn the names of the days and what the months are called. Even morning, afternoon, evening and night. End game: ”Master on the Tower” which you have to save a princess to avoid the dragon to eat her. The dragon rises up while you have to pick up keys and unlock doors. 4 keys in 4 different colors and 4 doors. Pair right key with a japanese word to the right door.
Words: Learn some useful words. End game: ”Dungeon Treasure Hunt”. He reads a japanese word and you have to pick the right chest between 4.
Dialogs: Learn some dialogs. End game: ”Talking Tree”. You play as some little of little monster and you have to jump up on different platforms to reach 3 different words on the tree. You’ll see a sentence in Japanese with missing words that you have to fill with the words on the tree.

I cleared all of them but I don’t think I really remember everything now. Haha. But it were fun.
Lots of food. Yummy ones. But had a stomachace after that since I didn’t want to go out and disturb the other two passengers... I sat next to the window and Sparky sat on the other side of the plane. Not much talking to each other during that flight. I killed to time trying to watch movies. I started five but only watched one. Tried to sleep but it were so damn hot! Couldn’t sleep at all but I may have fallen asleep and slept a little. Around 2 hours in total I guess. Caught a little cold there but went over quite fast. I woke up when I were like 4 hours left of the flight. At that time, I felt so damn disgusting. No nice hair, dirty glasses and euuuahh. Just disgusting.

Landed in Tokyo at 14.25 japanese time.

Eighth stage: At Narita International Airport
When we went into the airport, it was like walking into a muggy wall. So hot! Not only in the airport but in the whole Japan. I don’t if it’s because of this rainy weather but hot it is. Mostly paperwork on the airport. Were people everywhere to help you if you needed some help. They were next to the stairs and outside trains. That’s cool. We got our luggage and tried to figure out how to buy tickets for the Keisei Line. We asked and got help ^_^

Ninth stage: On the train and subway
Were a little confused of this thing. Were unsure if it were right but we managed to get it right. Rode the train for a little more than one hour with one transfer to our destination,Kuramae station.

Last stage: Kuramae station and the walk to the hostel
Not difficult at all. We just followed the description. Backpackers Hostel K’s House Tokyo is a very nice hostel. Not bad at all! We are going to stay here for 14 days and costs like 3400yen per night. So a total of 47600yen. Sweet price ^_^

The room is really nice too. They gave us maps and told us where we can go and watch things. There are a lot of stores, restaurants, theaters around the hostel. Everything is near.

Anyhow, we’ve reached our destination!

We grabbed some food at McDonald’s just to try it. We said before we went there so order I Japanese but it didn’t went quite well… Haha. At least we managed to get our food.

Then we headed to a convenience store and bought some snack. Even if you try to speak japanese with them you won’t be able to hear what they are saying. Speaking soooo fast!

I wrote a lot today. Will probably be shorter the other days depending on what we are doing =P

Sparky is sleeping deeply…

Updated: Note! All photos can be found on a swedish site called picture diary. You will need an account or a guestpass to enter it. So if you want to see the pictures and do not want to create an account. Send me an email and I will give it to up!
tsukiya88@gmail.com

http://tsukiya.bilddagboken.se
http://sparky.bilddagboken.se : Sparky's picture diary. Written in swedish!