Day 1: Arriving in One (Barely Functional) Piece

Not too much to write about today, seeing as how most of it was spent on a plane.

We arrived in Tokyo at about 3pm local time. We then went through quarantine. This entailed a questionnaire and then spending a half hour sitting on a plane full of very cranky people at the arrival gate. Meanwhile, a few folks in blue scrubs wandered up and down the aisles and looked for people with pig flu. At least, I'm guessing that's what they were doing. Who knew it could be diagnosed visually.

Our golden ticket!

After that we were handed a yellow sheet of paper saying we appeared to be flu-free, walked through an extra check station, and that was it. Welcome to Japan, gaijin. I wonder if there is any return on investment for the whole exercise.

We met up with Laura in the baggage claim--it was wonderful to see her. From there it was off to customs, an ATM, and the JR office to make train reservations for our trip. A few minutes later we were taking a local line to Shiodome Station.

Shiodome station is absolutely huge. I mean, REALLY huge. It has a couple underground malls (something we would see a lot in Japan). It connects to several subway lines. It has a lot of signs that seem to contradict each other. Finally--and luckily for us--it also has a good quantity of maps. It took us a half hour to navigate through the tunnels and escalators, but we finally found our hotel, the Villa Fontaine Hotel.

You might want to double-check your order.

Overall, I recommend this place. It was very reasonably priced, has a fairly central location, and comes with breakfast. The rooms are good-sized (important to note this in Japan), internet is included, and the bathrooms very clean. It even came with a "Foods" vending machine that sold underwear. Overall, we were pleased with our stay there.

By the time we'd checked in, we were hungry and exhausted. We wandered out to find some food and ended up scrounging snacks from a nearby convenience store. After that, blissful collapse.