The flight over was fairly uneventful... except for the guy in front of us who had gas so bad that I thought he was going to asphyxiate us all before we made it halfway. Thankfully he wandered off to the toilet a little way in and we could breathe again.
This was my first time navigating out of Narita and in to Tokyo on my own... First time round we were not without someone from the exchange company until I arrived in Hamamatsu and second time Tomoko's mum Kazuko met us at the airport and ensured we made it back to her house safely. But this time Kazuko is in Nagoya with Tomoko and we were fending for ourselves. We had a plan for getting to the hotel, but unfortunately it came a little unstuck when I somehow managed to put us off the main line and onto the subway... Goodness knows how I managed that. Long story short, we saw a few too many tiny little stations and had to bug a lot of station staff, but we finally made it to Asakusabashi about 45 minutes later than I had originally anticipated. At least we now know what to do when we pick Paul and Jodi up from the airport next Sunday!
It's still quite cold here and Maya informs me that the sakura (cherry blossoms) may not be out in Tokyo before we leave! Fingers crossed for Kyoto!
Our hotel was comfortable and fairly average-sized for Tokyo (small, but you can move) and there's a Lawson convenience store in the lobby - very, very convenient! We bought dinner there last night and managed to get an entre, two mains, dessert and a beer for about $15. And it was quite nice! I love convenience stores here.
This morning we went for a brief wander to find some breakfast before packing up, checking out and making our way towards our accommodation for the next three nights - Takaragawa. We spent two nights at Takaragawa at the start of our last trip and fell in love. The hot springs are amazing. According to the man at the JR office last night it will probably still be snowing up there - should be amazing!
Right now we're sitting in Takasaki station waiting for the train to take us to Minakami station where the bus will pick us up (one minute after the train arrives! Got to love Japanese precision.) Thankfully today we have had far more luck with the trains and here's hoping we continue in this strain. James found a little bottle shop at Ueno station before we boarded the shinkansen and discovered some new beers to try so he's a very happy boy :)
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