Hey guys

SSJGarfield here, back from Japan since Monday March 26th

As promised here's the whole story of a fantastic week

Tuesday March 20th

Got up at 6 AM in order to leave for Amsterdam Schiphol Airport at 7 AM. Shortly before arriving at the airport, I ended up in several traffic jams
and I was starting to worry that I would be late to check in for my flight to Frankfurt where I am supposed to change flights to Tokyo.

Fortunately I did get in time and as soon as I dropped off my suitcase and got through passport controll I went to check out the airport shops before heading to the gate. Despite the boarding was on time, there was still 1 passenger missing so we had to wait a few minutes longer so they could remove the missing person's luggage.

After a 45 minute flight I arrived at Frankfurt Airport where a bus brought me to the correct terminalbuilding. After walking for quite a while I got to another passport and bag control and as soon as I got through that I could already board the plane that would bring me to Tokyo Narita Airport.

I already knew it would have been a long flight (A little under 11 hours), but fortunately there was enough entertainment and you'll be able to enjoy some movies such as Happy Feet 2, Cowboys and Aliens and Johnny English Reborn.

On board we also got these forms in which you had to tell them that you're not trying to transport any forbidden items or that you have a criminal rapsheet. There was also plenty to eat during the flight and I barely slepped. I arrived in Japan around 0:30 European time (Around 8:30 local Japanese time.)

Wednesday March 21st

After coming through customs and picking up my luggage, I went outside where I met one of my guides who lead me to the hotel bus. After a 2 hour drive from the airport to the hotel (It was really busy on the road) I finally arrived at the Tokyo Prince Hotel where the other guide (Her name was Aiko) welcomed me. At first I was still too early to check in at the hotel so Aiko showed me around the direct surroundings.

Eventually I was able to check in early and have a look at my room. It was a nice room that wasn't too big or too small. But the best part of it was that I had a view on Tokyo Tower. In the meanwhile the other groupmembers did arrive but because they were able to check in the hotel directly I didn't have a chance to meet them that day.

Then Aiko gave me a more expanded tour of the near shopping street and showed potential eating spots. Then she also showed me where the famous Tokyo Pokémon Center was located. I was so surprised to see all the Pokémon merchandise they had there.

After checking out the Pokémon Center I went back to the hotel and in the meanwhile I took some photo's of the local shrines in the park next to the hotel. That night I ate some Ramen Noodles and hit the bed at 9 PM so I would be freshed up for our excursion to Asakusa Nakamise Shopping arcade and Akihabara Electric Town on the next day.

Thursday March 22nd

I got up at 7 AM and had a sandwhich for my breakfast. Around 10 AM I went to the hotel lobby where I finally met up with the rest of the group which consisted of 2 guys from England, 2 from Sweden and 4 Americans. I introduced myself and soon we left for the subway that would bring us to Asakusa Nakamise Shopping Arcade. We got there around 11:30. After our guide Aiko showed us around a bit we were allowed to check out the area for about 1,5 hours.

The Asaskusa Nakamise shopping arcade was located between the Kaminarimon Gate and the Sensoji temple (Also known as the Asakusa Kannon and is also the largest budhist temple in Tokyo) and consisted off many stands with souveniers and snacks. Here I bought 5 fridge magnets, some postcards and some gifts from my friends.

I also had some Dango and ice cream there.

Before heading to the next location (Akihabara electric town) we had to bring the American groupmembers to a taxi because one of them was in a motorized wheelchair and the subwaystation at Akihabara isn't wheelchair accessible. The rest of the group did go with the subway.

After arrival and a short tour, we went our seperate ways again and have about 2 - 2,5 hours to check out Akihabara, but if you wanted to stay there for a longer while you had to go back on your own accord.

At around 4:10 PM I went to the designated meeting point with Aiko and the 4 American groupmembers and went back to the hotel while the rest of the gang stayed there for a bit longer. There was just so much to see and hear in Akihabara and I felt like I died and got in heaven. Here I bought a figurine of First form Cell, A lucky Star manga and a character song CD of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

During the excursion I mostly hanged out with the 4 American group members (A 23 year old girl with her parents and her disabled brother. The girl's name was Sara and she was very nice though a bit shy.)

Back at the hotel I've been writing my postcards and put them on the mail, before I went to Daimon street (The shopping street near the hotel) where I got something from McDonalds and some Sushi.

Friday March 23rd

Got up at 6:30 AM, took a shower and dressed up. Went back to the lobby around 7:45 AM so I could check out my E-mails, got a sandwhich for breakfast and met the gang again around 8 AM. Around 8:20 we left the hotel and took the JR local train to Mitaka, changing trains at Tokyo Central station.

From Mitaka station it was a 15 minute walk to the Ghibli Museum. But when we got there, our guide Aiko found out she forgot to bring the entree tickets. After waiting for 15 - 30 minutes waiting and negotiating we were allowed  to get in after all. And what a beautiful museum it was. Before checking out the exhibitions we went to see a 15 minute short movie about a puppy who gets lost in it's hometown.

Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photo's inside of the museum but outside you could take as many pictures as you want. But unfortunately it started to rain. We got about 2 hours to look through all the exhibits. In the museum's giftshop I bought a Totoro plushie for my mom. Before leaving the museum I got a hotdog for my lunch and filled in a Japan tourism form to give your opinion on Japan so far.

At that moment another tourmember from Australia joined us. Despite having arrived on the tuesday, while exploring the direct area to the hotel, he hurt his ankle and couldn't join us for our excursion to Asakusa and Akihabara on the previous day.

We took the bus back to Mitaka Station where we took the train to Nakano Broadway, an indoor shopping street with heaps of manga and related merchandise. At the moment a second guide called Jerry joined us. He was of Chinese decent but was born and raised in Japan and studied in the US for 15 years. After checking out the place alone for a while I ran into Sara, her family and our guide Jerry and stayed the remainder of the time with them. Since it had so many manga there, I thought they might have the manga adaptation of the series "The Future is Wild" (In Japan known as "Future's  World) . I wanted to ask if they had it there but my Japanese wasn't good enough to ask it myself so I asked Jerry if he wanted to translate for me. They told us they used to have it but it was already sold out.

Around 3:20 PM we took the train to Harajuku where they had the 100 Yen Shop. Unfortunately it wasn't my kind of area since it was mostly girl's clothshops there.

Around 5 PM we took the train back to Daimon street and went back to the hotel. First I checked my E-mails and got some sushi for dinner before going to bed that night.

Saturday March 24th

Got up at 7 AM, took a shower and dressed up. After watching some anime on TV I went to the lobby to meet up with the gang again for that day's excursion, the Tokyo International Anime Fair at the Tokyo Big Sight building.

Before we left, our guide Aiko gave me the instructions and bustickets for the trip back to Narita Airport on monday. After putting those tickets away in my room's safe, we left to take the bus to the Big Sight building.

When we got there, wet got till 4:15 PM to explore the anime fair and it was truely a great sight to behold. There was so much to do and see. Here I took quite a lot of photo's. Allthough the day had a rainy start, it was actually quite nice when we got out.

When we got back at the busstation in Daimon street we were discussing what we should do on our free day on sunday and we came to the conclusion we should visit Ueno Zoo. Though not everybody would come along for that trip, most of us did want to go.

After that I showed the two English along with Sara and her brother where the Tokyo Pokémon Center was located because they didn't see it yet and they also thought it was a blast. Back at the hotel I first brought my bags from the anime fair to my room before going to the room of the two British guys (Matt and Jake) with my laptop to show them my AMV's and some of my drawings which they absolutely loved.

Sunday March 25th

Got up at 7 AM, took a shower and got dressed. Took a sandwhich for breakfast and checked in online for my flight from Narita to Frankfurt for the journey back on the next day. After storing my boarding pass for the first part of the journey I went to the lobby to meet up with the gang for the last time. Even our guide Aiko joined us for the day.

Once we arrived at Ueno train station we headed to the zoo entrance and I was quite pleasantly surprised to see what they had there. Except for some enclosures (For some of the monkeys, the hippopotamus, Zebra and giraffes) all the exhibits actually looked quite nicely. And with an entry fee of 600 Yen (Roughly 6 Euro's) it was only a third of what I usually pay to get in a zoo in the Netherlands.

I've seen animals there which I've barely or never seen in any Dutch or other European zoo (Such as Giant panda's (Which weren't very active that day), shoebills, Hokaido brown bears, Saltwater crocodiles, Japanese giant salamanders, Andes Cock-of-the-rock and Aye Ayes) After stroling through the zoo for a large portion of the day we bought some souverniers there (I bought a panda pair plushie and a shoebill plushie) and we went back to the hotel. After checking in for the flight Frankfurt - Amsterdam, I went with the group to have a bite  at a restaurant at Tokyo Tower and went to the main observatory of Tokyo Tower before heading back to the hotel.

After putting my photo's on my computer and showing them to the gang I took a quick shower, packed my suitcase and went straight to bed to get up really early the next morning which meant the end of a beautiful trip

Hope you guys like this story :3

SSJGarfield Signing out
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friends:



Clubs I joined:



My OC's:
[link]

Spore username: SSJRaptor