Here's a run-down of the last day or so:
The flight from Wellington to Auckland went fine. Adri and I went for the Muesli and yoghurt option, but passed on the optional green/red/orange lolly.
Flight from Auckland to Tokyo was pretty good. We rocked out in Row 63. Adri had a window seat (63A), with me next to her(63B). Then we had a friend - a middle aged japanese man sitting next to me(63C). He fell asleep before the plane had even left the tarmac, and proceeded to hog the arm rest the entire time.
There was a great selection of movies, which we promptly got stuck into. Wall-E, Hellboy 3, A Fistful of Dollars. The bummer was that mr 63C was blocking off the only path to the toilets. Normally you'd feel stink having to wake someone up every hour or so, climbing over him or putting your crotch in his face as you skootch past, but that's the price he had to pay for that arm rest real estate.
Flying into Narita airport Adri and i were treated to the most magnificent sunset i have EVER seen. There was a hefty cloud build-up, and sun was completely obscured. Once we were 800m or so from the ground, we burst through the low cloud. The sunlight streamed through in big fingers, stippling across the ocean, in the strangest purple-pink-red colour. It was like a Japanese Rising Sun flag, flipped 180degrees. As we got lower you could see buildings and skyscrapers silhouetted in the pink/red disc. Got a few pics, will see how they look and upload em soon.
Once we were down, we made it through customs. (i was a bit dubious as Adri had packed an aweful lot of washing powder in a zip-lock bag in her luggage). We got to the train station, i bought us two tickets to our first of train journeys. The journey we had to make was (i like to think) the equivalent of flying into Wellington airport, then catching a train to stay out in Upper Hutt.
Adri: "um, so maybe ask that guy with the mask on if he can help us"
Andy: "Konichiwa! uh....
Mask Man: "Ahhhh!!!
Andy & Adri:
Masked Man:
Andy: I think he means this one
So we jumped on the nearest train. Luckily Adri's gut instinct said "Andrew, i don't think this is the right way". She was right - we were heading in the completely wrong direction.
We jumped off at the next stop and swapped to a train heading back the previous way. Except this one felt different. It was called the SKYLINE EXPRESS, and had a skody smoking carriage. It was really uncrowded, and had many signs saying "Remember: All seats are reserved! Bookings only". We were starting to get a bit worried. Picture two very tired, wide-eyed tourists, clutching their tiny wrinkled tickets, now soaked with sweat from fear-enduced clammy hands. The train slowly filled with posh-looking business types. Essentially it became a game of musical chairs, except no one else knew you were playing. We made record time, swooshing through all the usual stops. When finally the ticket conductor came striding past, we took a leaf from Mr 63C's book and pretended to be asleep. hehe
Our first meal in Tokyo was an Italian Dinner. Picture if someone took burger king and Cobb and Co, mixed them together and voila! Bellissimo! The soup tasted like baby food. Yum!
Pics and more stories to come. --Andy--
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