Tokyo - SEASON IV

It's finally here, after a decade - it felt like this - of preparations, the Tokyo vacation is finally here.

I'm here with a collegue for 3 weeks.

Yesterday our shift ended at 6PM - luckily we were able to change our shift, else it would have been until 8PM.

We packed our last stuff - I was about to use my new trecking backpack, but while filling it I realized, the volume is too small for the planned trip, so I used my "already retired" suit case.

I was ready for sleep at 9:45 PM - I finally slept at ~10:40 PM and got up at 3:30 AM - short night.

We went by train to our local airport, too bad we couldn't check-in online the night before, so we had to do it there, only a few seats left to choose, but we got 2 seats a side. We've been unexpected fast, because we were well prepared, so we had our board cards, our baggage dropped off and the security check in less than 20 min, still 2 hours left before starting to Vienna.

The time went by and we arived at Vienna @ ~9:20AM - transfer checkin was done very quickly, so we've been at our gate G 03 at round about 10AM - 3 hours to go until lifting off for Tokyo.

We made some pictured, walked around a bit and yadayadayada 1:20 PM our flight started (that was scheduled, I guess we had a 10 min delay, because of some delayed passengers)

Almost 11 hours until Tokyo - I give you a sum up - almost missed the start (slept some minutes) - small salty snack - lunch (pasta with mushrooms or rise with burger and carrots - took the burger, was OK) - Movie 1 "Irre sind männlich" - funny one about relations problems - Movie 2 "GODZILLA" (the new one of 2014 withe the MUTOs) - was good, co-produced by TOHO studios, which made the old movies, too - some hours of sleep (I guess 2 or so - overall I had 4,,maybe less, thanks to my ostrich pillow I could sleep) - started Movie 3 "title unknown - the one with Cameron Diaz and the other 2 women, who were cheated by one guy.. or so" - the other Woman maybe(?) - unable to finish it, because breakfast was served and soon afterwards we arrived at Tokyo Narita.

I planned or calculated 1,5 hours for entering the country - immigration, baggage pickup, customs..., after 40 min we were done with all of it got our Narita Express tickets, there was a special offer for foreign visitors, 1500 until Tokyo, that's a discount of more than 50%, awesome.






The train started at 8:50AM and we arrived Tokyo Central at 9:52.

Only a few minutes away from our hotel, Maronouchi Line until Otemachi, changed into the Hanzomon Line - left the METRO at Suitengumae - 170 YEN - my old SUICA card from 2012 still worked (649 Yen were left), had to be unlocked, but worked perfectly afterwards.

From Tokyo central until the hotel we only needed 10-12 min.

We got to Villa Fontaine Nihombashi - checkin not before 3 PM, so we dropped our luggage and went to Akihabara - btw, the temperature is 27°C and more, got off my sweater almost instantly after landing in Narita.

To get to Akiba, we went to the Ningyocho station (5min walk) and went 2 stations by Metro with the Hibiya line.

We visited the Shosen Book Tower, went to the Book Off - got Mountain Dew (they are rarely here) - inspected a Hobby figure shop and ran into the Mandarake - an Austrian had asked me in the Shosen Book Tower, where to get preowned figures, got my "Map with me Pro" App and showed him how to get to Mandarake.

After all of that we were kinda hungry, and also very tired, so Yodobashi Akiba, especially the food court, was our next target. Before eating we were in the toy and games section, I asked a poor worker for a MonHun figure, Converstaion: Do you have this figure set - NEIN - Nine? - *Calender - Sept.* - So it's released in September? - eto... (hoping I would go away)  - So it's sold out or will it be released in September, or is it already released but only temporarily sold out? - *short silence*, Nine, in September... - OK, thank you..., he ran as fast as possible to avaoid further questions.

my collegue searched something of "my friend Tottoro..(?)", we only found some puzzles ourselves, so we asked a female worker, she ran through the shelfs, like a gazelle, she tried to escape but we followed her, nothing to find, everything, as you can guess, SOLD OUT.

We then went to the food court - Chabuton, as every year, Choyu Ramen and Gyoza.

TODAY SMASH BROTHERS WAS RELEASED for 3DS - bought.

After that we went to the Hobby Off next to Yodobashi Akiba and returned to the hotel afterwards.
We finally checked in and relaxed a bit... we wanted to rest for 30 Min, these 30 min became 4 hours... after getting up agai (9:20PM) we ate at Curry House CoCo - hased beef with 400g rice and camps.

Finally we went to Seven 11 and Lawson to buy something to drink.

Day ONE is over now.

As we have a Trophy list for the whole trip, we acclompiched some achievments:

Eat Ramen
Eat Curry
Meat another Gaijin (Non-Japanese Person)
Buy a drink @ a vending machine
Go by JR - N'EX
Go by METRO - Hibiya-Line and others

See you tomorrow.