Japan Day 0

Day 0? Not sure what to call this day but I guess probably 0 as it was only part of a day as we traveled for most of it 😆

So I’m gonna skip most of the boring stuff… getting on the flight, there’s not much to say about that, apart from feeling like you are stuck in limbo, you don’t really know what time it is because of all the time zone changes and not being able to do much. I tried to keep myself busy with films and series but there’s only so much you feel like watching 🤣 I was only able to sleep a couple of hours because the guy next to us had put his light on originally to help us find something we had dropped… but he dozed off to sleep and left his light on which made it really hard for us to do the same 😂

Anyway somehow 12 hours rolled by and we arrived at our destination.. 🇯🇵 JAPAN 🇯🇵 !
I never thought I would get there and it almost seemed like a dream and even during the whole of the holiday, it just seemed like I was floating around in a dream. I couldn’t wait to set foot outside but there was still a way to go before I could do that. We went to pick up our luggage after we had been through some more security with papers being signed and passports checked. Once we stepped out into the actual arrivals area at Narita,Tokyo, I was on a mission to find the LAWSON conbini and the JR pass office. Luckily both were really close together, all I had to do was head down a floor where the subway was.

We came to a really empty floor, most of the places were closed as it was about 9PM at the time and I saw a closed JR booth and started to panic thinking we wouldn’t be able to get the pass for the Narita Express train which we had to ride to get to Tokyo 😱 😱 but just a small walk away there was another small open JR stall which was open late at night. Then we decided to quickly find the LAWSON conbini to get my portable WiFi before sorting out our tickets.

We asked someone where to find it as I couldn’t spot it and was supposed to be on the same floor, turns out it was up a hidden escalator that was behind a pillar. I showed the guy at the counter an email that the company had sent me, and started pointing at the LAWSON machine, I had to get something from there before receiving the device, I had no idea what was going on I was so disorientated but the guy there was really nice and did it for me then handed me the package with the device in it.

Then we headed to JR and sorted out our pass and also got our tickets for the N’EX train. We set off on our way to Tokyo finally! Looking out the window it was crazy, seeing all these buildings I had seen so many pictures of before! One thing that struck me is that the track was slightly bent to a side, so all the buildings looked like they where built crooked.

We got off the N’EX and arrived at Shibuya station, we had to catch the normal metro to get to our Air bnb accomodation which was in Ikebukuro. Once we arrived at Ikebukuro, it was already around 10PM, as we have the JR pass and not the suica or pasmo card, we needed to find a station guard which would see the pass and let us out, which seemed so impossible at the time, we were lost for about 20 minutes in the station 😂 😂 we were just so tired and nothing was making sense! Somehow we ended up finding one and he let us out, and ended up in some mall that connected to the station, once we walked out of there we set off to find our Airbnb which was about 10 mins walk from there or so, it seemed to take forever because we had all our heavy luggage with us. We passed some of the nightlife at Ikebukuro on the way, where they had all these host clubs and bars. There were so many lights and people it was amazing and a bit overwhelming at first. We saw so many drunk people as well, some just sleeping in random places. One thing I thought was really cute was all the owls around Ikebukuro, locals love the pun of the similar word fukurou, meaning owl.

Once we got there, we followed the instructions given to us by the landlord and finally we were in our apartment for the first time! We were super hungry after all that and decided to find a conbini. We were awe-stricken by all the choice in there! We ended up getting a bunch of pre-cooked meals because we just wanted to try everything 😋

Even though we were tired I couldn’t just go to sleep when I was finally here…so we ended up walking around and going back through the nightlife area and crossing the bridge to another part of Ikebukuro where we saw Don Quijote, I knew it was there and I knew it was a 24hr shop. I had heard and read SO MUCH about it, I had to go, so I dragged my boyfriend over there using the fact that had to buy myself a straightener as I hadn’t brought mine because of the voltage difference. MY GOD this shop has EVERYTHING, there was about 5 to 6 floors of stuff. It had everything from sweets, souvenirs, party costumes and wigs, figures, anime goods, electronics, makeup, luggages etc 🤩 🤩 Needless to say we spent A LOT of time in there, we ended up getting home at 4AM in the morning 😂 I bought myself some goodies (obviously haha) and also some souvenirs for friends.