🇯🇵 Tokyo touchdown 🧑‍✈️🛬

The inflight entertainment, small food service and attempts to nap kept us occupied for the 10hr flight. We deplaned last and didn't feel rushed. The great equilizer is the queue at immigrant 😂

Narita airport is clean and well organized. Immigration screening was quick and efficient. Our online QR questionnaire codes along with the requested digital finger prints & photo, and our passport was sufficient to enter the country without any verbal questions.

After exiting the doors of Arrivals, the polite taxi driver who approached us answered my question about the Suica (transit) card vending machine's location one floor down. He wasn't trying to push the taxi sale, which we hear is very expensive, perhaps $300!? With the Suica cards and Skyliner (fast airport train) ticket purchased we were on our way!

My brother noticed the numbers 🎫😉 🔢 on the ticket. They are assigned seats for the first 45 minute leg of the trip. I was itching to use my Suica card on a vending machine, and got a couple cold beverages while we waited on the slightly uncomfortably-warm platform. The train arrived and we found our seats.

Wow, what a clean and lovely transit system! The transfer at Nippori station was not busy around 7pm. Google maps was confused about waking from the train station to the hotel. It's technically level 3 relative to the street and a roof top pedestrian storage. We only turned ourselves around once and found a sign and entry to the hotel without having to down to the street level.

The hotel room is big enough and a great view above the Meguro River. My brother and I popped out for a late dinner. We had no idea what we were ordering, and I later looked it up: "Gyudon (Japanese beef bowl dishes) are tasty, filling, and affordable, making them a popular comfort food. In this article, we compare the 4 major gyudon chain restaurants in Japan: Matsuya, Yoshinoya, Sukiya, and Nakau." We stumbled upon the Yoshinoya restaurant just below the lobby. Ordering on the table's digital screen, in English, was very easy. Our food arrived within 5 minutes! It was delicious too!

Exhausted from being awake too many hours, 23hrs for me!, we hit the beds around 9pm.

What a great first "day" of the vacation 🌟Read more