Day 1 - Saturday 28 March - Sydney to Tokyo

Alarms went off in sync at 5am. I was sooo not ready to get up, having lain awake for hours last night :(  But I jumped up and had first shower. No actual shower cubicle so water went all over the bathroom floor :/  Good thing I was in there first! :)

Everyone else had their showers and we left the hotel just after 6am. Strolled along in the dark to T2 and checked in with enough time to stop at the Scottish Restaurant for breakfast. That was good but a little rushed as we had to go board. On a lighter note it meant we didn't have to queue to board :)

Airbus A380 coming in to land at Sydney Airport

We were up near the back of an A320, which was very full. Didn't pay for any extras on the domestic leg to Cairns so attempted to sleep. Failed abysmally. The others all managed to get a bit of sleep - doh!

Marrickville

Ashfield

Burwood, including old CIA offices

Wingtip of our A320

Coast north of Cairns

On the ground in Cairns

We were last off the plane in Cairns, but still had to wait a bit for our bags. And then walked around to the international terminal where we waited. And waited. And waited some more. Took nearly three quarters of an hour just to check in.  Customs was a lot shorter and security a lot shorter than that. Silly really. Popped by TRS to get $83 GST back from Stu's camera and then went to find some lunch. The Cairns international terminal had two places that appeared to be selling food. So we went to the one that was selling generic hot food. And waited. And waited. And waited. In the end we decided to just get something that didn't need to be cooked/prepared. But we still only got our food just as they called that we were boarding. So I got them to put my chips in a bag, and took them onto the plane! Ha!

The plane was an A330 this time, and fairly full but not completely so. We got all the "packs" - the entertainment pack, the comfort pack and the food pack.

The food was pretty standard airline fare. A choice of a couple of dishes (I had a pork curry) with a small salad and a bread roll and two squares of Cadbury chocolate for dessert. Then later a meat pie or quiche for vegetarians. Don't think there were any snacks or extra drinks available, and don't think any alcohol.

Our lunch on the plane

The comfort pack was a bit of a waste of money on the daytime trip. It included a blanket, inflatable neck support thingie, earplugs and an eye mask. Didn't use any of it, but they did say we could keep the blankies, so we took it all with us :)

The entertainment pack meant you get a little battery-operated box with a screen and presumably a hard drive loaded with various movies, tv shows, games and music. I'd read on someone's blog that this was a little cumbersome and meant it was difficult to eat because you have to sit it on your tray table, but we didn't get big meal trays so it wasn't so bad. And the screen is actually bigger than the seat-mounted screens you get in other planes. I watched Twilight first up and then The Changeling. Twilight was pretty average, but The Changeling was pretty good. But I ran out of time to see all of the Enough Rope episode that featured Angelina Jolie and Clint Eastwood. Doh!

Jetstar's in-flight entertainment system

The back of our plane

Sunset over Mt Fuji (we're pretty sure that lump is Mt Fuji!)

So arrived at Narita airport. Were last off plane (again!) :) Customs/immigration were fairly quick and easy. After the nuttyness of Australian customs it's weird to get used to the fact that other countries aren't so paranoid.

Took us a few goes to find the right place to buy the NEX/Suica combo we wanted. Then got the Narita Express into Tokyo, switched to the Yamonote line and headed up to Akihabara. The train was pretty crowded (9pm on a Saturday night) so we'd hate to see it in rush hour!  And according to the announcements on the train it "ahkee-ha-bar-ah". Or something :)

My first beer in Japan - on the Narita Express (NEX) train from the airport!

The NEX has monitors that show you where you are between the airport and Tokyo

Came out of the station and Natto fell in love. She was totally in heaven :) Except we didn't get to stop and look at anything because we were carrying all our bags around.

This is the first thing we saw when we got out of the train at Akihabara

Building in Akihabara

So found our hotel and checked in. It's a shoe-box sized room, but a cute shoebox :)  Planned out our day tomorrow. Now Nat and Andrew are off to explore Akihabara while Stu and I collapse into bed. I swear we're getting too old for this ;)

"Cubicle" bathroom - moulded rooms dropped into
place in the hotel rooms. Most hotels had these.

All the hotel toilets had various wash services built in
Photo by Natto

Steps walked today: 6723
Photos taken by me: 296
Photos taken by Stu: 0