Hot in Tokyo

The above was unfortunately very true as it was ~30C by the time we arrived. First, let me tell you that over 10hrs on a plane sucks. Not being able to sleep, mostly due to lack of space, sucks even more. So it were sleep deprived travelers ( the Japanese ones much less so as they seem capable of sleeping anywhere ) and stewardesses that braved Japan's summertime weather. I have to say that the transformation the outside scenery undergoes as you make that 80min trip from Narita to Tokyo is quite dramatic. It starts all rural villages and forests to end as tons of concrete in underground tunnels. I've also experienced that uniquely Japanese ability to sleep or do your whole make-up on the train. An adaptation of sorts, I suppose, when you consider that in Tokyo you can easily travel for 2hrs+ one way. What surprised me is that female school uniforms have this kind of sweater without sleeves ( I have no idea what's the proper name here, I'm no fashion specialist:P ) even with these temperatures. On the other hand, I've seen people here dressed anything from very lightly to almost winter wear. As far as I'm concerned, thank God for AC in ( almost ) all buildings and in all kinds of transportation. It's a life saver!

Once the sun went down temperatures got a smidge more bearable and I decided to go for a walk in the neighbourhood. There are several things about Tokyo that just jump out at you. There's lots of bicycles, especially parked in front of stations. I've even seen a parking spot with 2 levels of parking space, one above the other. Talking about interesting ideas, there are rotating car parks ( one entrance/exit and cars are rotated around ). Secondly, people aren't afraid to walk / ride anywhere in the evening ( or during nighttime ). Children, elderly, lone women, mothers with children, you can see them everywhere. Talking about children, school clubs are truly great. 8 PM and  you'll still see lots of kids either heading home from some kind of practice or training in some kind of sport. Myself I've been quite startled when I heard kendoists shouting from across the street ( from inside an impressive looking PE building to boot ). Lastly, it's the impressive state of roads ( haven't seen a single hole yet ) and just as awe-inspiring cleanliness of the city.

Travel not without problems

First off, there'll be 2 posts today. I wanted to throw in a photo from Japan but it turns out I can't process RAW files on my netbook. You'll have to wait a while longer for those.

Without further ado, let us begin!

To start, on my way to the airport on Friday morning I learned that my flight's cancelled. Instead we flew through Munich a few hours later. There were 2 positive points to this as we got a 14$ voucher to use for dinner at the airport. Secondly, with this we arrived in Japan at 10 AM instead of 8 which meant somewhat lower traffic. Let's go back to the airport in Warsaw, though. We had some more surprises waiting for us. First of all, we ended up pressed for time, because we hadn't anticipated such big queues for international flights. After that, some guy in the queue fainted in front of us. That voucher kind of backfired as it was probably the most expensive meal in my life and certainly had the worst price/value ratio. The grand total was 31$ for a very average meal.

photo of the queue:

photo of the infamous meal, 1/4 gone:

P.S. That coke in the background cost 3$. That's for a 0,5l bottle, folks!