Day 1 of Japan Trip (30 Nov 2011) - Singapore to Tokyo

I booked our return flights to Japan with Delta as they were the cheapest direct flights I could find. Six SIN-NRT tickets aren't easy on the pocket. Did not like the flight times. Departs from Changi at 6am (means we have to get up from bed at 3am), departs from Narita at 6.25pm (means we arrive in S'pore at 1am) - disrupts our usual sleep cycle.

The breakfast served on board the B777-200 was passable, but whatever happened to American portions? Even us Asians found the portions small. It was more than enough for me and my 8-year-old daughter GG, but not really enough for the hubby and my boys.

Curry rice for breakfast?

There was a choice of curry rice or omelette. GG chose curry rice thinking it was Japanese style but it turned out to be Indian-style, I think. She didn't like it much especially after she saw my safe choice of omelette looked better. I had chosen omelette as that sounded like breakfast. Seems weird to me to have curry rice for breakfast.

Safe choice for breakfast - omelette

In between naps, we played games and watched movies on the individual inflight entertainment console infront of us. Movie selection was good.

Arrived in Narita Airport and headed for the JR office where we will exchange the exchange order we got from buying the JR Pass in Singapore (I paid in Japanese yen as the rate was better that way) from Prime Follow Me Japan (yup, that's the company name). They're at Raffles Place MRT.

It took a bit of time to process our Japan Railpass since there are six passes to be done. I specified that our 21-day pass was to be activated for the period 5 Dec - 25 Dec. You need to have these firm dates when you get your pass done at this counter, as once done, you cannot change the dates. The two women at the counter next to us are in a tizzy as they did not know that, and right now at the counter, they are looking through their plans and trying to give a firm date.

I immediately booked our 3 most important train rides at the same counter. Being night trains, they are probably much more difficult to secure compared to day time trains. Ah, no problem securing the seats we want for the first two night trains ( Nobi nobi seats on the Sunrise Seto or Sunrise Izumo ; Goron-to seats on the Akebono) but did not get the Carpet Car seats on the Hamanasu as it was fully booked, so settled for Dream Car seats on the Hamanasu, all of them on the dates I wanted.

Our first onigiri in Japan

I have a few pages of other less important train rides to book, but I think the kids have waited long enough. Besides, I can always book those a few a time whenever we pass by a JR office. So I bought the NEX-suica package (at the same counter) for the ride from NRT into Tokyo. Had to fill up a form for my 2 younger kids' suica - being age 8 and 11, they were eligible for child fare (long as under 12). My two older kids age 13 and 15 are considered adults.

A look at the watch shows it is almost one. Lunch? We grab some onigiri from a convenience kiosk right there, and hop onto the NEX (stands for Narita Express train). It's a half hour ride into Tokyo and after looking for the hotel and checking in, it'd be way too late for lunch. Hence our simple onigiri lunch on the NEX. I love Japan's trains as no matter what train you take, you can always eat and drink in it.

Tucking into onigiri on board the NEX

After getting off the NEX at Shinjuku we transferred to the Yamanote line to get to Ikebukuro, where our hotel Toyoko Inn Ikebukuo 2 was. Felt a bit lost at this huge station, as this is our first time in Japan. People (all very dressed-up compared to the dressed-down and relaxed kind of dressing in Singapore) in the station walk hurriedly and most do not make eye contact.

It took us a little while to get used to the color coded signages and English/kanji/hiragana letterings.
Kanji's not a problem for me, as it's pretty similar to Mandarin. Hiragana's not too much of a problem for me as I had prepared for this trip but learning it on my own through resources on the Net. I'm still hardly good at it though, as I can only read hiragana slowly. (As for katakana, I'm bad at it as I did not have enough time to learn it properly.)

No problem getting on the right train, getting off at the right stop and looking for the hotel (had printed out the hotel location map from Toyoko Inn's excellent website. The hubby and I applied for Toyoko Inn membership (1500Y each) which is a MUST! Member's discounts and the hotel's stay 10 nights get 1 night free scheme saved us a HUGE bundle on this 28-day Japan trip.

In Ikebukuro

If you're only taking one room, only one person need apply for membership. For us, it's because we're booking two rooms. My 3 sons shared an economy double (Toyoko Inn allows my 11-yr-old to stay for free with our 2 teen boys), while GG shared me and hubby's bed. The hotel allows kids under 12 to stay and breakfast without charge. We had to surrender all 6 passports for them to make copies upon check-in, at every Toyoko Inn we stayed in Japan.

It was three plus in the afternoon, almost four when we finally dropped off our luggage in the room. Decided we'd just explore Ikebukuro a bit, have dinner and go back to the hotel for an early night's rest, as we were tired from having to wake up at 3am to catch this morning's 6am Delta flight.

Had our first bowl of ramen in Japan - Tokyo style! The kids always ask for char siew ramen as they've been watching Naruto anime for ages. I'd read about different types of ramen that varies with locality all over Japan. There's Toyko style, Hakata, Asahikawa, Sapporo, etc, etc. And that's why, on this trip, we decided that we'd try to eat at least a bowl of ramen at each stop we make. Tokyo ramen - check!