Monday, January 25, 2010

The arrival

So here's the story. I wake up 7:30 AM in Atlanta, on January 23rd. I get in to KIX at 8:30 PM (local time, 6:30 AM ATL) January 24th. Not having slept, since I can't sleep on planes.

The plane ride from Atlanta to Tokyo was pretty terrible. It was crowded, the seats were very close together, and also it was probably a thirteen hour flight. Little did I know that the real fun was about to begin.

The moment I get off the plane, I'm confused. When asking people, I was first shoved off to the International Departure section, probably because my boarding pass said Kansai "International". But I was there for an hour before someone pointed me back out to where I just was. So then I went through immigration and customs, and guess what? I was on the South side, when my flight was on the North side. So I get there, go to where I need to go. When I go to go through to my plane, I'm stopped, along with a guy from New Zealand, and we're both told that we have to fill out some form, which was weird, but oh well. The plane finally left at 6:40 PM, but got off the ground at 7:20 ish. So I get to KIX, and go through the same stuff about forms and lines and whatnot at Tokyo/Narita. I get my one giant bag easy enough, and head off to the hotel. But wait, where's the hotel? I finally found it after walking around for a couple of minutes, since KIX is MUCH less confusing than Tokyo.

So now here I am, 2:30 AM, writing a blog about how much I hate Tokyo Narita airport. There's also the fact that there are tons and tons of forms, even almost going so far as to have to fill out one form to fill out this other form. I guess the Japanese love their paperwork.

Well, time to try and get back to sleep, and I'll try to have some pictures up tomorrow of some of the stuff I've seen.

P.S. There s a vending machine that sells beer right next to my room, literally the next door over.

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