Blog 1- A Long Day!

Today has gone in a bit of a blur! I say 'today', but I'm not really sure what that means anymore! It started around 5.30am on Friday morning, waiting for a taxi on an icy Manchester street outside a friend's house, as fresh snow was floating down. I was pleased this didn't carry on too long (for the first time ever!) as Manchester airport had some cancelled flights earlier this week due to snow. Fortunately my taxi and the flight went ahead as planned though, and before long we were looking down upon a lovely snowy England. You could even see the tracks where people had rolled their snowmen, like little green snail trails!

Flight food is always fun! Flying with Air Fance, they made sure to slip in some croissants and Camembert along the way!

The first flight, of approximately one hour, took me from Manchester to Paris, and then a much longer flight (11ish hours) took me the rest of the way to Tokyo. Upon landing, it was just about time to go to bed in the UK, but just about time to get up in Tokyo. Which means I essentially went straight from a long day of travel, into another day, with no sleep in between. I didn't manage to nod off on the plane. Below is the second aeroplane.

First lesson in Japan- learn how to identify the flush button on a toilet! They have many buttons, and I'm sure you wouldn't want to press some of them by accident! They have options such as 'clean front' and 'clean back', for instance. The actual flush is the black button on the wall above the loo roll. Took me a while to find!!

I managed to find Tom in the airport, he was waiting for me just outside customs. We treated ourselves to some rail passes, and a mystery Japanese snack, which turned out to taste like extra intense cheesy wotsits.

And another mystery drink from a vending machine! It was lemony, as expected, and hot, not as expected.

The rest of the day (which had only just begun in Tokyo, though it didn't feel like it to me), consisted of exploring town, checking into our hotel, taking photos (on the camera, so can't share them yet), visiting a couple of temples. Also my first chopstick meal without a knife and fork backup plan. A noodle dish called ramen, which was very salty, but tasty! Around 3oclock I was ready to keel over and sleep, but Tom kept me going-helping me fend off jet lag as soon as possible! Let's hope we both sleep well tonight and can enjoy all that tomorrow offers!