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Day 1, November 15-16
So we made it to Japan. First stop Tokyo; nothing like just jumping right in. Our flight from San Fran was just under 11 hours; so not too bad but we lost a day. Once we arrived it was pretty easy to get through immigration and customs and even easier to find the train. Everyone here is so nice and the major train stations seem to have english speaking attendants that help you out when they notice you have been standing in the same place for awhile, looking confused. The Narita airport is about an hour from Tokyo proper and once we arrived at the Ueno station we could transfer to various Metro lines. Our hostel was only two stops from this main station. As we exited the Minowa station to walk to our hostel we were very surprised as to how calm the city was; nothing like we thought it would be. We were expecting large crowds and a certain amount of chaos. Later we realized just how big Tokyo is and that our hostel is off the beaten path. Of course as we left the station we went the wrong way. We never really contemplated how difficult the language barrier really would be, we could not even determine street names and when we could our maps did not show that street name; so you find yourself navigating on pure graphics. After standing at the corner for about five minutes trying to determine just where we were, a lady stopped to help us. She spoke no english and off course we could only say the pure basics in Japan not to mention that we were completely jet lagged. We showed her our hostel registration and she took us across the street to call and get directions to our hostel. Once she knew where to go she told us to follow her and then she had me put my backpack in the basket of her bicycle and she proceeded to guide us. At this point we are thinking who how nice of her but at the same time my life for the next six months is in that bag and that would just be my luck to lose everything on the first day as she hops on her bike and drives off. However, I just reminded myself of what Yuki said about crime in Japan and that it did not exist and that everyone is very helpful and I could not be rude so we followed. She got us to what would be the corner of our hostel but she did not know where to go from there and she told us to stay there as she called the hostel and told them to come to the street and pick us up and then she rode off. Five minutes someone from the hostel met us at the corner and told us to just turn around and viola there it was...at that point we felt pretty stupid but it did not matter we just needed to sleep. After checking in we crashed and probably slept about 12 hours. Our hostel was nice and small but we had a private room with bath so that was all we needed; it was perfect for the first couple of days.
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