Sunday, December 20, 2015

Japan! Part 1

I was away much longer than I thought I would be. For half of October I was in Japan! While I was away we decided it would be the perfect time to bring a baby Australian Shepherd home for my husband. He never had a dog to call his own before. So when I got home I had a new, fast-growing puppy to deal with. Mix a high energy fur ball with my tiny senior dogs and....it's still a disaster 2 months later.

But I digress.

This is a trip we have actually been planning for most of the year. At the end of 2014 my cousin, Ashley, made the decision that she was going to go to Japan soon. I was excited about the idea but due to some smaller differences about the vision of the trip I decided to hang back. As a lifelong Disney lover, I was not going to fly all the way to Japan and not go to both Disney parks there.
She continued planning her trip and invited some of our friends. A couple months later, she brought the trip up again during a lunch date and I told her how bummed I was that I couldn't go. I just absolutely couldn't fly out there without the Disney visit. She thought about it for a minute and then offered to fly out with me a few days earlier than the rest of the group so that we could make it down to both Disney parks. I was thrilled!

Since my husband was gone for the year, he thought it would be a good idea if I did get in on this trip and encouraged me to go. I was in! AND to make things even better, Disney tickets were less than half the cost they are here at home that the entire group decided they wanted to check it out too!

After searching for flights I found a pretty great deal through Singapore Airlines. I bought tickets for myself, my cousin (Ashley's brother) David, and his girlfriend Emily so that we could all fly in on the same flight together. Ashley, our best friend Shonna, and Shonna's fiance Buck, used their credit card miles to book their flights. Shonna's friend Leslie booked a last minute ticket for herself and flew in before any of us.




We left on Wednesday afternoon from LAX, flew nonstop for 11.5 hours, and arrived in Japan on Thursday night. There is a 16 hour time difference between California and Japan! This was by far the longest flight I have ever been on as well as the biggest time difference.

 

Welcome to Japan!

When we arrived it took us a little while to figure out how to get a seat on the train to take us into the town we were staying in. After riding the train for a couple hours, we then rode the main local train to the station nearest our hostel. It was way late and we were exhausted after traveling SO long. Ashley had to let us in (the other people in our group had arrived a few days ahead of us) because the doors were locked for the night. We checked in to our room which had 2 bunk beds,  a narrow walking space, but thankfully had a toilet and shower! Ashley, David, Emily, and I got to stay in the room together so we didn't ever have to worry about keeping our luggage safe. Shonna, Leslie, and Buck stayed in a different room for 3 people a few floors down from us. 

We barely had enough time to shower and change before crashing for the night. Although I always recommend flying in to someplace at night so that you can sleep all night and adjust to the time difference without wasting part of the day sleeping. I did struggle with jet lag for a few days but it didn't turn out to be too bad. 

I'll break my trip up into a few posts since I am trying to document as much as I can while I can still remember it! Obviously, much more to come so stay tuned!