Splendors of Japan – Travel Days

Splendors of Japan with Hiroshima

Travel Days – 9/10 May 2014

Well, I packed a little heavier for this tour. Including the 4 lbs of shampoo and conditioner, my luggage came to 30 lbs. But it also includes my second bag which I’ll need on this tour as our luggage doesn’t accompany us on all nights so we have to pack a smaller second bag. The second bag is a small duffel that’s all rolled up in my luggage and is sturdy enough to send through the airlines.

I was so organized this time around, I left wondering if I had forgotten anything. The cat is tucked away with my sister and her two kids. House is occupied by another sister who is between houses and maybe between husbands given he just took off to the Dominican without her. LOL

My Air Canada flight was on time as usual and I had a window seat for a change. I was hoping to glimpse some ice bergs from the air but we hit the low cloud much too soon. I settled back to watch Monuments Men and asked the flight attendant for a Coke when he came around. Then I watched him serve my Coke to the man on the other side of the aisle. Then I watched him turn, look at me, have that pregnant pause only to follow it by a great big “oops” smile.

I got my Coke after.

The gentleman across the aisle was left wondering what to do with a tea and a Coke.

I decided to spend the night in Toronto rather than risk fog delaying an early morning flight out tomorrow morning. And doing both flights would make for a really really long day. This time around, my travel agents told me about the Alt Hotel next to Pearson International. It’s at the end of the terminal rail line (it stops at Terminal 1, Terminal 3 and the Viscount Parking area (where the hotel is situated)). I just have to roll my bag out of the train, go down the escalator (don’t follow the others going to get their cars in the garage) and the hotel is a short 90 second walk from the station. Best part about it is that there is no sitting in the hotel shuttle bus area for 30 minutes or more watching shuttle after shuttle for other hotels go by. I just went straight to the inter-terminal train and was at the hotel in minutes.

It’s an ultramodern hotel that caters to the traveler and is ideal for overnighting between flights. It’s $129 and is as cozy as any hotel I’ve stayed in with Trafalgar but at the same time is minimalist. The room has a TV with a great selection, free wifi, one large bed, alarm clock, hair dryer, shampoo stuff but no safe or kettle. It does have a funky chair.

There’s no restaurant but it has a bar and a self service area with sandwiches, drinks and snacks. More than enough for an evening bite. And one can take the train back to Terminal 1 for a restaurant if they want something more.

Highly recommend it for over-nighting in Toronto.

I ate my fourth meal of the day and sat back, trying to stay up as late as possible to push my adjustment to the time difference. Tomorrow’s flight leaves Toronto at 2 pm, takes 12 hours and lands in Tokyo at 4 pm. That is 4:30 am at home, but I’m going to want to crash the moment I get to the hotel. I’m hoping to resist until 8 pm….which would essentially be the equivalent of pulling an all nighter.

Confused yet?

I slept like a log at the Alt hotel. The bed was really comfy despite feeling lumpy when I got into it. I woke at 6 and went back to sleep and finally woke at 9 am. Once again, my flight was on time. It is here that I get my first introduction to the Japanese courtesy. In China, line ups were like a stampede with people always fighting to get to the head of the line. I even had people push by to get on up the steps to the airplane…and we had assigned seating! LOL

But the Japanese are content with their place in line. When they called for the back of the plane, everyone lined up didn’t move since they weren’t seat 50 and above, so I went ahead and the group in the front parted like the Red Sea when they saw a few of us trying to get through.

And very few of them had big carryons. This has to be the first international flight I’ve taken in which there was loads of space in the overhead.

I settled in and selected the movies I needed to keep me occupied for the next 12 hours. Pacific Rim, 47 Ronin, 12 Years a Slave and The Hobbit 2.Wait…that’s only 9 hours worth. I’m missing one. Or was three hours lost to announcements being made in English, French, Japanese, Italian, Spanish and something else?

See what hormones do to the memory!

I had great neighbours on the flight. Quiet Japanese woman in front of me, behind me and next to me. At one point, I went to the washroom and being in the centre section of the seating, I don’t see outside, so I opened the visor on the door next to the toilet.

Holy cow!

I took pictures of the Chersky Mountain range in Siberia with my cell phone. I could have sat there for an hour taking pics but the flight attendant shooed me back to my seat. Actually, she told me to use the window on the next door up but given that the cabin was almost completely dark, opening the visor lit up the area. So I took a quick look and closed the visor. Later on, the guy sitting there was chatting with me and I showed him the pics and I thought he was going to cry. He said he was afraid to open the visor cause everyone was asleep.

“Asleep!” he said in disbelief. “It’s like 9 pm back in Toronto. What are they all doing asleep?”

So, I’m not the only one who saw the best way to beat the jet lag on this particular flight was to stay awake. LOL

We landed just before 4 pm and I walked the half-marathon to passport control which went very quickly. I had to fill out two forms on the plane. The passport guy took one and left part of it in my passport and put a sticker in the passport. They also wanted my index finger prints. From there, I went to the luggage carousel where two men stood near where the luggage drops out. Their job apparently was to straighten up the luggage as it finished its first circuit onto the carrousel. So, if you don’t take your luggage on its first ride around, they will straighten it up, tag out and slide all the pieces together in a way that my organized-compulsive side felt really comfortable with.

Yeah, you heard me right. Two guys. Employed. Straightening up luggage. LOL

(Yes, I imagine it’s only part of their job as they ended up answering questions and pointing us in the right direction too).

I went through the No Duty line and the guy took my other form and waved me through to arrivals where, to my delight, was a gentlemen holding a sign with my name is big bold letters. After my South African Johannesburg Airport Adventure, I do hold my breath….just a little…every time I step out into the arrivals area now.

The gentleman told me that my bus didn’t leave for another 45 minutes and he was waiting for another traveler. He said he’d watch my bag if I wanted to go shop.

He said there was a mall on the fourth level. Well, took me the whole 20 minutes he gave me to just find the elevator, so I just bought a Coke and headed back to find the other traveler had shown up. We chatted and the gentleman showed us to our bus and made sure our luggage was tagged and that and wished us well.

The ride took a bit over an hour. It was late Saturday and traffic moved fairly fast until we hit the centre of the city where it slowed a bit. We pulled into the hotel at about 6:15 pm. (In case you’re counting, that’s 21 hours after I had gotten up in Toronto.)

Of course, that’s too early to sleep and I wasn’t ‘dead on my feet’ tired. We checked in, asked for a non-smoking floor (not just a non-smoking room but a non-smoking floor as the individual rooms are sometimes smoking and sometimes non-smoking so you can end up with a non-smoking room that used to be a smoking room.) The service was great and this tiny woman got to push the cart up to our room.

My view is to the east. I can see the Tokyo Tower but not Mt. Fuji…..

….umm….okay, my bed just moved.

Ummm……

I mean, as I sit here typing this…..my bed swayed from left to right about three times.

And yes, I’m alone.

<checking my earthquake app>

A 4.7 off the coast.

Oh good…I thought it was me. <whew>

So, where was I? Oh yes…my room….well, I can’t see Mt. Fuji. But I can see a bunch of buttons on my toilet that I’m just dying to try out. Not sure if I’ll report on them when I’m done. I’ll leave it to your imagination.

There’s a kettle and some tea and coffee to choose from. No iron but I do get a robe! Safe and shampoo stuff is there. Oh, and slippers. The neat part is that every drawer that has something in it was pulled out just a bit to show me where everything was. Oh, just found a shirt of some sort. I’ll investigate that later.

Wifi is free and fast. TV has a sheet to show you how to find the 3 English news channels.

About 6 minutes after I got to the room, the phone rang and it was the TD saying hello and confirming my dietary restrictions. I confirmed that I’m not a fish eater but not allergic. I also confirmed that lamb was off the table. I told her I would try the sushi.

And I’ll pack a couple of breakfast bars just in case. LOL

I got together with my tour-mate for a snack in the main level garden restaurant where I ordered a tomato salad for about $13.

Yes, I got a tomato and some lettuce for $13. Mind you, it hit the spot for something light after all the traveling, but for a full meal, it’s probably not the best place to eat (I remember reading about how expensive the New Otani was for food on Trip Advisor). The prices in the restaurant were excessive but there are restaurants to the east just over the bridge…including Hooters.

By the time we finished, I was starting to feel that downward spiral. I still hadn’t decided on what to do on my free day, so I sorted through my stuff and would leave that decision to the morning depending on when I woke up and depending on the weather.

At 24 hours since I woke in Torontozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…..

 

 

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