Monday morning. With flying over the International Date Line, I pretty much missed all of Sunday. The flight from San Fran to Tokyo took about 11 hours. I got a couple of naps in, maybe 2-3 hours total. I'm enjoying the Witcher book "The Blood of Elves" and that helped pass a lot of the time as well. Best of all, I got through about 300 emails, which had been weighing heavily on me. I'm now down to a reasonable 75 or so in my inbox, at least for the moment.
Once we landed and got through customs, it was on to the trains. We had a two train journey to get to the hotel in
Hadano. Thanks to a couple of travelers that had been here before, the purchasing of tickets was not too difficult of a mystery for our travel-weary minds. The first train was the NEX that was very fast and smooth, with reserved seats.
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| On the NEX |
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| The Express. Stop 39: Hadano... |
The second train, however was different. In hindsight we probably didn't get on the ideal train - we apparently could have paid a bit more for a "super express" which would have gotten us there in about an hour. Instead we were on the "express" that added an extra 30 minutes due to more frequent stops. Also, it was quite crowded; we got to stand the whole time.
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| Pretty big smile for traveling for 20+hours! |
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| You can see why it wasn't obvious which train was best |
Finally, after 23 hours door-to-door travel, we made it to the
Grand Hotel Kanachu. My hotel room was actually a bit bigger than expected, with two twin beds. Note: The bed was not the most plush I've ever been on - pretty
firm to say the least, but I am not complaining!
The check-in was extremely efficient. The hotel had all of the Terumo BCT guests pre-checked in and a table with our names and keys ready to go. Ten minutes later a group of us walked to a nearby restaurant where I experienced my first official Japanese meal. It was pretty nice - just a bowl of udon noodles with a little pork. We didn't daudle at dinner; both Rich Gonzales and I sat at the bar, and as soon as we were finished eating we called it a night. Our colleagues were just getting served some sort of humongous seafood platter by the time we were leaving. I'm glad I wasn't at that table! I needed sleep!
After a good night's sleep (thank goodness!), I had the included "American" breakfast. I didn't opt for the more adventurous Japanese traditional breakfast, but it looked pretty good too.
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| Japanese style breakfast |
The real work doesn't start until mid-day today, so I took advantage and went for a couple-mile stroll around the area surrounding the hotel with a couple of colleagues, Isabel McGann and Mike Santalucia. The weather was a comfortable low 70's. Starting around noon today it will get very busy - I'm guessing my next journal entries will not be nearly the novel that this one is turning out to be.
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| Hotel view 1 |
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| Hotel view 2 |
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| These vending machines are out on the street, all over the place |
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| Check out this parking garage! |
One other thing. How did I not know until now that in Japan they travel on the left side of the street, a la England? That was a surprise to me!
The check-in was extremely efficient. The hotel had all of the Terumo BCT guests pre-checked in and a table with our names and keys ready to go. Ten minutes later a group of us walked to a nearby restaurant where I experienced my first official Japanese meal. It was pretty nice - just a bowl of udon noodles with a little pork. We didn't daudle at dinner; both Rich Gonzales and I sat at the bar, and as soon as we were finished eating we called it a night. Our colleagues were just getting served some sort of humongous seafood platter by the time we were leaving. I'm glad I wasn't at that table! I needed sleep!
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