Initially, I thought I would be the first person from the entire airplane to pass the border control, as very little people knew that one could actually skip filling an immigration card (which is entirely in Japanese, btw) by putting in details about your stay on the website Visit Japan Web before even getting to the airport.
It would be true if not for my cringe passport, seeing which the immigration officer decided to call for help and proceed with my application manually. For the next 15-20 mins, we were filling in details on some paper including a detailed summary of all the places I would stay in, all the contact info and that I am here only for tourism… He said it's for security, and something about another person also arriving here (?) …okay I guess
I got a 15-day data SIM card, exchanged some cash, and went to the express train SKY ACCESS line.
The train station. The absolutely crazy looking train map. The train has crazy AC and is pretty comfortable!
The views are great! There is a ton of greenery around, which is very unlike where I lived for some time. Even though the air conditioners are very strong, you absolutely can feel that you got into a place with a humid climate.
The first problems started really unexpectedly: the train had to do an emergency stop, as something audibly hit the train from below many times. We were standing still for around 15 mins, after which the train continued the ride. Given that emergency stops are, unfortunately, happening a lot in Japan for various reasons, I've got the real Japanese experience.
After the incident, the train has made a final stop midway to my desired destination, from which the quest started of figuring out where I should go next.
The Tokyo subway and all of the train networks form a mindblowingly large map, which covers the entire city, and is operated by different companies. In my case, all I had to do is figure out the direction I needed to go, as all of the trains went pretty much the same way and, unless you actually leave the platform by providing the ticket, you are still on the same operating company.
Which one of these?
When I finally got to my stop, I was confidently going to my hotel, only to find the one I stumbled upon was the wrong one… Look how many of these are in this small area!
It was too early to check in, so I left my huge baggage and went… anywhere. Well, at least I got some food.
Small portions of food? In Japan? This sandwich is huuuge…
I wandered around, took some photos of the city, checked in to my room when the time came, and decided to come up with the most unique tourist plan ever.
The jungle of concrete and buildings, I think it looks okay!
Whatever, let's just go to Pokemon Center lol
The godly place
Main Objective: DO NOT BUY ANYTHING YET
After my dream came true, I decided to have some actual food for my dinner. Following my Japanese friends' advices, I decided to visit Saizeriya, and not just anywhere, but on Akihabara.
As good as this meal was, the main highlight was how it was delivered…
I did not expect this at all, although… Being in Akihabara probably makes it reasonable to have such a cute robocat delivering your meals 🥰
What being in Akihabara also brings, it's that you can't just leave it. While Akihabara was in my plans, I thought of visiting it later.
oh NO that's a lot of stuff
Akiba has literally anything you could imagine, and I got the chance to see lots of pieces of new and old hardware that I only saw online… It was fun, wow
There was lots of stuff that really caught my eye, although them existing here is not exactly because it's Akiba, it's just crazy to see so much high-end modern stuff in retail, lol
Overwhelmed and tired, still not believing in actually being in Japan, I went home, taking photos of some streets that I found nice.
I detoured quite a bit, but in the end I got to my room safely, and fell asleep, lol
After struggling to find an actual power adapter to use with my own USB-C charger, I just got around buying a new USB-C PD charging block for my laptop, which I'll probably just give to my friend later, we will see.