I made it!

I have arrived in one piece in Tokyo! :)



The flight from London to Tokyo was great - no turbulence and plenty of space as i was in a window seat and the centre seat wasn't taken :) Unfortunately I couldn't get a wink of sleep for some reason so I watched two films and now it is just gone 4pm in Tokyo and I have gone a whole night without sleep!! I was quizzed by 6 customs officers in Tokyo airport about my medication but they were nice and polite and all was okay in the end, apart from the fact they didn't give me my passport back and i nearly went out of the airport without it!! Anyway, despite a severe lack of sleep，I managed to make it through a maze of trains and undergrounds (with arrival annoucements in Japanese only!) and found my way to my hostel (with a little help from a Japanese road sweeper after lots of pointing at my map and phrasebook!). My Japanese definitely needs drastic help as nobody has understood a word i've said so far...... ha ha. The train journey from the airport to central Tokyo was beautiful - bright blue tiled houses, beautiful rivers, dense forests and fields with neat rows of various different crops...... not how i expected the suburbs of Tokyo to be at all! Also, i thought that I was going to be on an underground system from the airport to the area of Tokyo I'm staying in but the name should have really given it away "Kesei skyline express"!
Japanese people seem to be very curteous but i've seen some weird sights already - including a grandma with her grandkids on the train in a tweed pencil skirt suit and matching hat with a bright pink pokemon-style hoody, black lace gloves and illuminous orange trainers! They are mostly teeny tiny too so I feel a bit of a lard-arsed giant but I am sure i'll get over it ha ha. I have been on a mission on the local supermarket for food and soap - i had the choice of a 7 eleven or a 99Yen shop so being the cheapskate that i am i went for the 99Yen shop! I have got me some bread, cheese and what i can only hope is ham. Maybe it is donkey. I have also got some weird noodle-y thing and again, i have no idea what is in it but i have a back up what i am sure is a tin of tuna and a chocolate muffin from the BA flight! haha. On my way to the 99Yen shop I had to try not to laugh when the zebra crossing machine starting blaring out what sounded like japanese nursery rhymes when it was time to cross the road. Japan is definitely very bizzare but i like it. The 99Yen shop sold a weird and wonderful mixture of things and.... at the check outs instead of the usual chewing gum and sweets there were grills with roasted sweet potatoes on - a bit like the hot dog grills you get at cinemas in england! I am staying in a shared room with 3 other girls for the next 5 nights - i haven't met them yet but their stuff is already in place in the room so i'm guessing they've already been here a few days. Having had a little shifty at their stuff I think they might be Japanese.... Given todays results with my Japanese, I hope to god they speak english! It would definitely help as the room is teeny and the bathroom is the size of a caravan toilet!
I am not sure what I am going to do/where i am going to go from here but there's lots of resources here at the hostel and hopefully i might get a good sleep and then have a bit more brain power tommorow to start making a plan!

ooh p.s the toilet in the hostel lobby has a heated seat!! weeeeiiird!