Saturday, April 17, 2010

Hello Japan! :)

Upon arrival at the Narita International Airport, it took us quite a long walk from the plane to the Immigration. There was quite a long line 'coz our plane's really full...maybe because there were lots of tourists who would spend their summer vacation in Japan too.

my cousin at the walkalator

At the Immigration, we were directed to the priority lane by a ground attendant. There we were attended by a female immigration officer. My grandma and I had our thumbmarks and photos taken, and our passports stamped.

Then we proceeded to get our baggage at the conveyors. While when on our way to the Customs, we encountered a lot of officers with sign boards which had photos of fruits. I knew they were asking if we got fruits in our baggage, so I said "no/none". Then we submitted the form we filled out during our flight (regarding prohibited items/customs duties) at the Customs officer at the gate.

Then we headed to the exit gates. Upon exit, we immediately saw my Uncle and cousin waiting for us. Yes, their waiting area's inside also, unlike in the Philippines.

There we were!
with my uncle (whom we call Daddy)

We grabbed some drinks.


Then we proceeded to the parking lot. But before riding the car, we had to pay for the parking first. Daddy just inserted the parking ticket and the payment...then whoala! Done!



It was totally freezing outside! I put on a thick jacket yet I still felt cold. It felt like I was in a huge freezer! Temperature was approximately 0 degrees...but it also turned negative along our way! Yay!

We got a house in Tokyo, which is about an hour away from the airport, but we'll be staying at our house in Suwa CIty, Nagano, which is about 4 hours of travel via Express Way.

On our way home, we passed by Tokyo and saw the Tokyo Tower.


We grabbed some food at a service area along the Express Way.


(oops sorry! I did the wrong way of positioning the chopsticks. it must be on top across the bowl.)

checking out some stuff at the convenience store

Then we had another stopover. We had some coffee (since it's really cold outside). I wasn't able to take photos inside 'coz I forgot the camera in the car. :p


Then back on the road again. It was below 0 degrees Celsius outside! Thank God, there's a heater in the car. haha!

We got home at around 1am. So tired and sleepy...but happy!:)

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Yey...Finally!!! :)

So I haven't posted a blog entry  for almost two weeks already. It's just that a lot of things happened really fast! Let me tell the whole story.

I applied for a 90-day tourist visa in Japan last February but I assumed that it won't be approved 'coz I got denied already twice a few years ago. But luckily, I was informed that my visa was approved on the 3rd week of March. So we bought a ticket immediately for a flight on the 27th of March. Unfortunately, PAL and JAL were both fully-booked, so the earliest possible flight for us would be April 4. So I set my mind that I'll be flying on that date. But on the 26th of March, we got a call from our agent that she was able to boor a flight the next day, March 27. Oh my,I didnt expect that it would be too soon. So I packed my stuff and texted my friends to meet me for dinner. We had dinner at Pasto, Eastwood. 

they looked like Sex and the City girls :p

I got home at around 3pm and I woke up at 7am. With only 4 hours of sleep, we headed to the airport at around 10:30am. By the way, my grandma and little cousin were with me. Our flight was at 2:45pm but it got delayed so our plane took off at around 3:15pm. We flew via Philippine Airlines' Boeing 747.

 busy airport (MIAA)
our plane
middle seats
people boarding the plane
my meal: fish fillet curry inside
my cousin's meal: chicken curry (which I also ate after I finished mine haha)

After the 4-hour flight, we landed to Narita International Airport in Japan a few minutes before 8pm (GMT+9) or 7pm (GMT+8). The cool interactive screen kept me up the whole flight. It didn't bore me but made me enjoyed the flight even more. I played games, listened to some music, and watched movies. Haha!

My arrival in Japan would be discussed in detail on my next blog entry.=)

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Hello Japan! :)

Upon arrival at the Narita International Airport, it took us quite a long walk from the plane to the Immigration. There was quite a long line 'coz our plane's really full...maybe because there were lots of tourists who would spend their summer vacation in Japan too.

my cousin at the walkalator

At the Immigration, we were directed to the priority lane by a ground attendant. There we were attended by a female immigration officer. My grandma and I had our thumbmarks and photos taken, and our passports stamped.

Then we proceeded to get our baggage at the conveyors. While when on our way to the Customs, we encountered a lot of officers with sign boards which had photos of fruits. I knew they were asking if we got fruits in our baggage, so I said "no/none". Then we submitted the form we filled out during our flight (regarding prohibited items/customs duties) at the Customs officer at the gate.

Then we headed to the exit gates. Upon exit, we immediately saw my Uncle and cousin waiting for us. Yes, their waiting area's inside also, unlike in the Philippines.

There we were!
with my uncle (whom we call Daddy)

We grabbed some drinks.


Then we proceeded to the parking lot. But before riding the car, we had to pay for the parking first. Daddy just inserted the parking ticket and the payment...then whoala! Done!



It was totally freezing outside! I put on a thick jacket yet I still felt cold. It felt like I was in a huge freezer! Temperature was approximately 0 degrees...but it also turned negative along our way! Yay!

We got a house in Tokyo, which is about an hour away from the airport, but we'll be staying at our house in Suwa CIty, Nagano, which is about 4 hours of travel via Express Way.

On our way home, we passed by Tokyo and saw the Tokyo Tower.


We grabbed some food at a service area along the Express Way.


(oops sorry! I did the wrong way of positioning the chopsticks. it must be on top across the bowl.)

checking out some stuff at the convenience store

Then we had another stopover. We had some coffee (since it's really cold outside). I wasn't able to take photos inside 'coz I forgot the camera in the car. :p


Then back on the road again. It was below 0 degrees Celsius outside! Thank God, there's a heater in the car. haha!

We got home at around 1am. So tired and sleepy...but happy!:)

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Yey...Finally!!! :)

So I haven't posted a blog entry  for almost two weeks already. It's just that a lot of things happened really fast! Let me tell the whole story.

I applied for a 90-day tourist visa in Japan last February but I assumed that it won't be approved 'coz I got denied already twice a few years ago. But luckily, I was informed that my visa was approved on the 3rd week of March. So we bought a ticket immediately for a flight on the 27th of March. Unfortunately, PAL and JAL were both fully-booked, so the earliest possible flight for us would be April 4. So I set my mind that I'll be flying on that date. But on the 26th of March, we got a call from our agent that she was able to boor a flight the next day, March 27. Oh my,I didnt expect that it would be too soon. So I packed my stuff and texted my friends to meet me for dinner. We had dinner at Pasto, Eastwood. 

they looked like Sex and the City girls :p

I got home at around 3pm and I woke up at 7am. With only 4 hours of sleep, we headed to the airport at around 10:30am. By the way, my grandma and little cousin were with me. Our flight was at 2:45pm but it got delayed so our plane took off at around 3:15pm. We flew via Philippine Airlines' Boeing 747.

 busy airport (MIAA)
our plane
middle seats
people boarding the plane
my meal: fish fillet curry inside
my cousin's meal: chicken curry (which I also ate after I finished mine haha)

After the 4-hour flight, we landed to Narita International Airport in Japan a few minutes before 8pm (GMT+9) or 7pm (GMT+8). The cool interactive screen kept me up the whole flight. It didn't bore me but made me enjoyed the flight even more. I played games, listened to some music, and watched movies. Haha!

My arrival in Japan would be discussed in detail on my next blog entry.=)