Graduation Trip, Here We Come!

So, after 9 straight semesters of school, including summer, with no break, I finally graduated. What better way to celebrate than to head off to Japan for a few weeks and go cycling through an island we've never been to?

So, my last exam of my hardest semester was Friday, we attended some friends' wedding on Saturday (yay Jim and Julie!), attended a 3.5 hour graduation ceremony on Sunday, then had a frenetic two days to pack, get the house in order, remember how to both disassemble and pack the Bike Fridays, actually disassemble and pack them, run all the errands that needed doing (shopping, Traveler's Checks, 170# of cat litter, 50# of cat food, etc) and get down to Chicago Tuesday night.

We arrived at the Hyatt Regency (best place to park and fly from) and were given room 2114 (so close!). When we arrived and unpacked our myriad of electronic devices to charge before tomorrow's marathon flight, we found that our youngest cat, Miya, had given us a going away present

Chewed through :(

So, we basically have a brand new MacBook Air that we cannot charge. Luckily, we will be in one of the electronics capitals of the world in a day, so finding a replacement charger wouldn't be a problem. But it DID mean that we were out of luck until then.

The flight out on Wednesday was the easiest we have ever had, from start to finish. Almost no line at security (in O'HARE!!) going to Toronto. No trouble getting our bags transferred in Toronto, no line AGAIN in Toronto security, where we could leave our shoes on and our toiletries in our luggage and somehow still feel safe, and, most surprisingly to us, was the speed in Japan itself.

From disembarkation to our hotel was less than two and a half hours, which included getting off the plane, going through Immigration (usually an hour long ordeal itself), waiting for and getting our luggage, going through customs, stopping at Kuroneko to ship four of our bags to our starting point for the cycling trip ($73 for almost 200# of gear to travel halfway across the country!), stopping at ChibaGin, the bank that does currency exchange in the airport to change our 40 traveler's checks (they never have denominations larger than $50 at our bank), finding and getting on the shuttle bus, checking in and entering our room on the 10th floor of the Hilton Tokyo in Narita.

So, there we were, in a 5 star hotel that has no wireless internet and a laptop we can't charge being the only way we can plug into the broadband connection in our room. Japan is a wifi wasteland, for the most part. We could have sat in the lobby and used their slow cafe wifi, but after almost 22 hours of travel, food and sleep sounded better. The hotels in Narita are in their own little corner of the city, so walking to a restaurant is out of the question. You are pretty much stuck eating at whatever hotel you are staying at. Well, the 5 star hotel we got for free with my frequent flyer points had, well, 5 star prices for its restaurants. We just wanted something simple and light. They had a "cafe" which boasted a $21.50 veggie sandwich. Seriously.

They also, fortunately, had a convenience store in the lobby. $10.42 got us each 1.5 ham and wasabi mayo sandwiches, a small tube of Chip Star (Nabisco potato chips), Japanese apple juice (aka Nectar of the Gods) and a liter of bottled water. A feast! (pictures will be forthcoming, once we arrive in our hotel on Saturday). Afterwards, it was all we could do to crawl into bed and watch some bad Japanese TV (a "comedic panel" discussion of the commonplace molesting of women on crowded trains and how they could deal with it) and pass out.

Friday morning, after almost 12 hours of sleep, and we were ready to get moving and start enjoying vacation. So, a shuttle ride to downtown Narita, an hour long "Limited Express" train into Ueno and breakfast at Anderson Bakery in Ueno Station got us going.

Across the street of the FINALLY finished road construction (it had been under construction since our first trip to Japan in 2007) was the famous Yodobashi Camera Company, which sells anything and everything electronic, where we picked up a replacement power supply for the laptop.

Good news: Universal Bad news: $65 we weren't planning on spending.

Then a trip across town to the real reason we came to Tokyo: lunch at Rasoi. Simply the best Indian curry in Japan (and probably outside of India). The small restaurant in Meguro is always busy at lunch, with patrons waiting outside for tables to become available to eat a lunch special consisting of a small cabbage salad (the only Japanese part of the meal), a piece of Nan as big as a plate, a bowl of spicy curry (they don't tone it down for the spice-weak Japanese palate) and a cup of lassi for under $10.

That's it. We can go home now.

With several hours to kill before our overnight bus ride to Fukuyama, we headed back to Ueno and stopped at the Wired Cafe in Ueno station, where we could access some rare free Wifi and listen to records of a bunch of American songs covered by Japanese musicians who could mostly pronounce them while getting online. Also, they have some great desserts. Berry shake and 70% cocoa brownie.

That's it so far. Tomorrow the real adventure begins, as we figure out how to put our bikes back together, hope everything still works, and get ready to leave Sunday morning for two weeks of cycling! We'll also get the internet and camera sorted out so we can post our food pict...I mean the visual record of our trip!