Japan trip - Part 1

I’m going to tell you now, but I wrote these logs as according to Americaland time, particularly Californialovania time. Also, much of this is written in real time too. Sorry for any confusion that may arise.

Log 1: June 11, 2011 ~ June 12, 2011

Saturday, June 11, 2011:

It’s 3:15 PM here. Just left home to start heading on down to the San Francisco International Airport. It was a, eh, 35 minute drive there. That is, if 280 North was taken. The trunk is packed with luggage and it, the car, seems to be maneuvering slowly. Well. It’s understandable. Going to be a two week stay in Japan after all.

… It was right here when I saw something called a Game Truck. Really disturbing. It’s Monster energy drink green and… there’s this picture of a kid who looks like he’s constipated and playing Halo. I dunno. It’s one thing that just caught my attention. “Ultimate video game party,” no way.

We arrived at the airport at 3:50 PM. I decided to tag along with my dad to look for a long term parking space. He may seem like a strict man when you see him, but he can be kind of a loner as well. Reminds me of Gendo Ikari, really… Only, not as cold and more entertaining. We spent... 3 minutes looking for a parking space. Lucky. Found one on the third floor and we didn’t even loop around once. :d

About... 45 minutes later, at 4:35 PM-ish, we checked in our luggage, got the plane tickets and decided to eat at the cafeteria just behind the check-in counters. I think it’s become like a habit for the family to eat at the cafeteria here before heading off to go through the security stuff. I really don’t know why. It just is.

If there’s one way to describe what I think the San Francisco International Airport looks like, I have to say it’s like a little bit of Tokyo-3 from the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. I’m being completely serious here. We have our trains off the roads, public transportation, and fancy buildings. Now, it won’t be too surprising if an Evangelion just popped out of nowhere.

Speaking of Evangelion, I considered watching several episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion on my laptop. I did it. Decided to watch the first episode.

An hour-ish later, we get past the security and decided to hang around the gate. A few things I’ve noticed:

It’s the same gate we went to back in April and in last year.

Our flight isn’t until 7:20 PM.

So yes. Nothing to do for nearly two hours. asdfjkl;. Because of this, I watched a couple more episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Sunday, June 12, 2011:

Got off the plane at... what, 6:15 AM in Pacific time. That would be 10:15 PM down here in Tokyo, Japan.

Thankfully enough, Mom got a room (or rather rooms) for the family to stay in at the Hotel JAL City located somewhere in Tokyo, Japan. Thanks much. Once we dropped off our stuff, we went to the convenience store across the street.

Well, I think I’ll just eat my instant chow mein and fried rice... uh... rice ball. Yeah. And then I’ll drink some super awesome Pepsi NEX. And then I’ll play video games for several hours and then go to sleep. Oh, by the way, it’s 12:30 AM over here right now when I wrote this, and, wow, does my body not want to cooperate with me right now. What’s even nicer is that we get LAN up here. Of course, it’s not the best thing a hotel can offer, but at least I can connect to the internet. The question is: how much cash for how long?

Well, we’ll only be in these rooms for five hours. I should really get some rest. Or something. And by something, I mean Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

Woke up today (June 13) at around 5:45 AM, Japan time. That would be... what, 1:45 PM (June 12) down in California. Got changed, brushed teeth, packed up. I’d say I’m pretty set to go just about anywhere now. Even on another airplane that’ll take me to the Osaka Airport. And I hate airplanes.

Just remembered that tomorrow’s my dad’s birthday. Hm. I sure hope there’s a bakery near where I’ll be staying in Kobe. I’d like to buy him something like a cake… I’ll think about that later.

I also just found out that the internet in this hotel room is free for twenty-four hours. That’s more than I really needed. I like how they translated it from Japanese to English. Or should I say Engrish? Oh well, here’s what it says about the free internet:

Outline of Service

You can play the internet as much as you like in 24 hours. You can enjoy the internet conveniently with high-speed broadband.

… I’d just like to say that I really do want to audition for the coveted role of the internet in this… this whatever it is. I think I’d do a pretty good job at it.

Some time later, we, my family and I, went to the convenience store across the street again. I happened to spot the Sega building from there too. It looks like it’s several blocks off… Ah well, I wasn’t going to visit there anyways. Later today, we dropped by at the Square Enix shop. I didn’t really feel like going there this year… Perhaps it’s because I’m “growing out” of Square Enix. It’s something like that, I think.

My “breakfast” today consisted of three fried ham cutlet sandwiches and two flavored hard-boiled eggs. Ate that at 3:15 PM-ish. It wasn’t half bad. Even though it’s instant food. I guess Misato Katsuragi was right about food from convenience stores.

We left our hotel room at 7:50 AM-ish (3:50 PM) and boarded a bus that took us to the Haneda Tokyo International Airport located a little ways off of the hotel.

Well. Going to sign off now. See Log 2 for more on this trip.

The number of times I was almost crushed by elevator doors: 1

The number of Calories a bottle of Pepsi NEX contains: 0