The morning Jon and I left Los Angeles was almost unceremonious indeed. I had just finished my last MBA application barely only a day before. Additionally, we had both returned from being out-of-town at our respective client sites so it was challenging to be ready and packed on a Wednesday night when we hadn't been home for the entire week!
My dad dropped us off at the airport super early so as not to run any risk on missing our flight! This meant we were more like 3 hours early...
Above: My boyfriend Jon with all of our carry-on and check-in luggage!
Each of us packed a luggage and a carry-on, though my Rilakkuma bag was almost empty since I hoped to fill it up with goodies to bring home.
When we got to the LAX Korean Air terminal to check-in, we were greeted by various Korean Air staff, hot tea, and even these cute life-sized flight crew bears!
Above: Korean Air bears
I definitely had to get a photo with them!
Above: My boyfriend and I. Look at how big those bears are!
Korean Air was celebrating "40 years of Transpacific Passenger Service" and later carted these bears over to our flight gate where they were met by a news and camera crew and some Korean Air executives. Coincidentally, our flight to Japan was a certain milestone flight in X number of total flights for this company, though I don't recall the exact number! They raffled off a bunch of prizes (it looked like a third of passengers won something -- flowers, toy planes, mugs), though neither my boyfriend nor I ended up as winners.
We ended up getting some breakfast...
Above: Every trip to the airport seems to begin with McDonalds
Little did I know that within the first hour of boarding, they were already passing out the "lunch" meal. Jon and I are fans of Korean food, so the bibimbap was a welcome sight. ^_^
Above: My meal -- bibimbap, white rice, spicy pickles, peeled oranges, soup, water, chili paste, tea (not pictured)
Above: Jon's bibimbap with chili sauce
I was also pleasantly surprised that Korean air supplies you with glass cups and metal utensils, complimentary wine (that they nearly force onto you even if you politely decline every time, haha!), slippers, and a toothbrush.
For me, the rice and barley tea were quite comforting on the 12 hour flight. I've been on a number of 6-7 hour long flights on American providers, but the service, food, and amenities doesn't even come close to Korean Air's.
Another surprise was that despite having a lot of trouble getting our assigned seating next to one another before the flight, we realized that the entire back of the plane wasn't even a third full, so there was plenty of room! Most single riders moved to their own row, but I stayed with Jon who watched movies the entire way there. I mainly read "The Hunger Games," which I had saved for the trip.
It also seems like all I did on the flight was eat! Within another couple of hours, we received Korean meat-filled bread, cookies, pretzels, more beverages, and another meal. After the McDonalds, the bibimbap, and now this, I definitely was not hungry.
Above: Jon's second "seafood option" pasta meal
Above: My "beef option" meal
After they served this meal, the lights were turned off for sleeping for the remainder of the trip to Japan! I hadn't even eaten anything since I was so busy reading and ended up having to eat in the dark, haha! It's funny how most people devour their airplane meals quickly and I usually have to agree since I want to get it out of the way -- Korean Air's many plates, cups, and silverware make it even more difficult so you're encouraged to eat fast! However, having been on the flight for hours at this point (and still having hours to go), you also feel like you have nothing to rush for...
After many sleepy hours, we landed! Good thing, too, because Jon was getting irritated at my (never ending) summary and frustrated commentary of "The Hunger Games."
The first things we did upon arriving were 1.) picked up our luggage (my Korilakkuma luggage sticker was nowhere to be found T_T;; ) 2.) exchanged U.S. Dollars for Japanese Yen, and 3.) arranged for a Limousine Taxi to take us to our hotel in Ginza.
Luckily, the next Limousine Taxi available was to arrive in only 10 minutes, so we didn't have to wait long! The cost of the taxi was about 3,000 yen, which is similar in price to taking the JR Line to Ginza, though a little slower. It's recommended if you have a lot of luggage heading into Tokyo, though.
I was also warned of the various prices and options to get to and from the Narita airport and Ginza. However, living about 50 miles away from the LAX and having experienced even more expensive taxi rides to and from the airport (i.e. New York), this was actually not as bad as I had anticipated. If anything, the whole process went quite smoothly.
Above: Designated smoking box at the airport -- the first indicator that smoking is treated differently in Japan than in the U.S.
I think the ride to Ginza was about 40-50 minutes since other passengers needed to be dropped off at other Tokyo hotels, but I am not even sure since by the time we boarded the taxi, I fell asleep. It was the equivalent of "the middle of the night" in Pacific Standard Time. We had arrived on Friday, April 20, 2012 in Japan (time traveling) and it was already around 6:30 - 7:00 PM when we reached our hotel!
I remember Jon excitedly pointing out a bunch of places along our ride from the airport -- Tokyo Disneyland, buildings, a large Ferris Wheel, (an authentic Japanese) Round 1 arcade, etc., but I was quite sleepy.
We checked in to the Courtyard Marriott Ginza hotel and decided to walk around before my college roommate, Becca, joined us for dinner!
Above: Our first outing at Ginza during night!
Above: Cute billboard. Softbank is one of Japan's telecommunication providers with the mascot of a cute white dog! It reminded me of my own pup, Mocha!
Ginza was so lively and exciting at night. I even quickly walked into a UNIQLO to take a look before deciding that we should take a nap before Becca arrived.
Becca was my dear housemate and later roommate in college for three years! She recently moved to Japan in February to teach English and would be joining us for the weekend in Tokyo!
By mistake, Jon and I ended up oversleeping by almost an hour! At this point in time, it was as if Jon and I had been up for 24 hours despite the time change, so we were pretty tired. Becca ended up being lost on the way to our hotel. We had no way to contacting her since she didn't have a cellphone at the time (she was pretty new to Japan, too) and we had no phone of our own. I panicked at the thought that Becca had arrived during our nap, tried to contact us through the hotel, failed, and left! But it turns out that with moments of heading downstairs, in walked Becca through the doors!!
A Denny's was across the street from our hotel. Those who know me understand how much I dislike Denny's in the United States since everything is really greasy. But Becca insisted that Denny's here was nothing like back home, so I gave in since we didn't have any other ideas and we were super sleepy at this time!
Becca was most certainly right! Nothing with perhaps the exception of some beverages and French Fries were menu options similar to what we have in U.S. Denny's! If our Denny's was like this at home, I would definitely consider myself a customer.
Above: Becca and I shared this -- spaghetti with smoked salmon
Above: Jon's ramen
Above: Delicious parfait! I had always wondered what the densely shaped Japanese pudding tasted like since I had seen photos online... I always imagined it tasting oddly firm like JELL-O. However, it was soft and reminded me of how much I missed pudding in general. I don't think I've eaten it for years!
Above: Sweet Rebecca with parfait!
After dinner, we dragged ourselves back to the hotel and went to sleep to get some rest for the next day's itinerary -- Tokyo DisneySea!
[TO BE CONTINUED...]
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