Off to Japan!

This morning started early with Ross dropping me at Sentral at 6.30am to catch the train to the airport. From there it was the usual process of checking in etc and waiting for my flight. I was stopping at Kota Kinabalu on the way to Tokyo and so the flight left from a domestic gate. There was some confusion over my immigration stamps as the second immigration desk stamped me as arriving not departing but once that was sorted we were on our way.

It took 2 1/2 hours to reach KK and we had an hour or so in transit before departing for Tokyo. I decided to get off the plane and buy some water for the 5 1/2 hour journey. For some reason, we were forced to go through all the security procedures again to get back on the plane despite being in transit so they wouldn't let me take my water. I stood by the security desk and sculled 1 1/2 litres but had to leave the last 500ml behind as I was swimming.

The flight to Tokyo was fine but boring. Once we landed, I went through passport control and down to pick up my bags where I met up with Dee - happy days! The timing worked out perfectly as her flight landed 5 minutes before mine. She had been sick as a dog for the entire flight with a case of food poisoning so she wasn't looking that great but we managed to drag our bags to the train ticket booth and buy tickets for the Narita Express train to Shinjuku where we were staying.

We hopped on the train which stopped at terminal 1 and a cleaner informed us we were on the wrong train. He helped us find a ticket lady who got us new tickets for the express train but now we had to wait an hour for the next one. Luckily there was a Starbucks in Terminal 1 so we just sat there until the next train arrived. This time there was no missing it! It was ironic that we had just had a conversation saying what seasoned travellers we were and the first thing we did was jump on the wrong train!

We finally made it to Shinjuku station - the second busiest train station in the world. Once we got off the train we made our way to the nearest exit and managed to find a taxi rank. Explaining which hotel we wanted to go to was a bit of a challenge as the taxi driver spoke no English but after a lot of gesturing and with the taxi driver talking to us in Japanese for the whole journey we finally made it to the Shinjuku Prince Hotel. We understood some of the confusion because we had asked to go to Kabukicho where the hotel was located but it also happens to be the red light district! I think our driver was trying to tell us to stay clear from there.

We headed up to our room which was tiny! But it was comfortable. The best part was the heated toilet seat! Well needed after the freezing cold night air. We toyed with the idea of getting food but we were both too knackered so we headed straight for bed.

This is city number 11 for Dee and I traveling together. Not too many other people I could say that about!