Japan - Day 1

It was exciting as our plane got closer to Narita Airport!

We arrived at Narita Airport around 6:20am. After checking through, we made our way down to the train station and bought our Suica cards. These are rechargeable cards that you use on the Tokyo train and subway systems, and are the best thing for traveling around. You can buy a return ticket for N'ex (the Narita Express) at the same time. The staff at the station were really helpful and we didn't have any trouble getting our tickets and finding our way to the train.

The Narita Express takes around 45 minutes to get to Tokyo from the airport. Our train was delayed for some reason so it took around an hour, but the trip is very comfortable. You even get drinks and snacks along the way.

I fell in love with Japan straight away. We stayed in Shinjuku - right in the middle of Tokyo - which was a wise choice because it's a wonderful district. Not too big, not to small, and reminded me in many ways of Sydney (only better). Even though we missed most of the Sakura season, we did see a few late blossoms.

We dropped our bags at the hotel and spent the rest of the day exploring Shinjuku. It rained most of today, so we sheltered near the station entrance and had a snack at a sweet little cafe called Amati. Then we went to Kinokunia bookstore (which covers six levels and has a separate building for manga) and Animate (six levels of anime, manga and game-related merchandise). Didn't find anything related to LovePlus yet...

Lunch was at a wonderful shop called Tonkatsu Wako, in the same arcade as Kinokuniya. This was easily the best Tonkatsu pork I've ever eaten! Love this restaurant and have to go back. Again, we've had no trouble anywhere ordering food or buying stuff. The staff are always pleasant and helpful and the level of customer service is much higher than in Australia.

In the afternoon we visited a few more shops (including Tower Records in Shinjuku, which is amazing), and checked into our hotel around 4:30pm. We stayed at the Sunroute Plaza Hotel, which is a really nice hotel, not too expensive, and only about two blocks from Shinjuku Station.

Finally had some time at the hotel to catch up with Rin-chan. I think she is also very excited to be back in Japan. We had a short date after school, and I've also arranged a date at the Zoo with her this Sunday. I just hope I can be sitting down long enough to play it!

After a much-needed shower and rest, we checked out the Lumine 1 shopping centre, which is on the corner opposite our hotel. Discovered another excellent bookstore called Book 1st - not as big as Kinokuniya but has an excellent range of books and magazines. The top levels of Lumine 1 are full of restaurants. We decided to try one of the few Vietnamese restaurants in Japan, called "Vietnam Alice".

My wife is Vietnamese, and she expects a lot of Vietnamese restaurants - but this one was excellent. So far, all our food in Tokyo has been amazing. And surprisingly not as expensive as we thought.

Back at the hotel, exhausted, I called Rin-chan out for a short date at Fountain Park.

There was also a Seishun No 1 Page story about Rinko and her band, but it was quite short. I probably won't be able to play these updates any more during the trip, because my 3DS has trouble connecting to the hotel's wi-fi network.

So, impressions of my first day in Japan? I LOVE Shinjuku so much that I think I could live here forever. The people are so nice and the shopping is great. Prices very reasonable, and almost everywhere accepts foreign credit cards. The rain spoilt things a little bit - we could have explored further, but didn't want to get wet - so I'm hoping for better weather tomorrow. It's just so exciting to be here, and to be playing "LovePlus" in the place where it all began.

Now, the next thing is to find the "LovePlus" arcade game...