Day 0, Munich, 29/10
 After
a long preparation the day has finally come - we are going
to Japan!
I pick up Florian and we are driving to the airport to meet
Patrick there who will arrive from Cologne and fly with us
to Tokyo from Munich.
At the check-in we get some strange views because of our luggage
which includes some stepladders. These were properly cut to
a length of 119cm, as 120cm is the limit where bulky luggage
begins ;) But we had no problems either with our ladders or
with the heavy photo bags as hand luggage. Thank you, Lufthansa!
However, we would not have planned everything exactly on the
minute to get shocked at the last second: while checking in
our bags the nice lady at the counter says that there is a
message for us on her computer: Patrick was not able to fly
to Munich because of fog in Cologne, so he would take a later
flight from Frankfurt and arrive at Tokyo 4 hours after us.
All right, bad luck, the first visit to Hyakuri can already
be cancelled…
A bit depressed we boarded Lufthansa flight LH714 and took-off
at around 15h30. The flight onboard the A340 was fine, and
already for dinner we had Sushi and could try to eat with
sticks. Welcome to Japan (Yokoso Japan)!!! After a
nice drink I had a long sleep while Florian was watching some
strange movies (e.g. The Beetle Herbie) and got fascinated
by the Japanese woman sitting opposite on the aisle with her
mouth mask and playing a computer game non-stop during the
11h flight. What a preparation for the next 17 days...
Day 1, Tokyo - Narita Airport, 30/10
 On
09h49 we landed on rwy 34R, finally got out of the aircraft,
passed the immigration formalities and saw even more people
wearing these masks (we should get used to it during the next
days…). That took some time, but due to that we did not
have to wait long at the baggage claim for our bags and our
two ladders which arrived immaculate. After another short
stop at the customs (due to our ladders *no comment on that*)
we finally entered Japan.
Our first task was to get the rental car. Looking for a Hertz
counter we have been quite surprised as we finally discovered
the rental car counter for the whole Tokyo International airport:
about 3 meter wide and with 3 nice ladies behind the desk.
Conversation was not very easy but after no more than 10 minutes
we had arranged everything and one of the ladies accompanied
us to the car and checked everything. What an excellent service!
At first we have not been that sure about our Toyota Isis
Minivan which should be our trusty companion for the next
three weeks, but it offered just enough space for all of our
luggage (including Patrick's, who was still in the air at
that time) and, fortunately, had a navigation system. Even
if it was in Japanese, we at least had one and knew where
we are. Next we had to find the Shobunsha Road Atlas for Japan,
which had been recommend to us. So we took the shuttle bus
to the other terminal and even before entering the described
shop I already saw the map from outside. So far everything
was perfect, despite the small delays the mood improved a
lot, as not everything was sooo strange as we still thought
some hours ago. Time for some spotting!
The weather was far from being perfect but we had to pass
the time until 15h, that's why we decided to go on the observation
deck on Terminal 1. During the two hours waiting and photographing
there we already got controlled by the security twice. But
please do not ask me what they might have thought from the
two Europeans who just got out of the plane after 11h and
spend their time spotting on the deck while it was cold and
nearly raining…
Narita Airport
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After several 747s Patrick finally arrived,
we packed him in the car and tried to make our way to Sendai,
where we had already pre-booked a Youth hostel for the first
night.
 The
way from Narita to the Joban expressway was a mess and confirmed
the warnings from others that on country roads, even if they
are well build, an average of more than 50km/h is not possible.
I don't know why, but I had the impressions that the Japanese
were keen to put a traffic light at every single crossing
on the way… Driving on the expressway was OK however,
even if the (official) speed limit there is 80 (eighty!) km/h.
On the expressway we also had our first encounter with the
'Japanese cuisine' and one of the many food ticket distributors.
As we did not know how everything works we took the cook without
further ado out of the kitchen and showed him what we wanted
to eat. He looked quite irritated, did not understand us but
managed to show us how to choose our food: choose your plate,
go to the ticket machine, pay, choose the appropriate photo,
get your ticket and give it to him. The food was ready soon
and we needed to get used to our first soup in Japan, but
at least we had some warm food that we would need for the
rest of the drive.
Even that we had the GPS-coordinates of the youth hostel at
Sendai it took us a really long tome to find the small house
in the middle of the city. We nearly managed to approach it
via the GPS but unfortunately we came out on the wrong side
of a rail track or in some narrow lanes. When we finally arrived,
we took a hot Japanese bath and layed down on the rice mat
for a short sleep.
The adventure began!!
-> Sendai /
Matsushima
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