Japan - AX Tokyo 2004

Copy all the blog stuff here, also link to pictures.

January 2, 2004

Whoa. I'm going to Japan.

Well, I finally got my tickets and final info from NTA. (By FedEx no less!)

It's a weird thing tho...

Ever since I first heard about this back at AX'03, I was of the "Wow. Japan. Too bad I can't go." mindset. Knowing that I could never possibly afford such a venture, yet with that .00001% ethereal glimmer of hope that maybe, some miracle could happen that would allow me to go. Then, a couple months later, the miracle happened: some much needed work. Money started pouring in and before I knew it, I had the $250 for the down payment. Depression turned to elation as I FAXed the signup form to NTA with my credit card number on it. But even after I received confirmation of my deposit payment I still could hardly believe I was going... almost like it was still kind of a dream and not real. Even after I paid the full amount on the November due date (I *barely* made it!) I could still hardly believe it... surely I must be dreaming or something. It almost seemed unreal.

Today I receive the envelope from FedEx, and with trembling fingers I tear the thing open and uncover the goodies contained within. I gaze at the plane tickets and the luggage tags and the final itineraries and all within. And suddenly a relalization hits me. I am holding the plane tickets. They exist. They are real. (believe me, I must have pinched myself 1,000 times just to make sure I wasn't dreaming) My mouth opens and I utter "I'm going to Japan. Whoa." (said in Keanu Reeves "Matrix"-like manner) And that's exactly the feeling that came over me.

Of course now I"m so excite that I can't even sleep. :P

January 6, 2004

A Fistful of Yen

Yeah, I know, it doesn't quite have the same ring to it as the Sergio Leone spaghetti western. Oh well...

Trip preparations continue in earnest here at Chez Borg. Today I went down to the friendly neighborhood Wells Fargo, plunked down $1,250, and walked away with ¥127,000. Fortunately, since I hold a Wells Fargo bank account, there was no fee involved. I decided to do this right now because (a) I'd get the best rate, (b) It's already done and I don't have to worry about it any more. I also converted Pam's money for her -- might as well, since I was there. Again, one less thing to worry about.

Meanwhile, the prep work continues. Many thanks must go to the folks at NTA and the AX Tokyo message board for answering our many questions about traveling to Japan. Without them, and the excellent guide book they recommended, we would be totally lost! Of course, we may end up being totally lost anyway, but at least this way we have at least the illusion of being prepared. :-)

I did something totally stupid the other day. I accidentally dropped my passport down the back of my bookcase. :P I had to empty out most of it and move the sucker to get it back. Took about 6 hours including the clean-up. Unfortunately things didn't go back in quite the way they started out as, so now the bookcase protrudes slightly, and gets in the way of my mouse arm. :P One of these days I have to go through the whole thing and clean it out - there's a lot of crap in there.

I posted in the Iron Fans Online board, asking about the possibility of visiting Iron Chef restaurants while in Japan. (We're also big IC fans) Anyway, one of the posters contact me privately, and we have arranged to have lunch with him and his wife at Ristorante Massa (Kobe's restaurant)!! All of us are really looking forward to this.

Anyway, so much to do... I better get back to it all. We leave in just over a week!! WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!

January 13, 2004, mid-afternoon

I Hate Packing! :P

Yes, it's true. I hate packing. And with under 24 hours before we depart, I'm STILL not fully packed yet! :P Plus, it turns out I need to do some laundry too??!??

Fortunately, I'm roughly 85% packed, so there's not much left to do.

It's weird. Even though we have the plane tickets, even though we've typed up and sent out our itineraries, even though we're furiously packing, the reality of "we are going to Japan!" STILL hasn't fully sunk in. I don't think it will fully sink in u ntil we are on the plane, or maybe not even until we step off the plane in a foreign airport. It's a weird thing, really.

The computers are just about ready to go. I've encoded several anime series (that way I don't have to lug the DVD's with me, possibly lose/damage them, etc.) so that we'll have something to watch on the excruciatingly long plane flight. I also got, thanks to Mom, a second laptop battery. I can't get a straight answer out of anyone as to whether the airplane has power plugs or not, so I'm bringing fully-charged batteries just in case. And I intend to introduce Pam to the wonderful world of anime!! I figure I'll start her on something dramatic, with no ecchi or other weird stuff... Haibane Renmei sounds as good as any. Plus it doesn't have any high squeaky voices that she dislikes. :) I also might show her Chobits or maybe Noir, another excellent dramatic series. I also brought, for good measure, Spirited Away and Nausicaa, since we will be visiting the Ghibli Museum and it would be nice for her to see some of Miyazaki's films beforehand.

I also re-discovered my GBA!!! I found it, oddly enough, sitting behind the stereo receiver on the A/V shelf. How it got there I have no idea. Unfortunately I managed to lose the charger/power plug for it; fortunately, Software Etc. had an aftermarket one for $10. Works just fine, and it even takes 100v voltage, so it will work in Japan. I also picked up a Mad Catz hard case and headphone adapter (lets me plug my own headphones into the GBA). And I picked up some games too -- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Sword of Mana (thanks to the excellent folks on the AX Game Room forum for these recommendations). I also picked up Advance Wars 2. This should be more than enough to keep me occupied on the plane. :)

Here's the odd thing about the GBA: I hadn't used it for MONTHS AND MONTHS. So I figured, surely the battery on the thing would be DEAD, DEAD, DEAD. But it WASN'T!!! I played Advance Wars on the thing for 3 days after finding it, and only then did the red warning light come on. Weird. I thought rechargable batteries gradually lost their charge over a month or three.

Anyway, time to get back to packing and laundry... :P Gotta go to bed SUPER EARLY tonight; since we have to be at the airport at least 2 hours before departure time, and we depart 11:35, we should really be there around 9. And it takes us 3 hours to get to the airport (allowing for traffic). Uggg...

January 13, 2004, evening

"Dodge THIS!"

We narrowly dodged a bullet tonight...

About 2 months ago we went luggage shopping, because the bags we had were totally inadequate to the task of taking us and our schtuff to Japan and back. So, after some looking around, we found a great luggage deal at Costco, of all places. A 29" pullman with really nice wheels and stuff for $80. Nice, roomy, big enough for the thick winter clothes that we'll be needing (and the inevitable collection of souvenirs we know we would be acquiring).

When NTA sent us our final trip documents, I read the baggage allowances. Rather, I MISread them. You're only allowed a certain size of baggage for both checked-in and carry-on. The dimensions (length + width + height) have to be under 62 inches, for checked, and 45 inches for carry-on. Weight has to be below 70 lbs (for checked) and 10 lbs (for carry-on). Well, we both felt that we were fine in the weight department; however we weren't so sure about the dimensions. So I whipped out the handy dandy tape measure and measured our new bags. Depending on whether we included the wheels and handle in our measurements, I got either 61 inches or 68 inches. But here's the catch. I mis-read the allowances as *82* inches rather than *62* inches, so I thought everything was fine.

Well tonight Pam wanted to double-check (it's a good thing that she did!) and so we re-measured it, and this time she correctly read the 62 inches figure. Oops!! And considering that the fee for oversized luggage is $200 (OUCH!) we did NOT want to take any chances. But here we were, 7 PM at night on the night before we leave, and we need new luggage.

Thankfully, both our Moms came to the rescue; they had baggage that they lent us that fit within the necessary parameters. We had to empty our current bags and re-pack into smaller bags, but at least now we won't be penalized.

Oy. What a moron I am. As Ruri might say, "dburr no Baka!"

January 14, 2006, very early morning

Can't sleep...

...too excited!

Yep, it's 1 AM on the morning when we leave. In order to beat the morning traffic and get in to the airport with time to spare, we really need to leave here by 5 AM. But neither of us can sleep. :P This being our first international trip, and our first trip to Japan and all. We've been looking forward to this for soooooo long. And even now, there's still a voice in our heads saying "No way... this isn't happening... etc."

January 14, 2006, still very early morning

== Itinerary is up!

Pam typed up a pretty concise and to-the-point itinerary of our travels in Japan. It's available for your viewing pleasure at:

http://www.borg-cube.com/japan2004/itinerary.html

I'll be adding to it as we know more details (i.e. what places we'll be seeing, etc.) so please keep reloading often!

January 14, 2004, only slightly less early morning (Beep)

Ok Don We Get Up In THREE HOURS

Now how do I get him away from the computer again for lights out? :)

He will snore in the car on the way, of course, but I have to drive!!!!

I think I'll hit the circuit breaker ;)

January 14, 2004, early morning (Beep)

Five AM Trip Day

Well, we're awake :) Don't know how. Just wanted people reading this to know we didn't sleep thru our alarm!

Date Unknown

We have Arrived!!

So here I am, sitting at the Ikebukuro Mamboo (the one on 2F of the Sunshine 60 bldg), sipping a Calpis and munching on some curry...

The NTA flight out of LAX was smooth and uneventful, aside from a hour-long block of turbulence about 4 hours into the flight. (It was shaky but not too bad. And the food was GREAT!!!!) Wheels-up at about 12+15 PM local time, and touchdown occurred at 4:30 on the next day, local time. Customs couldn:t have been easier - they basically looked over my passport and stamped me, no questions asked. (and here we were obsessing about And check-in couldn:t have been easier - kudos to the NTA guys for streamlining the check-in procedure; all we had to do was show our passport and they handed us a packet with our keys, AX badges, and program guides. I must especially thank Yozo Kawazoe who went above and beyond the call of duty to assist me in getting Ghibli Museum tickets at the last moment as well as securing reservations at the Iron Chef restaurants!!

So, our first night in Tokyo. Wow. Driving into the city was an amazing thing. Slowly we saw the buildings getting higher and higher and more and more clustered together... then came the lights. But the full impact didn:t hit until after we had checked into the hotel and started exploring. Lights everywhere. Think Las Vegas multiplied thousandfold and you:ll begin to get the idea of what I'm talking about. Tons of people, mostly the young set, milling about and having fun. And every storefront lit up brightly and many of them loudly hawking their wares. Excitement was definitely in the air!

Tonight's mission was in search of two things: food and Internet access. Both were found in the same place, an "Internet manga cafe" called Manboo. Thanks to Kat for pointing this place out in the Places to GO near AX thread on the message board. After a bit of a shaky start we found it, and here we are.

Gonna go to bed soon, as we're both wiped. But thought I'd pop in and give a little heads up. So far we're having a blast. Tomorrow... AX Tokyo starts!!!! And dinner at La Rochelle to boot. Yomigaearu Iron Chef!!!