NY to Tokyo - Where it all begins

Brellowgirl
Oct 21, 2015
3 min read

I lie... I really flew out of Newark but who really tells people they're from Jersey when they're traveling abroad?! Being from New York sounds SO much cooler, and so, for the next 6 months I'm an honoree.

There were sad goodbyes at the airport and a long 13.5 hr flight but I guess after traveling so much being on planes doesn't phase me anymore. I actually didn't have enough time to get everything I wanted done on the plane... I only got to watch one movie, wrote a bit and read 1/3 of a book that Tia lent me when I was in Brasil last year. The book is actually great, it's called "One Day" by David Nicholls and I only realized it takes place in London when I was a couple of pages in and understood all the English slang and London references.

The airplane food was surprisingly edible and I was thoroughly confused when we got salted caramel gelato for dessert. Confused because

1) I was trying to make the connection between gelato and Japan.

2) It straight up tasted like doce de leche. no salt added. not complaining though.

Downed to glasses of red wine and toggled between sleep and reading the whole flight.

My grandma's brother came to pick us up from the airport (we flew into Narita) and took us to our first Air Bnb in Ginza. Ginza is so. cute. Like I know Japanese people are small and cute and proper but everything here I feel is small. The streets are narrow, the cars are small and when I walk out onto the street I feel like a giant.

Our Air bnb is larger than I expected with 2 full beds, 1 single bed and a sofa. It also has a kitchenette and a pretty decent sized bathroom. Everything is immpeccably clean - that goes for the whole city too. Mine and Tia's travel bookbags are taking over the sofa and I still think it's hilarious that I'll be living out of that thing for half a year. Cassie, the girl who has an overflowing closet of clothes and too many shoes to count packed a bikini, a couple of tees and tanks, 1 pair of jeans, 2 day dresses and some exercise shorts to last for the journey (although I'm feeling a tad guilty for packing a mini hair straightener). I'm proud to say that it only took me one try to shove all my belongings into the backpack and that I didn't have to sacrifice much.

Side note - totally unrealated but if you didn't know, I flew out to Tokyo with my mum, aunt and grandma. It's the girls trip to Japan we did two years ago to date and it's crazy how fast time has flown by. So when I refer to "the girls" in my next few posts I'll be talking about them. In January "the girls" will refer to another group of chicks...but that's a surprise for another post ;)

The girls and I roamed around for a bit and had dinner at a spot in the Tokyo train station. everyone had cold soba noodles (thin noodles made out of buckwheat) and I had mine hot, in kare. The kare only had onions in it but it was delicious and just what my tummy needed to put down whatever junk I ate on the plane.

It's 12:11am here now and I know tomorrow's jet lag is going to kill me. I finally got my cell phone unlocked and I should be good to go data-wise so I can constantly be connected (oh to be alive in 2015). I'm signing out and will catch up with you all tomorrow!

Much love,

Cas