33 HOUR TRAVEL DAY TO JAPAN 🇯🇵 Flying to Tokyo & First Impressions!

Today I am flying from Raleigh, Durham to Tokyo to meet up with my daughter to embark on some incredible adventures around Japan and Korea over the next month. But first, I have to survive the longest flight I've ever been on in an economy seat for 13 and a half hours. Let's go. The journey has begun. I am just leaving my house. I've got a two and a half hour drive to my sister's house where I'm going to be for maybe five hours before I have to get to the airport and then on for that epic, epic day of travel. So starting now, I have about 33 hours before I get to Tokyo. Ryan is driving me to the airport. I don't know if you can see him. It's really dark in here because it's 3 a.m. And then my niece Katie back there. These guys are getting me to the airport to get us going on this trip. We are 22 hours away from landing in Tokyo. That was good timing. They just opened up security. So I've got my bags all checked in and now fingers crossed TSA pre-check is open. Y'all, it's so early. Starbucks is still closed. Yesterday, about two hours after I left my house on the drive to my sister's, I realized I left my shoes that I was going to be wearing today and most of the time that I'm in Japan at my house. So I had to run to Kohl's and get a new pair of shoes yesterday. And these are what I ended up getting. I thought I'd go with something red and black to go with the red and black theme that I'm going to be having throughout this whole trip. They are kind of fun and funky. I figured Japan has that whole, you know, anime, fun, funky thing going on. So maybe these will fit in. Okay, so I figured I would share with you what I brought for my snacks today. I got a Starbucks bag. And I decided to go with avocado toast, which I'm going to have right now because I've got like a three-hour layover until my flight leaves for Tokyo. But in addition to that, I brought some other little snacky things along too. I've got, I've got some beverage stuff, like some IV, liquid IV and emergency and some echinacea tea in there. Pistachios, pistachios, pistachios. A little kind bar. And you know me, I've always been have some chocolate. So I've got some dark chocolate covered almonds. And that's it in the grab bag. I'm going to fix my avocado toast and have a little breakfast. We got our pillows, our blankets, all the things. And we're hoping nobody sits here. It's still tight. So we have gotten a JR rail pass. So I have my train pass now and Alex is in line getting us some bus tickets so we can get to our hotel. But I'm here and I survived the, well, it actually didn't end up being 13 hours. It only ended up being like 12 and a half hours. So it was a much shorter flight than we thought we were going to get. So that was exciting. I slept a little bit, a little, little bit on the plane. But I am, uh, yeah, I'm ready to get a little bit of rest before we go out to dinner tonight. No, it's not. It's like a more like a, um, like Halloween cider, but it's kind of bubbly. I'm sparkling apple juice is what I would call it. It's like when you put those like flavor packets, like, uh, in your water. And it's also a little bubbly. Uh, yes. It's like a brown tea. It's different. Tastes like Gatorade. I really liked the lemon one. I think it's refreshing. It's a little, it's a little sweet, but number one. Yeah, you did it. That's new. I might have a wipe in my thing actually. It's like club soda. Hey, how convenient. Very cool. How fancy. We've emotionally prepared for a small room. Yes, let's go. Look at the numbers. I think it's cute. Oh, wow. How fancy. You are going to have to stare at each other naked while showering. They do have a curtain. Oh my gosh. Look at that, people. Welcome to our room in Tokyo. Let's do a little room tour. Over here, we have the bed, which is actually a queen size bed. It looks like so lots of space there. Over here, we have our little table and one stool. So one of us can sit, but we do have two coffee cups in tea. Very nice. They did give us some refreshment claws with peppermint, fresh minty and uplifting. Yes, quite uplifting. Quite uplifting. Then we have our sink with a couple of hand towels. And that's nice. Oh, look at these amenities that we have. We have a toothbrush, a nail brush, I think. Hairbrush. That's a hairbrush? That's a hairbrush. Wow. A couple of razors and two Q-tips a piece. Ration yourself. Ration those Q-tips. Some very nice hand soap. I do like the curtain they have. Oh, yeah. Wow, it's pitch black. Peek-a-boo. In here, I assume, is the toilet. Oh, now, is this a bidet system? Yeah. Also, do you want to learn some Japanese right now? Sure. I mean, it has English on it, but you might not be able to read it. Rear? Rear, that's the rear. That's the rear bidet. And then the front bidet is for ladies. I like that they have the figurine for that. Yeah. And then, so is this just it goes until you hit stop? Yes. Okay. Well, that's going to be interesting. I'm not going to video when I try that. I like the light flush and the flush flush. Okay. An itty bitty tiny little trash can. It's so small. The q-tips might go in there. Okay, now for the big reveal. The piece de resistance. What is behind door number one? What a view. So, yes, you bathe with a view. You've got a deep, deep tub here, which I'm not a bathtub person, but there may be a bath being taken with this view. And you do have a blind that you can pull down if you want to, but who would want to? And then you've got the shower ring head up here. These are nice. Look at that beautiful almond bath gel. Oh, no. Even in French, I know it's fancy. I know, super fancy. So that is our room tour. We're going to freshen up a little bit before we head out and see a few sites for the day. So a couple of last things that we just discovered. We're going to add on to the room tour is that they did give us like a nightgown. Cute, Ebenezer Scrooge. Yeah, it is definitely like a Scrooge nightgown. Did you bring your hat to wear with it? Absolutely, never sleep without it. I mean, it's kind of warmish. So I don't know that either of us will be sleeping in this tonight, but how sexy is this? You look like a professor, like a scientist. Like a scientist, I'm trying to science stuff up. And then we also have a hairdryer and a shoe horn. Two more things. And you can see the tower from in the bathroom window. Like you have to be in the windowsill in order to see the tower, but it's a room with a view. We are off to our first dinner in Tokyo. But I'm loving this bridge that we're walking across right by our hotel. It's so pretty. Tokyo is gorgeous for the largest city in the world. I really have seen very few people so far. Learning all of the etiquette of how to visit a shrine or a temple tonight. Hopefully I'll remember it in the coming days. But what a beautiful night in Tokyo. The breeze feels amazing. All this greenery around and the sun is just setting so the sky is really pretty. What a welcome to Tokyo. And you guys, I've been up for how many hours now? I slept on the plane a little bit, but I've been up for a while. We've still got a few more hours to go. So dinner is still ahead of us and I'm super excited because it's been a super big secret. It is sushi, but a very special type of sushi. We maybe enter over here. That's, yeah. Ah, shigau. It's this one, sorry. Are we fishing for... Yeah. So, futari desu. Oh my god. Yeah, it's a sushi restaurant where you get to fish for your own fish. A little more stuff. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, get him in the net, in the net, in the net. Oh yeah. So this is the fish that we caught. I guess we did kind of catch it. And this is the... Tastes fresh, hot? Tastes very fresh. So on the way home, we have gotten in a little rainstorm. Sorry, a little something from the typhoon that is out there. But yeah, we're a little wet. We have full bellies and we are headed back to the train to make our way back to our hotel for the night because I'm a little exhausted. I haven't slept since I got off the plane. And I'm going to say goodnight here and I will see you in the next vlog. Bye-bye.