---
author: einar
comments: true
date: 2008-08-03 13:00:33+00:00
layout: post
slug: japan-day-1
title: Japan - day 1
wordpress_id: 422
categories:
- General
tags:
- Japan
- travel
---

I didn't get time to write before about it, but I and my brother went to Japan for a 10-day holiday there, starting on yesterday. After a 12 hour trip, we arrived in Narita Airport and I took the chance of getting an IC card (prepaid subway/bus card) plus a shinkansen reservation I could only make in Japan (and that cost me "just" 27,000 yen).

Once that was settled, we boarded the Japan Rail (JR) Narita Express and arrived in Tokyo. From there it was a matter of finding the right subway line to get to our  hotel. Said hotel is pretty clean but rooms are **quite** small, and for two of us even a double room is small (not mentioning we have large luggages!). After some good sleep (we arrived at around 21.00), we spent the next day going to the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace.

It would have been a faster visit had it not been for the weather. There are about 33-34 C coupled with very high humidity, making walks under the sun a daunting task. Nevertheless, the place was quite nice, with also some remains of the older Edo Castle before the Meiji era. In the afternoon, we checked the Roppongi Hills shopping centre and took a lift to the Tokyo Sky Deck, 235 mt above the ground. A good view on the large city that Tokyo is, also the largest city I've been in.

For tomorrow, we plan on going first to Ueno, then to Akihabara and Asakusa. Stay tuned. In the mean time, there are [some photos](http://www.dennogumi.org/wpg2?g2_itemId=528).
