Getting There Is Half The Fun - Not

Greetings non-travelers. Wife and I are now ensconced in a Tokyo Japan airport hotel. It is taking us three days to get to our first real sightseeing location, Kagoshima Japan. We started our journey on Tuesday flying to Los Angeles because we had a 9 AM flight to Tokyo on Wednesday. Stayed at a Hampton Inn in Hawthorne which is not one of the great neighborhoods and it wasn't that cheap. We had made reservations here for when we returned but found a much better hotel, closer to the airport for the same price so changed those.

Wednesday morning we were at the Tom Bradley International Terminal of Los Angeles International Airport. Early morning is evidently not a very popular time for international flights. The place was pretty deserted. We checked in fast and got through security quickly too. No TSA Pre because we are flying on Singapore Airlines. Boy you get spoiled when you get used to using it all the time.

The Star Alliance airlines share a lounge at this terminal and it is pretty nice with a very substantial selection of food both Western and Asian. Then it was time to leave.

Singapore Airlines has a reputation for high quality service. The Business Class seating is the most spacious I've seen.

The food and service was pretty darn good though Wife said on her side of the plane the flight attendants were not as good. The timing of the flights made planning for jet lag more difficult. Since we were leaving at 9 AM and would be arriving 11 hours later, we would be getting into Tokyo at about our normal sleeping time. However that would only be 1 PM local time in Japan (the next day). So we tried to get some sleep during the flight just so we could stay awake for half the day once we got to Tokyo.

Getting through Tokyo immigration and customs was pretty easy too again because the arrival time seemed not when a lot of other flights were arriving.

Ahh Airport World

So terribly comforting and familiar

 We had a bunch of things to do when we arrived. Change some dollars, test out withdrawing from an ATM. But most importantly we exchanged our vouchers for our two week Japan Railway pass. We were even able to book reservations for all our trains while we were there. Then catch the shuttle to the airport hotel. We are now desperately trying to stay awake until the restaurants open at 6 PM. Then we're going to crash because we have a very early flight to get us to Kagoshima tomorrow.