Japan: Day 1

*note* - excuse the phone photos for now

Chyeaahhhh.

Today was finally the day that I've been hanging for. All those months of containing myself from buying a heap more car parts, has all been for this trip. 

It's only been my first day here and man am I glad that I chose to do this. I implore for anyone who has been umming and ahhing about the thought of a Japan trip to just pull the trigger and do it as you will not regret it.

"Up in the air" - Dumbfoundead

We departed Melbourne at 6am to Cairns for a 3 hour stopover then continuing to Narita. I forgot to download games on my phone the night prior so I was frantically trying to download this big game just to realise on the plane that it needed internet connection to play it. Fail.

After a touch under 7 hours on the connecting flight, we finally arrived in Narita and what was the first thing I did? I hit up lawsons for a quick snack and some refreshments. Everything is so cheap and awesome in there!

I love this place

Next step was to collect the JR passes. I was pretty exhausted at this stage having not been able to get a solid sleep on the plane. I don't know how people do it, someone show me your ways. 

Zombie Andy

I was more excited than I should've been to test out the robot toilet haha. Took me two goes to realise to adjust the water pressure as the first one I used was set on max and left feeling a little violated and bewildered.

If only we could get these in AUS

After departing Narita airport, I hopped on a train then onto the connecting subway. The trains here are so clean and there's no shitty tags scratched into the window from dero kids like Melbourne trains. The public transport was also exactly on time - maybe I wouldn't hate public transport so much back home if it were like this.

So fresh and so clean

The train took me to Shibuya where I departed and was able to witness the famous Shibuya crossing. There were no RWD Evo's drifting through it with everyone scrambling like in Tokyo Drift.

Sort of reminds me of melbourne CBD, just 1000x better.

After dropping off luggage at the AirBNB place, I went to check out Afuri ramen. You order via a machine at this place which is pretty cool. It's something I'd only seen in movies and was slightly excited to try it. Basically, you put your money in then select what you want then it prints a ticket - easy right?

After taking your ticket, all you need to do is take a seat, give the staff your ticket and inform them how you'd like your broth then chill out till it's brought before you. The chashu pork gets grilled on a charcoal bbq as well which was pretty cool to see. 

The ramen was delicious, and quite different to anything I've had so far in Australia. I'd say one of the main differences would be the chashu pork, which in Australia is commonly a lot thicker and fattier, but I reckon this thinner and leaner version compliments the meal in a much more balanced symbiotic way.

After finishing this, it was time to head back and grab some sleep which I desperately needed. After not even a day, I was already loving Japan and was toying with the idea of another trip already but for a much longer amount of time. Anyways, more to continue on day 2...