Dejavu. Big time.

My second trip to Japan has officially started. Travel itself went as well as 10 hour+ travelling CAN go. I left with my dad toward airport well ahead of time(better safe than sorry). Had no problems in the Helsinki airport so after some waiting was finally on my way. I met on the lounge with guy from Spain on business trip to Japan. His first time going to Japan. We were to meet again at Nagoya airport while waiting for luggages to arrive. Nice way to spend time while waiting.

Last year I went from Helsinki to German and from there to Narita. This time I instead went from Helsinki to Nagoya so the longest part was straight up. Unfortunately I had forgotten to check in early so wasn't able to get aisle side which meant locked up to chair unless person next to me lets me. Had some trouble middle of night with her sleeping and my legs feeling like I could do with short walk! Close to 10 hours sitting on airplane is NOT a pleasant experience.

Dinner and breakfast at the airport. They look small and WERE small. No danger of gaining weight on this flight! Too bad no Japanese meal was available. One would have expected that seeing we were going to Japan and plane was packed by Japanese with few westerners like me mixed in.

Di

Ah the mountain covered landscapes. Last time I had arrived to Japan via northern route by Hokkaido. This time from west close to Kyoto.

Arriving to Nagoya I was surprised when I realized that the airport is actually built on a small island. Likely artificial. Hadn't read of Nagoya airport before that so wasn't aware of that little detail. Then again with space in Japan being in premium building space consuming airplane over sea isn't neccessarilly that bad of an idea!

At the Nagoya airport I got my first taste of Japanese for this trip. Takoyaki! These octopus meat filled balls are Japanese fast food I fell in love last year. Not the best Takoyaki I have eaten but still good enough. Especially to somebody who was by then feeling starving to death(plane meals weren't exactly big...).

 Also got myself bento box. Rice, vegetables and chicken pieces.

After this was another 5 hours or so wait for the connecting flight. I think I screwed up a bit here leaving my luggage(which I had to pick up, go through customs and leave them to JAL myself. No automatic delivery to next airplane and customs at the end. Then again not having to do customs at the Narita was a plus) and going through security check right away. Place over gates were bit barren compared to Helsinki. Not much even places to buy food! Good thing I had book with me(Suzumiya Haruhi's melancholy light novel). Also free wifi helped to pass the time!

Flight to Narita went fast. Though in-flight drink service had to be cancelled due to turbulances and then seems not enough time since it was 1 hour flight only anyway. As I had done customs etc at Nagoya no time wasted at the Narita for that. Good! So I headed straig
ht to Shinjuku with the bus that took longer than I thought it would. Ah well. 18+ months since I last used it.

At the Shinjuku I was able to quickly find my bearings and locate the rental company and got the papers signed up pretty fast as well. Horay! And getting to apartment was simplicity in itself and I was feeling very nostalgic going the route I had taken a lot last time I was here.

 Very familiar sight. Well except for table on left.

I have no bloody clue on how to get these sorted to bed properly so I just did it as best as I could.

But not everything has remained same. There book off(used book etc store) I used to visit has gone. Boof. My room has wlan now rather than from cable and frankly it sucks. It's very slow, very unstable. Going to be problematic to update blog especially with lots of pictures with this rate...

Still. Feeling very homely now. Went to ramen restaurant and took something called ”tanmen”. No bloody idea what it was! Good and pretty big amount. I also got myself pair of nikumans(which I had been waiting ever since leaving Japan) and melon bread for breakfast. And I have some sort of candies or something I got from Nagoya airport. One looks like frog heads and one is some chestnut thing. Neither is bad tasting either.

 Looks odd but was good. More noodles at the bottom. Lots of noodles. Took a while to drain that plate up.

More of evening + bit of breakfast + some candies(?) for future eating. No idea what they are except box on left is made of chestnuts and one on right has been shaped to look like pig heads.

But bit of problem came up which is why blog update was bit slow. Room wifi was bloody awful. Slow and unstable. Uploading photos or talking via skype impossibility. So I was in bit quandry until next day. More on that on next blog(later today).