Ari and Nici in Japan: Day 1 - Arrival and Asakusa

Hey guys (^.^)v

I am finally back from Japan and brought lots of photos for you!

Let's start with the arrival and our first day in Tokyo ♥

I have to announce that I'm really scared of flying.
The idea of flying for about 12 hours just made me feel sick..
On the advice of my friend Nici (who works as a travel agent)
I tried to control my fear with tablets against travel sickness.
And I think it really worked. I already took them when I rode to Berlin
by bus. And well I slept during the whole ride and didn't feel sick; 
so in my opinion they worked x3
And I also feel like I wasn't that scared anymore when I took them
before the flight. Also I could hold Nici's hand the whole time during
the take off which helped me a lot to relax ^.^

Our first flight was from Hannover to Frankfurt
and then the nearly 12 hour flight from Frankfurt to Tokyo Narita.

A melon lemonade I had at the airport in Hannover. It was good but terribly expensive >.<

Our plane didn't arrive yet..

 After more than 12 hours, 2 take offs and not that bad plane food,
we finally arrived at Tokyo Airport! ♥

The first 'culture shock' wasn't as big as expected.
The only thing that was really different from germany was the silence.
It was much more quiet at Tokyo airport than at both the airports in germany.

At Narita airport Nici's pen pal Yu piced us up.
She even made this cute sign for us *-*

sorry for looking so messed up, but I didn#t sleep well in the plane and the night before..

Yu is such a nice girl ♥
Although she didn't know me at all, she welcomed 
us so lovely and hugged us ^.^
She also helped us a lot to get Pasmo-cards and find the way
to our homestay home. Thank you so much!
(I think Pasmo or Suica Cards are really helpful for foreigners.
Many Japanese use them, too. You just charge them with some money
and then simply put it onto the scanners at the electronic gates
when you enter and leave and it will automatically debit the money.
You can also pay drinks in some vending machines with it ^.^)

Since we arrived at 8 a.m. in Tokyo and were finished with
unpacking in the early afternoon, our host mum wanted
to take us to 'a beautiful place' the same day.
She didn't tell us before we arrived and so we entered some
metros and when we got out of the station, we were standing
in front of the Sensoji-Shrine in Asakusa ^.^
The entrance gate 'Kaminarimon' is very famous for it's
huge paper lantern.

still looking weird and tired.. sorry q.q

When you go deeper into the temple ground,
you reach another shrine.
After doing the ritual cleaning of hands and mouth
(our host mum showed us how to do it), we entered the shrine
and got our fortunes told by doing Omikuji.
Omikuji is a traditional way of fortune telling. You donate 100 Yen and
have a box with a small opening, filled with many thin wooden sticks.
You shake the box until one stick falls out. Every stick has a number on it,
corresponding with the number of a certain drawer.
When you open the drawer, there are strips of paper which tell you your fortune.
Nici and I both had a positive fortune ^.^
Our host mum told us, this was really rare.

I still carry the fortune in my purse ^.^
Near the shrine there was another very small shrine, where we
also prayed. The shrine sheltered a big stone. With smaller stones
you can knock onto the big stone and the dust that occurs can be put
in your purse, so you never run out of money.

Here are some more photos of the Shrines and the area.
Nich took most of the photos ^.^

from above ^.^

a kind of souvenir shopping mall between the Kaminarimon and the Shrine

On the way back to the station,
I had my first food in Japan at: Mo's Burger!

Melon Soda and Rice Kimpira-Burger ♥

It was so super delicious *o*
I can really recommend Mo's Burger. Go there, when you're in Japan xD
Also this was the only burger I could eat (because of vegetarian),
it could not have been better! ♥
Everything is also made very fresh, so you always have to wait a bit.
But, other than in germany, you don't have to wait at the counter
for your food. They will bring it to your table ^.^
And the staff was so friendly ^.^

When we got back to our homestay house, we were so tired we
immediately slept in. At 6 p.m. xD
We only got up once again for dinner and then slept the whole night.
It was a very exhausting, but yet very awesome day ^.^
We've arrived at Japan! \(*-*)/

So that was our first day.
Thank you for reading ^.^

It will probably take some time until I can post the next
entries about Japan. Because I am moving to another home at
the time and probably won't have any internet for the next two weeks q.q
Bye, until then (^.^)v