We must have blinked more times than we thought. We went from deciding what to pack, to checking-in to our hotel in Tokyo. It started when we received our travel packet from Inside Japan with all our paperwork. That was when we eased over the big hill of time’s roller coaster!

So let me rewind the tape and tell you about the past couple of days. We started with a ride from home to the Best Western Carlingview Hotel near Toronto’s Pearson Airport. We used Airports Taxi Transfers and the ride was easy. Our driver had another airport pickup after us, so he didn’t spare the horsepower.

Upon arriving, we checked into the hotel for our overnight stay. Our room wasn’t anything fancy, but it was very clean and comfortable. We had dinner at the hotel’s restaurant – Flight Path and enjoyed it very much. We both had the homemade Butter Chicken and it was tasty. Afterwards, we just relaxed for the remainder of the evening.

After a good night’s sleep, we hopped on the hotel’s shuttle and made our way over to the airport. There were a few people hanging out at the airport, but we checked in, made it through security and over to our gate without any problems.

Since we were early, we took advantage of Air Canada’s Maple Leaf Lounge and grabbed a little breakfast. It was a great place to comfortably relax before our flight.

Our flight from Toronto to Tokyo was a direct flight on an Air Canada Boeing 777-300ER. There was plenty of time to watch a movie, eat and catch some shut-eye. Thankfully, we were able to fly business class, so we had a little more room to get comfortable, but it was still a long flight, timing in at just over fourteen hours.

This was our first trip across the Pacific Ocean and the expanse of the ocean was really eye-opening. That’s a whole lot of water!

I was surprised by our route. From Toronto our path took us across Canada, over Alaska and then along the Russian coast. A look at a globe makes it all make sense, but who carries a globe with them.

Eventually, we did land at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. Touching down on solid ground was a nice feeling. The next nice feeling was de-planing and having space to stretch and use our legs again – even if it was just the short walk to immigration.

We had used the Visit Japan App to enter our preliminary immigration and customs information, so armed with our barcodes, passports and travel itinerary, we headed to immigration.

Honestly, we were shocked. Using the kiosk with our barcoded personal data, we cruised through customs and immigration in less than ten minutes. Our advice is to do the preliminary tasks to make the transaction much easier for yourself. Those having to fill out the paper documentation spent a lot more time than we did.

Once we were through with our entry procedures, we grabbed our luggage and headed out. The Inside Japan folks had transport waiting for us via Green Tomato Shuttle. We spotted a person holding a ‘Green Tomato’ logo sign and after simple greetings, we boarded the shuttle and were whisked to our hotel.

Ok, maybe not whisked in the true sense…as we were in the middle of rush hour traffic. Despite all of the public transportation, which also looked filled to the brim, there were vehicles everywhere. The good news is that I didn’t have to do the driving!

Ok, we’re caught up. Now back to our regularly scheduled vacation.

We are staying in a section of the city known as Sumida. Our hotel, The Gate Hotel Ryogoku by Hulic, is located right along the Sumida River and the evening lights in all directions look beautiful.

The lobby is located on the second floor of the building and they have a lounge and a restaurant available – that we will be trying shortly!

We met our tour guide, Mr. Fergal Fox, who was waiting for us in the reception area when we arrived. He’s an Irishman living in Tokyo and seems to be a good fit personality-wise for us. We chatted for a few minutes and then received some documentation for the days ahead.

Our room is located on the 4th floor. It’s smallish, but spotlessly clean and has everything that we need – including lots of outlets.

We had a very nice dinner in the hotel restaurant called ‘The Anchor Ryogoku Riverside’. The meal of scallops and mushrooms along with a fresh salad was delicious, as was the wine.

However, the standout of the evening was the wonderful staff. They allowed us to use our bits of Japanese and helped with pronunciation. The were delightful and helped ease us through our first evening in Tokyo. Arigato gosaimasu!

After dinner, we went back to the room hoping that we’d be able to sleep. After washing up, I started working on writing this blog entry only to have my eyes get extremely heavy. Rather than making lots of mistakes, I put my head down and went out like a light. Sue finished up and joined me in slumberland.

Oyasumi…