hello tokyo bye bye osaka

Day 1: Narita Airport - Odaiba - Tokyo International Anime Fair - Roppongi Hills

We touched down at Narita Airport on an early Saturday morning. Being my first overseas trip I really wanted to have the window seat, but in typical fashion, things don't always go my way. Instead a local who has probably seen this scenery many times was sitting in the window seat beside me. 

After being photographed and fingerprinted, we were finally on the Limited Express Train bound for Tokyo. Our first aim was to locate
our hotel.

Being jetlagged, with zero sleep, cold and having difficulty communicating with the train staff, made figuring out the already complex Tokyo Subway system that much harder. But somehow through those initial madness, we managed to find our hotel and by this time, the Tokyo International Anime Fair had already started.

Before reaching the Anime Fair, we made a detour to Aqua City, Odaiba where we have our first official meal in Japan. The meal was nothing fancy, just an average bowl of soba noodle with tempura and tsukemono (japanese pickles). Despite there being beautiful sceneries of Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Bay around me, it was too cold and windy to really appreciate it all. For a springtime in Tokyo, it sure felt more like a winter. 

Having no time to change out of my airport clothes, meant I was still in my track pants, sport jacket and havaianas. The funny thing was, I would never wear this kind of stuff out and about in Brisbane City, but here I was wearing it all around Tokyo! My friend was also dressed in something similar. We copped a few strange looks from the locals who were all smartly dress in "warm and proper" clothing like thick jackets, boots and suits. I'm pretty certain, we were the only two souls in Tokyo wearing havaianas on that day.

The Tokyo International Anime Fair was being held at Tokyo Big Sight- a bold looking convention centre. When we finally made it inside, the venue was massive with lots of other shows and fairs being hosted there simultaneously. 

Getting the Anime Fair ticket in my hand felt like winning the Golden Ticket in the Willy Wonka chocolate bar. The jetlag and sleep deprivation I was feeling before had momentarily evaporated as I grabbed my copy of the map and made a beeline for TV Tokyo where I knew Naruto would be. 

On my way there, I saw plenty of cosplayers as well as plenty of anime titles I had never heard of before.

The first time I spotted Naruto and Kakashi-sensei at the TV Tokyo stand, I was ESTATIC! But there was already quite a crowd around them. After completing a few loops of the Anime Fair, I spotted them again, only this time there was no crowd just a few, little kids tagging along. It seemed my wish to have a photo taken with Naruto would finally be granted. Yay! (Kakashi-sensei was a bonus).

From a shaky start to the trip, just seeing Naruto made it all worth it! 

By the time we got back to our hotel we were both knackered! But after resting up a bit we both felt refreshed enough to head out to Roppongi Hills for dinner.