Today we traveled from Edmonton Alberta to Tokyo Japan. The flight from Edmonton to Vancouver went well as it was only one hour. Then we stayed in Vancouver airport for 4 hours . As there was a four hour layover in Vancouver this allowed us to eat lunch. Vancouver has a very beautiful airport they have an aquarium. It was quiet as we left in the middle of the week. This is the best time to fly as there is less people and the airports are not so busy. Then the JAL flight came it was a big plane with an upper cabin. The airplane had a tv and a game control phone that was not very high tech it was more like those in the 90's. The flight was 9 hours on these flights it is good to try and sleep as much as possible because then you will have less jet lag. They served us two meals on the flight one was rice with chicken the other meal was a spicy fish samwhich. For the first meal the supper they showed us a picture and we could choose which one we wanted. They do have movies and t.v chanels to whach in English . When we arrived in Tokyo we went out the exits there are two exits from the plain to the terminal if you take the wrong one like I did you may get lost luckily I was able to find my way.
Then we walked to the train shuttle stop and got on an automatic train that took us to the main terminal. There was cool Japanese art with Kanji(Japanese Characters) on the airports walls. To get to customs you have to go up and down a few floors. At customs they had a finger print scan where they scanned your finger prints and a picture taking test when we gave them our passports. We then arrived at the baggage claim to get our 2 checked bags. However Air Canada did not send our second bag my parents suitcase. The way we found out was there was a sign on the luggage carosel telling us that we had to see the baggage surivices we contacted them and told them to diliver the suitcase to their hotel. This experience of loosing bags flying has happened twice with Air Canada as this time they did not put our bags on in Vancouver on time so our other bag had to go on the next flight. Then we got my dads phone and tickets to the Nippori station. When we got on the train and phoned our friend we were meeting this took several tries. At the time we did not realize till later that talking on the phone in the subway as it is considered impolite. Then we got to the station swiched trains a few times and I bought a ticket and my parents bought passes an easier way than tickets. With Passes a person puts money on a card and can use it to travel around anywhere and their are machines at the subway stations to purchase passes or put money on them. Then we saw a few sites in the area of the restaurant. When we got to the restaurant and had real Sushi it was quite different as the fish was fresher here. There was a salad that came with the meal and steamed soybeans where you only eat the beans not the outside. Then we met our friends and gave out gifts. This is a Japanese custom to give gifts to those you meet on the first night there. Then I went to my homestay. The house is like a modern New York apartment except there is a different room for the tolet and a differnt room for the shower and bath. The shower and bath our like here . The tolet is very advanced and automatic no need for a button. Also ther is aircon in the apartment . The apartment is a two bedroom it is quite small but all most the same size as the one here.
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