Tokyo - Day One, yes we finally arrived

I am writing this entry on the Japan Airlines (JAL) 022 from PEK to HND. It's a 3 1/2 hour flight taking us from Beijing, China to Tokyo, Japan. I figure that we will be dead to the world by the time we arrive at The Gate Hotel Kaminarimon by Hulic in Asakusa area of Tokyo - and this downtime on the JAL airplane will be my best opportunity to capture these moments. I will try to post as soon as we get into our hotel room tonight.   

It's been a l-o-n-g day. Don't ask me why - but our American Airlines route took us from Dallas to Beijing then on to Tokyo, Japan. It definitely isn't the most direct route and we were filled with envy as DFW fellow travelers departed on the direct flight to Tokyo this morning. Actually - our semi-disasterous plan was on purpose to take advantage of deep discounted airfares from Dallas. Would I do it again? Ask me tomorrow or better yet, at the end of the trip. Right now, I am just damn grumpy.

We left DFW at 11 am on Thursday and it is now 6:07 am in Dallas on Friday (as I write from this JAL airplane). We have about 1 hour more to go - which pretty much makes this a 21 hour travel period from Dallas to Tokyo. This isn't for the amateur traveler. The most mind-numbing part of the story is that Tokyo is 14 hrs ahead of Dallas so it is really 8:07 pm on Friday night here. Thank you, international date line. By the time you read this - everything we do and say will be about 1/2 day ahead of our friends in the good ol' USA. Confused? Head spinning?  Imagine how my body is feeling right now. 

In full zombie-mode, we plan on taking the train to our hotel from Haenda airport. More on how that goes in a later post. It's time for a good night's sleep before our 9:30 am private tour of the city on Saturday morning. We must be nuts!