My flight

The first flight took 40min from Linz to Vienna, from where my flight to Narita started.
At 1:15p.m was the take-off from Vienna. I made some notes during the 11 hour flight, which I will now reproduce:

Lunch was served with 9h15min to go above Minsk: Curry. A lesson I learned: If you have to choose between a new white shirt and a new orange shirt, wear the orange one if you eat curry. The white one won't stay that color, trust me.
Nap after lunch, woke up above Moscow.

Me after seven hours of flight

4,5 hours to go, above Irkutsk, it's dark outside. A snack was served: Instant ramen.
Ohropax and sleeping mask provided at least some sleep. Near-constant baby cries are hard to block off.

1,5h hours to go, slept surprisingly well, breakfast was served above Seoul.

Reached the airspace above Japan with 45min to go.

First glimpse of Japan

Stats of the aircraft I witnessed:
Speed: Between 900 and 1200+km/h
Height: Between 10000 and 12000m
40 rows, nine seats each, divided into sections of three.

I got a window seat during this flight, which has advantages and disadvantages.
+: View out of the window, this gets old after some time of just clouds however.
-: If the passengers next to you sleep, it's not easy to reach the toilett.
-: Getting your stuff from the overhead storage is hard.

We reached Narita at about 8a.m. and proceeded to check-out. Which took some time.
I got my Traveller's Cheques and my Japan Rail pass, held my first conversations in Japanese and traveled to Kyoto. More on this later.

So long and stay tuned,
JuergenS

written by  JuergenS on July 4, 2010 from Vienna, Austria
from the travel blog: Two month of Japan
tagged Flight and Arrival
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My flying route

Talking about souvenirs: Gift giving and bringing souvenirs from travels is an art in Japan and quite essential. Thus, I will be bringing some souvenirs from Austria to give away. Just gotta find a way how to pack them…

Anyway, I think the first real challenge, after surviving 14 hours of flight, will be to get from the airport to the guest house in Kyoto I will be staying at the first few weeks.

Guest Houses:
I find guest houses to be the ideal accommodation for travelers who plan to stay an extended amount of time in one area. They are cheaper than hotels, you can get in contact with the house owner and other residents easily and comfortably and while not as authentic as staying with a host family, you still can get a pretty good feeling of the lifestyle of the locals. There usually are no meals included, but where is the fun in getting served all the time when there is an exciting city outside waiting to be explored (and many many foods to try)?

This particular house I will stay at, Yurakuso (http://homepage3.nifty.com/yurakuso/), is managed by a couple having accommodated travelers of all nations for 35 years and counting.
My guess is that I will arrive there at about 3 p.m., after roughly 20 hours of travel and I expect to be pretty tired by then, so taking a stroll near the Kamogawa river and grabbing something to eat will probably be all I’ll do that day. Perhaps finding a good map of the area, too.

I have got a Japan Rail Pass for the first week in Kyoto, so expect me to travel around quite a bit in that time and not so much to visit Kyoto itself. Gotta use what you have as long as it lasts, and the thing is expensive enough with the EUR/YEN rates and all.

After this first Rail Pass I still will have one 7-day and two 14-day passes to be used later, one other for Kyoto, one for traveling to and around Tokyo as well as for my stay in Hokkaido and one for the last week before flying home to Austria.

So long and stay tuned,
JuergenS

Edit: Updated the picture to one I took myself.

written by  JuergenS on June 23, 2010 from Linz, Austria
from the travel blog: Two month of Japan
tagged Planning
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Kenrokuen Garden

Let me give you an outline of my upcoming journey through Japan:
I will start in Kyoto and stay in that area for about four weeks, experiencing one of the most famous matsuri (of festival) of all Japan, the Gion Matsuri. Most probably I will end up seeing all the major tourist attractions, but I will always keep an eye open for more hidden things, places to visit off the beaten path.
Some other places I will visit while having my home base in Kyoto are Hiroshima and Kanazawa.
After that I will move further north, to Tokyo, doing all the stuff to be done there and traveling its surroundings. This will include climbing Mt. Fuji.
I will take a week off Tokyo in mid-August and travel to the northernmost island of Japan: Hokkaido. There lies the great Daisetsuzan National Park, which I will explore for two days, followed by some time in Sapporo (great seafood around there). Don't expect updates 'till I'm back south.
At the end of August, my girlfriend will finally join me in Tokyo for the last two weeks of my, or now our, journey, which we will spend in Tokyo and Kyoto, before flying back home.

I expect this blog to be as much about culinary and food as about everything else, loving to cook myself, but lets see where this goes.

So long and stay tuned,
JuergenS

Edit: Updated the picture to one I took myself.

written by  JuergenS on June 13, 2010 from Linz, Austria
from the travel blog: Two month of Japan
tagged Introduction and FirstPost
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