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+====== 令和7年2月02日 ======
+It was raining in Tokyo today, with cold wind. There were rumors of snow in the 23 Wards, but they didn’t materialize.
+----
+It isn’t the case that I’ve forgotten anything about my first time in [[:japan]]. I definitely remember it quite clearly, and I don’t know why, but the first few hours were really magical to me.
+December 29, 2022.
+I landed at Haneda at night, turned off Airplane Mode, and waited for my phone to connect to its first foreign cellular network. This was within a very small window of time where tourism was permitted under the COVID-19 restrictions, so the flight staff began the announcements: there would be two groups of disembarkation. Anyone whose destination was Japan would be let off in group one, and anyone whose destination was another country was the second group. I prepared my Visit Japan Web page for quarantine, and got ready deboard.
+{{:journal:jtrip1:img_6302.png?200|}}{{:journal:jtrip1:img_6226.png?200|}}{{:journal:jtrip1:img_6299.png?200|}}{{:journal:jtrip1:img_6298.png?200|}}
+With my phone on some new cellular networks, I was led off the plane. The way it worked was that anyone who had completed their paperwork with vaccination and/or test results was led one way, with everyone else going to a different path. I followed the path for cleared individuals, after being given a health paper that indicated that I was clear to go through the checkpoints.
+The signage in the airport didn’t match the path we took at all. Improvised signage on wooden stands marked the true path. Eventually we were led to a quarantine station, which allowed us to go through to the final set of paths to immigration.
+“Please, watch your step” is the repeating English phrase in the Haneda walkway to immigration and customs. The LCD signboards advertised Uber Taxi. A long, long walk.
+The path sort of changed a bit. Then, the next signage: No photos or videos in CIQ area.
+For some reason, I was worried about having messed up my customs paperwork or immigration clearance. After what seemed like an eternity in line, though, I got my first Landing Permission stamp in a foreign country.
+Customs at Haneda opens up into an almost anticlimactic tunnel that has a simple “Welcome” sign, and then voila: I was here.
+{{ :journal:jtrip1:img_6307.jpeg?600 |}}
+----
+In 2019, I had added Suica to Apple Pay, loaded with 1,000 yen. I believe this was still restricted to phones set to the Japan region, because I remember feeling rather special about getting it working. When I arrived on December 29th, 2022, I was rather surprised to find that barely even getting my phone close to the reader at the Keikyu-Kamata ticket gate worked without a hitch. It almost felt like the doors on the ticket gate flung themselves open. The next notification was what would soon be a familiar one: “Suica: Trip in Progress.”
+It sounds cliche, but this first experience in Japan just felt surreal all the way through. For the first time in my life, I was in a foreign country. And it was Japan! A place I had only read about and seen pictures of. Pictures and text that seemed so different as to be impossible. But it was here, and real! And I was here!
+----
+Looking back though, when I stepped out of the station near my hotel: another shock hit me as everything really was different. Having lived in the US all my life, I didn’t know what to expect. But everything, from the road design to the signage to the construction was so different!
+I hurried and checked into my hotel before setting out to do one walk around the neighborhood, before getting some rest. After all, it was Comic Market 101 the very next day. I stopped at my first JR station and took a picture, just wanting to make sure I knew exactly where to go the next morning.
+I went back to my hotel, and slept a really pleasant night’s sleep, safe and sound.
+----
+And now, some ANA plane food (it was really good!):
+{{ :journal:jtrip1:img_6252.jpeg?600 |}}