9/14/11. Where the party at?

What to do during our half morning in HK? Eat baked goods and buy electronics!

You know what's awesome? Not having jet lag. Or a cell phone for that matter. Usually I check my email first thing in the morning, and I didn't have the "luxury"  of doing that here. Leaving my laptop and blackberry at home was such a good decision.

We got ready and headed to a bakery for a quick breakfast. The pastries we got were delicious, but man did we get pushed around in line! I felt like a total tourist while fumbling for change in my money belt. No laughing at my fanny pack!

My goal is to not lose weight on this trip. I weighed myself before leaving for Asia. 148.6 lbs. I know I won't gain weight, but I lost 10 lbs in Europe because of all the walking. That's not going to happen here.

We wolfed down our goods on the way to a mall, and Ghyrn got his Sony NEX-5N. He's been looking at the camera for a while and it's pretty sweet! It was just released in the States and has been around for a few weeks in Asia. I'm looking forward to seeing the sweet shots he's going to get on Mt. Fuji and the rest of Japan, Seoul, and HK part 2.

P.S. My bathroom schedule is totally messed up right now. I usually go every morning at like 9 AM, but my body has no idea what time zone I'm in. Hopefully it readjusts quickly.

After getting to the Airport on the metro, we got a quick bite (fried chinese doughnuts and soup noodles) and boarded. This flight itinerary: HK International ->Seoul Incheon -> Tokyo Narita. Flight count: 4.

Noteworthy events on these flights:
1) I got spoken to in Korean.  Count: 1.
2) I realized that facemasks make me nervous. No SARS please! This was when I started carrying my hand sanitizer religiously.
3) I got a customs card to Japan that was in Japanese, and got spoken to in Japanese. Count: 1.
4) We should not have gotten food before the flights. Apparently, even the discount airlines in Asia give a ton of food!. Asiana rocks - we got a meal on a 3 hour flight, and bibimbap on our 1.5 hour flight:

Asia is spoiling me.

Getting off the plane in Tokyo was a bit hectic because we had to catch a train and overnighter bus into Kyoto 40 minutes after landing. 15 minutes to taxi + 20 minutes for immigration and customs + figuring out the airport = not a lot of time!

Here's how it went: we ran off the plane, ran up the stairs and beat all the people in escalators, and were the first in line for immigration and customs. I had printed out a map of the airport terminal before we left on the trip, so finding the Narita Express (N'EX) to Shinagawa Station where our bus was waiting was pretty easy :)

Phew.

The train ride to Shinagawa was just long enough to regain our senses, and after we got off we explored the area a bit. It was funny seeing the flood of white shirts and black pants at 9 PM. Japanese people work hard!

After a while we headed back to the bus stop and got on our overnighter to Kyoto. As expected, I was glued to the window until I got drowsy, and I mistakenly called the Tokyo Tower an Eiffel Tower knockoff. Oops.

Going to sleep now! It was a long day, and I'm looking forward to waking up in Kyoto  :D