やった！！

Panic over.. there are indeed potato crisps in Japan!

Oh yeah.. by the way I made it safely to Japan :D

The Flight

After sharing welsh cakes with my parents (left) and saying a surreal goodbye to my parents, I smoothly progressed through security. The and the hand luggage I`d painstakingly ensured to be 16kg was not weighed!! Typical..  though I was proud of my super light packing (see below right)!!

The in-flight entertainment was great! I watched three movies: Dragonball Evolution, The Day The Earth Stood Still and Suspect X (a subtitled Japanese crime drama). Had 4 mugs of Japanese Green Tea (yum!) and teriyaki yakitori (chicken and sauce) for dinner.

Unfortunately I only managed 20 mins sleep.. if that.

As we came down over Tokyo, the clouds broke up and I could see the tiled landscape of the country below and I knew this was a foreign land. It`s such a simple thing, but the fields back in the UK are a mish-mash of shapes and sizes and different colours.. Japan is a neat mosaic of rectangular paddy fields. Pretty :)

Airport

Uneventful, had to wait almost 3 hours before the Aeon guys picked me up, then we went to find Ben and Tim of Sydney and Brisbane respectively, and then waited for Andrew of Aberdeen.

It all felt.. strange, and it certainly hadn`t sunk in that a) it was midday and yet my family and friends were fast asleep and b) that I was in Japan at all!

Journey

I was just crashing at this point. I`d been `up all night` in all senses and it was such a struggle to stay awake and the 2 hour train journey to the training HQ in Oumiya, North Tokyo, was making me very queasy!

日本にいます！ / I`m in Japan!

I had a much needed 20 minute power nap before myself and the guys ventured into Oumiya. Although it is part of Tokyo, it is actuallｙ in the northen prefecture, Saitama, and is a city in its own right. We walked down this street (see right)

where we were approached by non-English speaking punters, and after a bit of a languagwe barrier issue, I managed to order three platefuls of　yakitori （skewered chicken) , beer and water for us. Success! And the complimentary cabbage leaves drenched in sesame oil was.. interesting. Wasn`t a great fan of the grilled chicken skin and fat balls if I`m honest though..

I found a Subway restaurant!!

Aaanyway we happened upon a bar serving fruit sake cocktails, and the boys opted for what turned out to be a beer and vodka cocktail. It went down smoothly apparently!

First Night

We turned in pretty early, desperately needing to sleep off the jet lag! My training bedroom consists of a futon (sleeping mattress), table, wardrobe, tatami floor and caravan-style bathroom. Struggled a bit to drop off though.. it was after all only 3pm GMT! I hung up my freshly ironed-suits, and I managed to nod off after some time; the sound of the night cicadas` serenade carrying through the warm night.