Narita Airport

One of my biggest problems with travel to Japan is Narita International airport. Unlike other airports around the world I find the access time to Narita airport is too long and it cost too much money to get there. On average from my house to the airport if I take the fastest train, it will take me about two hours total to reach it. Moreover, it will cost me about 3000yen which is about $30. When I tell my friends in other countries about the price to get to Narita many of them are shocked to hear the average price is about $30.


However, recently Japan has started to book more international flights from Haneda International airport which is located near downtown Tokyo. I think this is a more visible option if you are going to travel to Japan for a short amount of time or if you come from neighbouring country. During, my next trip I will fly out of Narita but return via Haneda.


I will let you know the details when I come back !!!

My trip 2 days before....

Wow, I only have two more days before my trip but I am extremely exhausted. These last couple of days my body and mind have been so tired I have not been able to do my daily tasks. I think I am having a complete burn out.

I believe the main reason being that I have worked a hard shift at work until the day of my trip and my travel partner has changed our plans to make our trip more adventurous than we had planned on.

Today I will take some well needed rest and hope I feel better tomorrow


By the way, I found this cool vending machine the other day in Shinjuku and I want to show you a pic




Hope you enjoy !!!!

Shopping for trip things and packing

Today I went out to purchase last minute goods for my trip. Today, I went to Muji in Shinjuku to purchase some of their cool Muji Go Products.

I purchased a foldable duffel bag pictured below

The bag is really good

It can hold all of my clothing and room to spare. The other great thing is that it can fold until a small bag which is easy to carry in luggage. 

I also purchased a small plastic bag to put all of my liquids into 

Since I purchased Muji Go items I received this cool notebook for free!!!!!

Last Minute trip preparation

I will leave on my big trip this summer in four days. Yet, I am still confused on what to take and not what to take with me. I am currently trying to keep my packing list to the bare minimum. Thus, I have decided only to bring the following 

1. Two pairs of pants ( 1 pair of jeans and 1 pair of chinos)

2. Two pairs of shorts 

3. Three T-shirts

4. Three pairs of shoes (One pair of running, one pair of boat shoes and flip-flops)

5. One weeks worth of underwear and socks

6. ipad mini, iphone, camera 

7. medication for malaria, bug spray and sunscreen. 

I dont think I will wear many of my clothes while I am in India. My plan is to buy local clothes once I arrive so I can fit in better. Moreover, this year I do not plan on buying many souvenirs for my students. The reason being that when I travel between Shanghai and Hong Kong, I am only allowed to bring 15Kg with me.... 

Although, I know what I want to take with me on my trip, I am not sure what to pack everything into. My two choices are a suitcase and a backpack. I know the suitcase is big and it might be hard to push around cities such as Delhi and Hong Kong. But, I will have a  lot of room to bring things back with me from my travels. As for the backpack, it is very light and it is easy to carry around town. But, the downside being that I cannot bring back any goods from my trip  and if I do check the backpack in things might get damaged or broken. 

I will keep everyone updated on my trip and let you know which type of luggage I choose. 

Amazing race and visas....

I am a huge fan of the TV series The Amazing Race. I enjoy traveling and I like to emerge myself into the culture. However, one thing always had me thinking about the TV show. How do all of the participants apply for all of the visas they need for the TV Show? I have applied for only two visas my whole life; one for India and three times for China. Although, the visa applications are pretty straight forward, I think that they are still a hassle to apply for. For starters, you need a hotel and plane ticket booking in order to apply for the Chinese visa. Thus, how do the Amazing Race participants apply for the visa? Moreover, does the TV program require the participants to apply to vast amount of visas? Usually when they are sent to another country the participants seem shocked that they are traveling to the particular country. But, if they have the visa already stamped in their passport.... why are they shocked they had to visit China?


Just something to think about...

Visa Visa Visa

I am currently getting read to head overseas. However, like most countries I tend to visit I need to apply for visas. A couple of weeks ago I had to apply for a Indian Visa. However, it was a total pain in the @$$.

First, the website stated that I could apply at the Embassy here in Tokyo and fill out the form I printed online. However, once I go to the embassy; I was informed that I could not apply there and I had to go to a special visa centre located elsewhere in Tokyo. Considering I had to go to work later that day; I had no choice but to take a taxi. Upon arriving at the visa centre, I was greeted by the staff and I handed in the papers

However, it seems that the paper document is no longer accepted. Thus, they had me go to a internet cafe located near the station. So, I got up and started to walk to the internet cafe but my luck continued to get worse. It started to rain heavily. ... Once I arrived at the internet cafe, I was soaked.

I filled in the application and headed back to the visa centre to turn in the application. After viewing my application the lady at the counter said I had to write a US address on my application because I was a American national. So, I would have to fill in the application again from scratch....

So again in the rain I headed to the internet cafe and continued the process.

After getting back to the visa centre at at 12:45, I was able to get my visa processed. The visa centre charged me a total of 13,000 for my Indian Visa. Moreover, they said I could only pick up my visa on a weekday between 4:30-5:00 ( my working hours)....


A week later, I had a friend get my visa for me and now everything is alright...