July 03 - Arrival to Japan

Today we arrived to Japan. It was a very long, very exausting trip, but even after only a day here I can assure you: IT IS WORTH IT!

To provide some background: I only know very little Japanese and my girlfriend doesn't speak a word.

So, the first problem appeared when we wanted to get from Narita Airport to Tokyo... Luckly there were some really nice young women who, despite the fact that they didn't speak English, managed to help us get our tickets.

The next communication problem we had appeared when trying to buy some bento boxes in a department store. I though "Hey, I already learned how to buy things. I understand numbers and prices in Japanese. I know what to say to the clerk. This will be as easy as pie." WRONG! The clerk managed to say something I would have said in a minute in about five seconds. Luckily, the price showed up on a little screen...

Althought the whole day was amazing, the most interesting thing was the dinner. We entered a very small restaurant somewhere near our hostel. Everything was written in japanese, and there were no pictures. What the hell, we're in a completely new country, why not try something we don't know. The cook did not speak Englisch, but with a little help of some guests who were there and my really lousy Japanese knowledge the cook managed to understand that we didn't have a clue about what we should get for dinner and recommended "chanko". Definetly a great recomendation. I attached a picture of it below. It is some sort of stew with soy sprouts, lettuce (or something similar), meat, shrimps, etc. Delicious.
While the chanko was being prepared, the guests (3 women) asked where we were from. For some reason I still don't entirely understand, when they heard that I was from Spain, and my girlfriend from Germany, they were really amazed (don't ask about what they were amazed of) and started applauding :D.

Some photos of our first day:
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Signs on the train doors. There's really something with JR and pandas. They have similar signs on their subway too...

First sight of tokyo, right after getting out of the subway station

Chanko (The boiling happens on your table. You can see the burner below the bowl)