Travel Day No. 1
The evening before leaving for the first leg of our trip around the world was hectic to say the least. We finished packing up our house and each left with the two bags that we were carrying with us for the next four months - as well as Callie who was now going to be living with Ivy’s family. We celebrated Ivy’s brother and sister’s upcoming birthdays and had a nice dinner together…even though we were almost too anxious to get any food down. We then did some last-minute organization of our backpacks before trying our best to get a good night’s sleep before our long travel day ahead.
The next morning, January 24th, was finally departure day! Ivy’s parents dropped us off at the airport for our midday flight from Pittsburgh to Chicago. Only a few tears were shed on the car ride and during drop off time. This is the first time that either of us have been away from home for longer than a two-week period, so there were more emotions present than we could possibly put into words. We ate breakfast in the airport lounge and waited to board our quick flight over to Chicago. When we arrived in Chicago, we only had 50 minutes until our long-haul flight to Tokyo departed, so we weren’t sure if we would even make it onto the flight! To our surprise, we only had to walk a few gates down to board the next flight. We had plenty of time to refill our water bottles, walk around to stretch our legs, and then board the plane. Pictured above is what the plane looked like as one of the flight attendants announced “boarding complete”. Upon learning how empty the plane was going to be, we both let out the biggest sigh of relief! The essentially empty flight was an incredible experience. It was easy to spread out and peacefully eat our meals, as well as freely using multiple seats, pillows, and blankets to sleep for the majority of the 13.5-hour flight. We ended up landing during a beautiful sunset with Mt. Fuji beaming in the background.
Upon landing, the entry process into Japan was quite simple because Andrew completed some documents pre-flight that provided us each with a QR code that we scanned to get through the health screening and immigration areas of the airport. After about 25 minutes in the airport, we made our way to the metro station to head to our hotel. We landed around 5pm, so we were ready to grab some food and head to sleep after traveling for about 20 hours. After checking into the hotel, we walked to the infamous Family Mart that was neighboring the hotel and browsed the aisles for some food and drinks. The convenience stores in Asia are much different than what we are used to in the States. You can buy ready to heat and eat meals, fresh sandwiches, sushi, and much more! We ended up trying some sushi, spaghetti, onigiri (little rice triangles wrapped in seaweed that are filled with a protein such as salmon or chicken), a matcha tea, and a cold Sapporo. Then, we slept for a solid 10 hours, which allowed us to be ready to switch hotels and explore Tokyo the next day (we used a free reward night at the IHG Intercontinental Tokyo Bay, which was a great hotel that allowed us to start off our journey well rested)!
-Ivy&Drew
