DAY 0, April 11 Thursday, 2024: we both boarded our flights, son from Houston, me from New Delhi

DAY 1, April 12 Friday, 2024: Landed at Narita airport, met up, drew money from ATM, bought sim card, IC card for transport Pasmo Passport, apartment checkin with code, grocery shopping at nearby Seiyu, Japanese Walmart

FLIGHTS:

We were flying in from different countries, son had a longer flight From Houston. The direct flights were expensive, so both of us had a transfer.

Son took off from Houston at 1 pm on Thursday April 11 EVA AIR, had a 16 hour flight to Taipei, from there, he flew down to Tokyo. It was a short transfer of one and a half hours at Taipei but it was fine. His flight from Taipei to Tokyo was three and a half hours. He landed at 12:30 in terminal one.

My flight from Delhi CATHAY PACIFIC took off at 10:45 PM on April 11 and landed in Hong Kong after 5 hours. After 3 hour layover, the flight took off from Hong Kong and landed in Narita Airport TERMINAL 2 at 2:45 PM.

ENTRY PROCEDURE/ QR CODE

There is a lot of vigilance at the airport regarding people bringing in food material from other countries there was even a dog sniffing all bags. I had brought some 20 plus tortillas, tomato relish, spice mix, salt, soup packets, cashew nuts and raisins as I do for all our trips as usual. I had checked in the box of no in the QR code form for the question of bringing in animal or plant material into Japan, basically it's about not bringing in insects etc to their country with meat, dairy or plant material.

I was not sure if I was flouting rules. Usually commercially packed Sealed food is okay but not homemade. Mine was homemade and even the nuts were not in sealed packets. There is a stiff fine if people are caught flouting rules. But anyway I walked through the green channel and things were ok.

There is an entry form which we had completed online and obtained the QR code. That made it easier to go through passport control.

We had both got the check in codes from our TOKYO apartment . We were hoping to meet at terminal 2 STARBUCKS and then take the train into the city. There is free wifi in Narita Airport and that was really helpful.

ATM, SIM CARD, IC TRANSPORT CARD PASMO PASSPORT

After Son landed, he drew money from the atm, bought a sim card [esim ubigi is the cheapest but his unlocked phone did not have the spec to take that esim, so he opted for a physical sim card from the airport machine]

Then he took the shuttle from terminal one to two. We met up easily.

We both went to the Kaisei Kiosk and bought the IC card pasmo Passport. It comes loaded with 1500 yen.

We took the Kaisei main line limited express and got down at Kaisei Funabashi. We exited through the East Gate, walked some 50 metres and entered Funabashi Station through the south exit. We took the JR Chūō-Sōbu Line and got on at the 7th station Hirai. At this transfer and entry we just had to swipe our card.

The whole trip costed 900 yens. By comparison the Narita express to Tokyo station costs 3000 yen and needs a special ticket, our trip was done with the pasmo card.

we had seen some cherry blossom trees in bloom on our journey.... it perked us up in anticipation

At Hirai we got out of the North Exit

we walked past the KFC seen in this pic and walked 400 metres to our apt.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/HYafjqu8hXayDaeAA

Put in the electronic code and The main gate opened.

There was a flight of 10 steps to reach our apartment 201; it had a numbered lock and we opened it and entered the user friendly apt pretty spacious for Tokyo standards.

Laffitte Hirai Condominium Hotel:

this is the kitchen at the entrance. The kitchen had a stove top, a microwave, electric kettle, fridge and freezer and basic vessels

The living area had two bunk beds and a collapsible bed and a table. The windows were big and had sliding doors which could open with a safety net fixed. we never used the AC

The wardrobe had an extra bed stuff; this chest was for trash!!

The washroom had a smart toilet, a washing machine, a drying rack and a tub.. All in all, a very comfortable apartment for a stay

[ the entrance had a shoe rack and carpet slippers which is a norm for all Japanese apartments hotels.]

the collapsible cot opened out as a seat for us...

We had our our homemade tortillas with the tomato relish I had brought from home.

GROCERY FROM SEIYU

The Japanese Walmart Seiyu is right near the station, so we walked there with our bags and bought some groceries. It amounted to 6000 yen... pretty high