The Japan Rumble: Day 1

UPDATED TUESDAY, 30th SEPTEMBER…

NOTE: Finally connected to the Internet from the hotel after going 3 days without it! It’s 2:40AM here in Fukushima, Japan and it’s a HUGE relieve that I can finally go online. I wasn’t sure what the problem was, and even Frank and James Allen did their best to help me out. One quick lucky fix with the I.P. detection for the FireFox browser and what did you know? That did the trick!

Okay here are the long awaited updates with pics and all. Videos will come in later… and followed by MORE pics. This is by no means a complete post (and so will the subsequent ones) so do check back now and then for new photos and videos.

Here’s a quick run through and summary account on my journey to Japan for the first time..

(click on any of the thumbnails and open them in a new tab or browser to view them in full size)

Leaving from KLIA

Since the MAS flight was to leave Malaysia at 9:00 in the morning, and that I had to be there at least 2 hours earlier to check in my luggage, I didn’t risk phoning a public cab. My uncle from Klang offered to help fetch me to the KLIA early in the morning… thanks Uncle! 🙂


Edmund Loh @ KLIA Uncle HH Walking to the Gateway Waiting for MH 0080

I had my breakfast at the KLIA cafeteria and after I got through the customs, I killed the last 30 minutes of waiting in the Waiting Hall by posting a quick video on YouTube. Yes, it’s the one you see in the previous post, the one before this one. 🙂

It’s been quite a while since I last fly on Malaysian Airlines. Wait, I rarely fly to other countries to begin with. It was only this year that I started traveling out of Malaysia – to places like Tehran, Bali, Jakarta, and now Narita @ Japan. 🙂

True to following “Malaysian Time”, the flight was delayed by 15 minutes. However we reached the Narita airport in Japan on time. We made a stop at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport for an hour in between. If it was a direct flight, it wouldn’t have taken 8.5 hours; maybe 7.5 hours in all.

Landing on Japanese Soil for the First Time

Reached the Narita Airport around 7:30PM local time and after a tedious immigration and check out, I was greeted by James Brown and his pops, Glynn Brown (I’m going to refer to him as Mr. Brown throughout my Japan Trip posts).


Going to the Narita Immigration James Brown and his Pops Frank Bauer & James B Allen

James Brown and I finally met again after our first encounter in person at Singapore last year. Great guy, knows his stuff… and very multi-dimensional thinker. Mr. Brown is a nice man too, you don’t find many sporting fathers from any age like him, I tell you that!

“You’ve gotta sell money at a discount.”
James Eric Brown

Let’s not forget Frank Bauer – hey hey, we meet again for the 3rd time in person! He talks a lot and I mean, A LOT and I always hear the words “PayPal”, “German”, “Pattaya”, and later on, Frank would go on to add “Merry Christmas” to his frequent one-line dialogues because almost everything in Japanese sounded as if the sentence ends with ‘-mas’. 🙂

Ah yes, James B Allen too. Met up with him half way while we were jumping trains to get to Downtown Tokyo, and camp at Dandy Hotel.

Downtown Tokyo

This is where we spent our first night.

Downtown Tokyo The Group The Dandy Hotel

I have to admit that it was a culture shock I still find it hard to handle now. To begin with, this is NOT your average hotel. Instead of individual rooms, we get…

our own morgues.

Edmund’s Morgue

But the nice ads they’ve plastered around the ‘capsule’ rooms made good eye desserts. 😉

Nice Poster

Later, James Allen took me and Mr. Brown and showed us around Downtown Tokyo a bit, and we had our late dinner at an English Pub down the basement nearby.

The Bar

To be continued….

5 thoughts on “The Japan Rumble: Day 1

  1. Hey Edmund! Glad you are enjoying your stay in Japan and attending James’ wedding…help me say “hi to him… 🙂 Enjoy your holiday!

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