Luckily, I ended up rising at the perfect time for my flight. I packed up my things, settled my bill, and I was off for Tokyo on Vanilla Airlines!
Unfortunately, my foot was still aching, and I continued to limp my way through the terminal. Check-in was a breeze, and I arrived at the gate with plenty of time to spare. The flight was only a little over two hours, and I arrived bright and early at Narita International Airport.
At this point, after collecting my backpack and lugging it through the terminal, I started to get legitimately concerned about my foot. The pain had not subsided at all; in fact, it actually felt worse, and my right foot had started to swell slightly. However, I still felt like I could power through it. I spent the money and came all this way, I should see stuff! Little did I know it would only get more difficult from there.
After resting for a bit, I found a cheap bus to Tokyo Station (Narita is quite far from Tokyo proper!), and I spent almost an hour looking for this baggage storage place I had read about. It turned out to be in quite a difficult to find location outside the station and underground... But it remained the cheapest and most convenient place to put my heavy pack.
With that out of the way, I was free to explore Tokyo! First looking for some food, I was shocked at how pricey even basic meals were compared to how relatively cheap food had been everywhere else (even at the airport!). My search fruitless, I decided to head over to the Imperial Palace right in the heart of the city. Slightly disappointed that I couldn't actually go in the Palace grounds, I still enjoyed the architecture of the bridge and gate from the outside. The grounds were almost impeccable, and everything, besides the tourists, was exquisite.
I was shocked to discover just how much open space there was, at least in this area. I was under the impression that it would be almost Manhattan like in terms of how cramped the space would be... However, that assumption proved to be quite wrong. Even in areas where it was much tighter, the city jut seemed way less crowded, even directly in the city center.
At this point, I was voracious and needed to find some cheap food. I was hot and in a lot about f discomfort with my foot... Eventually I wandered into a mall... Everywhere in Tokyo, there are shops and restaurants underground or in office buildings or near train station etc. Unfortunately, everything except convenience stores closes after lunch until 5pm. Thus, I was relegated to waiting around... I picked a restaurant I wanted to try, and I waited outside it reading until it opened for dinner.
The place served this interesting dish that was yakisoba noodles cooked with egg so that it forms an omlet type dish. It was pretty darn tasty!
Something to note: it seems that there are no public plugs available to charge gadgets anywhere in Tokyo besides like coffee shops.
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