So Japan's finally opened up again and tourists are flocking over. Me included and I decided to pick a flight to arrive on Sunday so that I can kick off my trip on a weekday when the natives are all at work.

This is my second time here.

They didn't have much Anime on the flight but Gold Kingdom and Water Kingdom by Madhouse was available. Saw a lot of ads on Japanese TV so I decided to watch it. Silly plot that's a bit of a romcom but pretty enjoyable.

Meals weren't so impressive this time.

They ran out of the salmon meal so I had to have the other.

Up side this flight was the people sitting around me were friendly enough.

Narita Airport had more Pokemon art than I last visited.

Took around 40 mins to get though immigration this time. Queue was much bigger than last visited snaking all the way in to the desks multiple times but there were also more staff around.

If you get pointed to a quick booth for fingerprints and photo and you have QR codes from the online form filling then it speeds things up to 5 mins at main booth. Otherwise it's much slower. The fingerprinting took a while for me for some reason as the progress bar got stuck in the middle for a while.

As before, decided to buy a data SIM at the airport a Japan only "5G 18 Days Unlimited" sold by Mineo (there were cards for overseas too) but it didn't go so smooth this time... You had to have an internet connection available to activate the card and even after successfully activating I couldn't connect to the network.

Ended up sticking to roaming.

Didn't get a JR Pass this time because I wasn't travelling outside of Tokyo much so this time I had to buy all my tickets.

It was my first time using the Keisei Skyliner because the NEX doesn't get to where my hotel is, Ueno. Ticket machine was confusing because the final button to buy a ticket wasn't very obvious. Special trains requiring a regular ticket "station entry" ticket was confusing too. Fortunately there was an English speaking assistant around who showed me the button and guided me through the process.

Ended up buying a combined ticket that includes both the station fee and train fee. Easier that way. Didn't take pics because there was quite a queue. Opted to get later train because I wasn't sure how far it was tot he boarding platform but turned out not hard to find.

There are no USB chargers on train only Japanese main plugs so you'd need to take out your travel adapter. It was busy for my 20:00 Sunday train so little space for luggage. I had to lify mine onto the top rack but the seats are actually wide enough to just keep your medium-sized suitcase there. Some people opted to do that.

The NEX had comfier seats and chargers but I was on business green class last time. Route itself felt like taking the train in HK; nothing to see when again compared to the NEX route but maybe because it was night and the Skyliner travels through tunnels and underground mostly.

Opted for a hotel room with a Skytree view in Ueno. Wasn't my first choice but my original one's price had gone up too much.

It was 21:00 by the time I checked in and after the long-haul 16 hour flight (8 hours each) I was pretty tired. Was going to drop by Akiba but most places closed anyway so, day 0 again it is.

Still, just taking in the sights while looking for the hotel was fun in itself.

Grabbed a bento for the night and some toothpaste since the hotel only supplies tiny tubes that aren't really that great.