Travel to Japan 13

On Flights to Japan
Friday-Saturday, Aug 21-22, 2008
United 51 and 831

We started out journey very early in the morning in Orlando, Florida. With tropical strom Fay still threatening the East coast of Florida (current location is around between Cape Canavarel and Jacksonville) we woke up around 3:15 AM prepared ourselves, checked out of the HoJo and headed toward the Orlando International Airport (MCO). Flights from MCO fortunately were not affected, but it was raining on and off.

We parked our car in one of the Satellite parking lots and took the shuttle (in rain) and reached the gates for the Untied Airlines. We checked our bags with relative ease and MCO was much more easiser to navigate than the busy ATL airport in Atlanta, GA. Since there was still time we grabbed some breakfast before the 5-hour trip to San Franscisco (SFO) International Airport.

Our flight to SFO was smooth. The weather in SFO was much better, cloudy but no rain. Even though we reached early, we had very short time before catching the connecting flight to Nagoya International Airport (NGO). The flight 831 was about 10 1/2 hours long. We saw Kung Fu Panda and Iron Man while traveling.

Finally around 1:40 PM JST (Japan Standard Time) ahead of our 2:20 PM scheduled arrival we landed at NGO. 15 minutes before we landed we had a beautiful view of Mount Fuji (no snow cover at the altitude of 14,000 feet) to our right of the flight path.

We were fingerprinted and photographed (all non-Japanese citizens are required to go through this procedure) and collected out baggage and needed find a way to get the Nagoya Japan Rail station.

Travel to Japan 04

Registration

21st Congress of the InternationalUnion of Crystallography

Osaka, Japan

I went ahead and filled out the registration form for the IUCr conference in Osaka, Japan and submitted via web. They were ready to take American Express CC to for the registration. Soon I received the confirmation of my registration and receipt of the payment.

Travel to Japan 02

Purchase of Japan Tickets
Tickets to Osaka via United
Friday, March 28, 2008

I have started to inquire about my upcoming trip to Osaka, Japan in late summer 2008. I first started my search using the regular websites like, Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, and OneTravel. However, since I am leaving from a small town in the USA my flight options in late March 2008 for a trip in late August were not good. Several of them quoted prices in the 1500 range.

So I decided to modify my plans so that I will leave from a bigger city in the US and try to fly to Tokyo or Nagoya both of which have relatively larger International Airports compared to Osaka. In addition, since I will be traveling to Japan just after the Olympics in China gets over, I assume that may contribute to the high cost of the ticket.

Even after exploring the options I was unable to find good fares either through the above mentioned sites or even through airlines themselves like Delta, NorthWest, and Continental.

Then I spoke to people who are native of Japan and they suggested I contact Travel Agents who specialize in travels to Japan. One such vendor was IACE-USA Travels. They have offices in Orlando, Atlanta, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other places.

I sent out my plans and the next day they sent me an itinerary via e-mail. Then I spoke with one travel agent who helped me fine tune my departure and arrival as per my request. It turned out that if I traveled out of Orlando (MCO) and arrived Nagoya (NGO) they would offer me their best price. So I decided to go with that itinerary. This meant I had to travel to Orlando by car and take a train to Osaka after arriving in Nagoya. Another option would have been to arrive at Tokyo/Narita (NRT) International Airport and change to Haneda (HND) Domestic airport in Tokyo and arrive in Osaka. I preferred to fly to NGO and take the train rather than shuttle between two airports after a long journey.

Once I gave my selection they sent me the tickets in United Airlines. The tickets were reasonably priced in the 1300 range.

Travel to Japan 01

Japan Books and Travel Guide
Feburuary 28, 2008

I started to search for books and Travel Guides for Japan. I first started my search at my local county library (Leon County Library) and found couple of good books. But some of them were bit older and so I used those books for general information.

Then I selected the books I liked the most and went to Ebay, Half, Barnes & Nobles, Amazon, and Alibris, as well http://www.isbn.nu/ and searched for the titles and ISBN numbers (http://www.isbn.nu/) to get the newer versions or newer editions of the same books.

I was able to get some of the books through Ebay, Half and Amazon. The following are the books I liked the most.

• Good picture book from Dorling Kindersley (aka DK) called Eyewitness Travel Japan (ISBN: 0-7894-9719-0 or 978-0-75662-876-5)


• General information about Japan - Frommer's Japan by Beth Reiber, Edition 8, (ISBN: 0-471-763-91-8 978-0-471-76391-8)
  
• If you plan to travel by train - Japan by Rail by Ramsey Zarifeh (ISBN: 978-1-873756-97-3)

• Japanese Language Audio CD - Pimsleur Quick & Simple Japanese, 3rd Edition (ISBN: 0-7435-2351-2) 4CD set with 8 lessons.