I'll be honest, I was a bit nervous about flying to Japan without having met anyone from our group. In past travel trips, we met in the United States prior to traveling or met at a U.S. airport and then traveled as a group to the international destination. This was a bit different. There were several people traveling on the same flight to Narita, but without knowing what anyone looked like, I would imagine it was difficult to "meet up". I was the only fellow flying out of Minneapolis, so the trip would be a lone one for me. Regardless, my day began at 5:30am- I left the house at 7:00am, flight to Minneapolis took off at 9:15 and arrived at 11:00am. I felt a little rushed due to my flight to Narita leaving at 11:40am (seeing as it's the only flight to Narita each day), but I had plenty of time to find my gate, use the bathroom, and get a bite to eat. The gate to Narita was in itself a cultural awakening- I was definitely one of very few non-Asians waiting for the flight and I was already hearing conversations in tongues foreign to mine. Once on the plane, all announcements were made in English and Japanese and the second meal served included a more Asian-themed fare- curry, salmon, and rice.. I had calculated that leaving at 11:40am CST meant 1:40am Tokyo time. I promised myself I would at least get 5 hours of sleep- I'm not sure whether that was a reality, but I did manage to sleep some.
Upon arriving in Narita, (at 4:50pm the NEXT day) I followed the hallways ushering me to customs and at the bottom of the first escalator I found a "welcome to Japan" sign. Immediately after exiting the escalator, I was greeted by a whole slew of Disney characters on the wall. Globalization at work. After going through customs, getting fingerprinted and photo'd, and picking up my bags, I exited the arrival gates only to be immediately overwhelmed by my next steps. I knew I first needed to find a way to get money- I followed the Delta flight crew to an ATM (when in doubt, follow the flight crew) and pulled out some crispy yen. I noticed that regardless of where I was given yen in cash- it always felt new- not crumpled and fragile like some of our currency. Next step was to find the Narita Express train (but there are so many trains!). I wandered around like an idiot looking for the NEX and meanwhile kept an eye out for wifi hot-spots you can rent at the airports- unfortunately I was pretty intimidated by the signs at these kiosks. The only words I could read on their signs were "wifi rental". That's it. No prices. No terms. Nothing. This is what it must be like for foreigners entering the United States without knowledge of English. I have made it a point to be more empathetic toward people wandering around and changing directions suddenly in airports. Without an understanding of the native language, everything is 100% more overwhelming. After deciding against renting wifi at the airport, I checked my facebook to see if anyone else had landed. There was talk of several of us meeting up and heading to Tokyo together. Unfortunately, no one had checked in and I didn't know what anyone looked like, so I decided to go ahead and head to the hotel on my own. I found the NEX ticket counter, managed to purchase a ticket headed in the correct direction and also purchased a return trip ticket for July 9th. While I felt great about successfully purchasing tickets, I had yet to get to the train. I wandered around a bit more- realizing that I needed to be a bit more "on"- no more wasting time. All signs were above hallways and corridors and while many were written in Japanese, in small letters English was visible. I followed the signs, fumbled with putting my ticket into the gate machine (does it go face up? face down? a side with arrows first? no? none of those? just stick it in the machine? okay. The poor people behind me. As I came down the steps to the train platform, people began running for the train. Great. I took off looking for Car #8- two bags and a backpack in tow. I made it to the car and saw that there was a yellow belt across the opening. I wasn't sure what this was about, but I was pretty sure I needed on the train. Come to find out, the yellow belt was placed there by a train sanitation worker who asked me to get back off of the car (that's what I gathered anyways), as they clean the train at the end of the line before leaving Narita again. So there I was waiting for 20 minutes after running to "catch" the train. In that 20 minutes, however, I was able to observe the cleaners- and boy did they clean. I mean, they scrubbed the train. I'm not sure whether public transportation in the United States ever gets scrubbed, but this is something we should look into. I also connected to free wifi just long enough to let my parents and BJ know that I made it safely.
The train took off for Tokyo- I was ready to close my eyes for a bit, but wanted to see the landscape. There were so many hills, all appearing green and lush with vegetation. There were rice paddies in the valleys and many, many, electrical/telephone lines. There appeared to be several smaller towns between Narita and Tokyo- some with more traditional Japanese roof lines, with others appearing more modern tucked in next to strip malls with shops like Sports Authority in them. The ride was about 1hr- just long enough to cool off before arriving at Tokyo Station.
Tokyo Station, by the way, should be deemed its own city. It was the most overwhelming place I've ever been- people everywhere. I knew I needed to find an exit, which I realized were indicated with yellow signs. I stopped at several maps before finally just choosing an exit. Any exit. Upon exiting at the Yaesu Central Exit, I found the taxi station- the taxis here are awesome- the doors open automatically. I was told that if I said "KKR Hotel" the taxi driver would know what I meant. I wasn't so sure at first, as he repeated my request to himself a few times, but five minutes later I arrived at the KKR Hotel in Tokyo- at roughly 6:45pm. After the white gloved taxi driver helped me with my bags at the curb, he bowed to me before leaving. I have never been bowed to. What an interesting place.
The train took off for Tokyo- I was ready to close my eyes for a bit, but wanted to see the landscape. There were so many hills, all appearing green and lush with vegetation. There were rice paddies in the valleys and many, many, electrical/telephone lines. There appeared to be several smaller towns between Narita and Tokyo- some with more traditional Japanese roof lines, with others appearing more modern tucked in next to strip malls with shops like Sports Authority in them. The ride was about 1hr- just long enough to cool off before arriving at Tokyo Station.
Tokyo Station, by the way, should be deemed its own city. It was the most overwhelming place I've ever been- people everywhere. I knew I needed to find an exit, which I realized were indicated with yellow signs. I stopped at several maps before finally just choosing an exit. Any exit. Upon exiting at the Yaesu Central Exit, I found the taxi station- the taxis here are awesome- the doors open automatically. I was told that if I said "KKR Hotel" the taxi driver would know what I meant. I wasn't so sure at first, as he repeated my request to himself a few times, but five minutes later I arrived at the KKR Hotel in Tokyo- at roughly 6:45pm. After the white gloved taxi driver helped me with my bags at the curb, he bowed to me before leaving. I have never been bowed to. What an interesting place.