Japan: Arrival

Whew. I made it, after quite a rough start. I suppose I should be thankful though that I'm no worse for the wear - just tired. Let's backtrack to the beginning...

 

I was lucky enough to be chauffeured to the airport, arriving at YVR more than 2 hours before the scheduled departure. After a near miss of forgetting my cellphone, I was not too excited to see an entire school of Japanese kids queued up at the baggage check. They were well behaved and orderly - I just wished that Air Canada had posted more than one employee to handle the crowd... which they did eventually remedy. Patience was a good partner in line as I tried to remain upbeat, and I managed to get my bag tagged more than half an hour later.

 

Security was nothing too bad, and I found myself at the gate with 45 minutes to spare before boarding began. I was about to sit down and relax when I realized I had not included earphones on my packing list! A hurried trip to the airport tech store yielded a choice between a relatively cheap pair or an overpriced pair of Sennheisers. What do you think I picked?

 

Once I was on the flight, settled in with my neck pillow and in-flight entertainment, things looked to be going very smoothly. The meal was served within the first hour or so - I got chicken with potatoes - and then the lights were turned off to allow time to sleep. That's when the turbulence began. Every hour, the announcement of upcoming turbulence disrupted sleep, and resulted in cancelation of the second meal. I was ok with the turbulence, but taking away my food?? With no compensation for my discomfort other than an apology? Disappointing.

 

The plane finally touched down, during which time the turbulence got so bad one of the emergency panels activated! I was happy to be on land again, but a little loopy from the lack of food. Despite my state of mind, I still had enough sense to find a washroom immediately after deplaning. That turned out to be a very wise decision.

 

I've always had the impression that the Japanese are extremely efficient. Today, my high expectations were shattered. The customs line was an absolute gong show - the line for foreigners was a sea of passport holders trying to figure out where to go and forming lines wherever there was space. There was one employee trying to direct people, but seemingly picking random people and pointing to areas that didn't make sense. I eventually got through the chaos after about an hour.

 

Because I spent so much time trying to get through customs, I figured the bags for our flight would have been through the carousel and sorted somewhere in baggage claim. Nope. By the time I made it to B7, I still saw bags coming out with the priority tags on. It was another half hour until I finally got my luggage.

 

No fresh air yet! I had to navigate around the airport terminal to find the post office - there, I walked straight up to the counter and picked up my pocket Wi-Fi device (which I had rented a few weeks ago). That was the easiest task of the day. No lines, and I was able to get the Wi-Fi hotspot set up within minutes.

 

Next, JR travel services center, on the basement level (with a quick pit stop to pick up a rice ball snack). Yay, another giant line! Without air conditioning! You can just imagine how pleased I was to be stuck in another queue which took half an hour. Luckily, I was able to get my pass within 5 minutes of the next train out of the airport. Go go go!

 

The Narita Express sped me far away from the airport to Shinagawa - my home for a scant few hours to sleep and shower before the next leg of the trip to Fukuoka. On the train, I purchased another rice ball snack to sustain myself until dinner, and watched as the rain and wind whirled around outside.
 

By the time I got to Shinagawa station, it was the middle of rush hour - the one thing I noticed was the number of people wearing face masks. Are they worried about radiation? Flu? I didn't want to ask. I wasn't too worried because the masked were still outnumbered by the unmasked. I did take the opportunity of being in the train station to try and reserve my seat to Fukuoka. Unfortunately, I was only able to secure a seat for half the journey - I'll have to cross my fingers and hope I get lucky enough to get a seat on the second half.

 

Once outside the train station, I realized that it is very difficult to search for an address in Japan. There are no street signs or numbers. Either that, or it was too dark for me to see them. Yay for the pocket Wi-Fi, which allowed me to bring up the image of the apartment building I was looking for. The owner was waiting for me when I arrived and was helpful with food suggestions.

 

I made a very short trek back towards the train station for ramen. Sitting at the table alongside commuters after ordering from a ticket machine was quite the experience. The cooks in the kitchen were animated, loud, and eager to please their clients. The hot, steaming bowl of black miso ramen was placed in front of me pretty quickly. Slurping up the rich broth and chewy noodles, marveling at the atmosphere... that's what confirmed where I was. I'm in Japan!!!