After a rather stressful week of getting ready to go including having the furnace in my house blow up when I started it the actual trip from Vancouver to Japan went smoothly. My friend Eric drove me to the airport and I checked in with a minimum of fuss except for a baggage tag that did not scan and needed to be reprinted. The plane was large and I had an aisle seat which I prefer. The person next to me was originally from Japan but now lived in Nova Scotia and exported lobsters to Japan for a living. His TV was not working and the cabin crew could not fix it so I swapped seats with him as I prefer to read and wasn’t using mine. This put me in a middle seat which is a little cramped especially when eating but was otherwise OK. The stewardess gave us each a promo card which gives us 5% off our next flight which is a nice gesture but does make you wonder how often this happens as the card was printed and specifically mentioned problems with the entertainment system.
The flight landed a little early about 2PM local time. Narita was surprisingly uncrowded and I was through customs quickly with only a couple of people ahead of me in line. I did have to wait about 30 minutes for my luggage. After that I went up to the 4th floor to pick up a SIM for my phone, down to the 1st floor to buy a Skyliner ticket to Tokyo and down to the basement to buy a Suica commuter train pass and to catch the train into Tokyo. JR Rail has a better deal but the lineup their office at Narita is terrible. Last year I gave up after waiting in line for over an hour and it looked to be about the same this time. It was the only major lineup that I saw at the airport.
The Skyliner, an express train into Tokyo was not even 20% full. The train makes no stops on the way in and the trip only takes about 40 minutes which is twice as fast as a local train. The day was sunny, humid and for me hot at 24C. Watching the country and burbs go by is a treat and a great introduction to Japan.
From the end of the line at Ueno station I walked about a block to the JR Ueno station where I caught a Hibiya Line train to near where I was staying. After a 15 minute walk to the hotel I booked in shortly after 5PM. After taking my bags to my room I walked to a grocery store and bought some food. For dinner I had a very nice nigiri sushi plate with 12 different types of fish for about $6. Pretty yummy especially with a nice Ebisu beer.
It’s now about 3AM Vancouver time, 7PM local. I’m going to plan a bit for tomorrow and try to stay awake a little longer and ease into this time zone.
More later.