It’s 4 in the morning but I can’t sleep so I might as well write for a bit.
I chased the sun west today and landed in Tokyo only 2 hours by the clock later than Vancouver even though 10 hours had passed on the plane. Unfortunately it was cloudy during the whole trip so I could not see anything interesting from the plane window. After landing I lined up and was photographed and fingerprinted. Overall this was an easier and friendlier process than entering the USA. Despite this taking 45 minutes my luggage had still not been unloaded and I waited for another 30 minutes at the baggage carousel. I then lined up for customs which took another 15 minutes. Once free I took the elevator up to the 4th floor to pickup up a SIM card for my iPhone. The elevator that I took back down apparently would not stop on any floor unless you had some sort of pass card but by the time I had figured this out I was already moving and ended up in the basement which is the only floor that the elevator would let me out on. I got a little lost on the way back up but managed to get reoriented. I had passed the Keisei Skyliner ticket counter along the way but decided not to buy a seat until I had purchased my Suica pass for the Tokyo Metro system. This proved to be a good decision as there was a small lineup of about 15 people at the JR Rail Travel Center and I had to wait in line for over an hour to get the pass and I would have missed the train. By comparison I bought the Skyliner ticket at the Keisei Railway counter is less that a minute. It was a relief to get outside as the air was a lot cooler than in the airport. It had been raining so everything smelled fresh. The train was in the station but the doors were closed. Looking in through the window I saw all of the seats automatically rearranging themselves to point in the other direction. Once on the train all went smoothly although by this time it was dark so I didn’t see much on the way into Tokyo. A lot of the illuminated signs that I saw along the way were in English. I got off the train at Nippori Station and had a problem with a turnstile when exiting when I tried to use the Suica card instead of the Skyliner ticket. I transferred to a local train on the JR Joban Line but was a little confused on the platform as there are both Joban and Joban Express tracks. I asked a woman for confirmation as to which I should take and she got out her phone and with a little typing told me that it was the express line, that I had 2 stops to go and that the train would arrive in 3 minutes. Guess I’ll have to look in the app store for a cool train schedule app. I got to Minami-Senju Station without a problem and decided to take a taxi to the Juyoh Hotel as I was running out of time before the front desk closed for the day. The hotel is only about 8 blocks from the station but the cab driver did not know how to get there but using a combination of the maps on my iPhone which I had got working on the train and his taxi’s GPS we found the route. He dropped me off down the street from the hotel as that is where his GPS insisted that I should be even though I could see the hotel sign. I checked into the Juyoh with no problems and am now in a room on the 6th floor.
My room is small and cozy and I am quite happy with it. The futon is really comfy and I like the pillow which is filled with small grains. I have the window that opens and it is cool so I don’t need to use the A/C. There are the usual downtown traffic sounds which I am no longer used to as I live in the ‘burbs on a a quiet street. There are toilets and showers down the hall on this floor (not all floors have showers). I’ll take some photos tomorrow.
First impressions of Tokyo?
-taking nearly 3 hours to get out of the airport was kind of disappointing, especially the long wait at the JR counter.
-not as many street lights, darker overall at night, saving energy I guess?
-does driving on the other side of the road translate to walking on the other side of the corridor? I seems to be going against the flow at the airport until I switched sides but that could just be my imagination.
-The train stations were a bit confusing at first. I’m glad that I did not try my first trip during a busy time.
-Several police cars have gone by outside. In additional to the sirens there a loud voice that keeps repeating something but all that I can make out is gozaimasu.
On an unrelated note Friday before I left I received a summons in the mail to report for jury duty for a criminal trial. I have emailed and asked for an exemption as I won’t be in Canada during that time. I hope that there will be no problem with that. It’s kind of too bad as I would have liked to have been on a jury and see how that part of Canada’s justice system worked. I’m sure that it is nothing like TV.