Arriving in Tokyo


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June 11th 2013
Published: June 11th 2013
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I'm back in Tokyo. This is my third time here; so, I thought I'd blog about it. I seem to have a knack for having horrible, but retrospectively amusing, experiences when I land in Tokyo. In 2011, I was suffering from the cheese pizza I'd had on the plane. I also had to go to Shinjuku to get the key to my apartment -- during rush hour. Shinjuku Station is confusing in any event, but during rush hour, it's madness. Eventually, I found my way to the station where I lived, but spent another four hours trying to find the apartment, in the rain, with a huge suitcase.

That was two years ago. This time was actually worse. My flight out of Dallas was delayed, causing me to miss the connection in Atlanta. There was another flight to Narita that day, which I ran to try to catch. But it was too late...or so I thought. Just as I was resigned to stay in Atlanta for the night, the plane began deplaning due to a water leak. I was thus able to board the plane, albeit a few hours late, for Narita on the same day. This meant, however, that I wouldn't get to Narita until about 8:30pm, which made it impossible to check into my apartment. After I left Narita was when the real fun began.

Unlike last time, I had two large pieces of luggage with me this time. One might think that I'd not be inclined to do this after my previous experience, and one would be correct. I took the train to Shibuya, to get to my final destination. Shibuya is a maze. Not only that, but the elevators weren't working. I even had to go outside to get to the Hanzomon line. I went up and down many, many flights of stairs while carry about 100 pounds of luggage (two suitcases and a backpack). Eventually, I figured out where to go. It took about an hour. I found myself at the correct station at about 11:00pm, where I stuffed one of my bags in a coin locker with a Suica card, and at which point I did some more wandering around, until a nice Japanese guy decided to help me find my hotel. I arrived at the hotel at about midnight. My clothes were soaked with sweat, just like last time.

I had an appointment at 2pm the next day; so, I got up early to go to the leasing office in Shinjuku. Before that, I had to get some things out of the bag in the coin locker; so, I dragged it back to the hotel. I thought it might be better to carry one bag instead of two; so, in a feat of organizational prowess fit for the ages, I managed to all of my luggage, including the smaller suitcase, inside of the large suitcase. This is shortly before I realized that the large suitcase had a damaged wheel, which made lugging around the much weight impossible. So, I redistributed the items back into the two suitcases and did my best to compensate for the damaged wheel. I then dragged the large suitcase back into the coin lacker, came back, and lugged the smaller one to Shinjuku, where I was lost for what I think was about an hour. The signs there are barely helpful. It's better to just ask someone.

Afterwards, I made my way to the station nearest my apartment, still carrying my luggage. Of course it was raining. So, not only was I carrying my luggage, but I was being rained on, while attempting to follow a paper map, which I eventually supplemented with my cell phone and, independently, the directions of some incredibly kind old ladies, both of whom seemed to derive incredibly joy from the opportunity to help out a lost foreigner. Even a random guy drove up to me in a BMW, unsolicited, and pointed me in the right direction. Americans could learn something from the Japanese here.

I found my apartment, left, quickly got lost again, and then headed to my appointment.

I still have to get that bag out of the coin locker. . .

More anon.

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