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Published: December 25th 2006
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Well, we survived the longest flight of our journey: London to Tokyo in 11 hours! Still not as long as Seattle-Taipei at 13 hours which we've made 3 times before though. We arrived at Narita airport in the to sunny skies and a welcome warm temperature of 70 degrees. Narita has the most efficient arrival process of any airport we've seen. You are directed to Immigration where an airport employee stands at the head of one line (like the post office) and gestures to the next open booth. I contend that ALL queues should be one line with the person at the front going to the next open booth/cashier. Think of how much stress this would save - you wouldn't have to try to guess which is the shortest line at the grocery store and then grimace as the person in front of you stops to write a check and the guy in the next line over who stepped up 5 minutes after you breezes through....but I digress. By the time we made it through the line, our bags were waiting for us on the carousel on the other side! It was great. We then headed out in search of an
ATM and the train to the city. The ticket booths were staffed by English-speaking ladies who told us the next train would be leaving in 10 minutes. The train has assigned seating which we thought was odd until we found out further down the line several of the cars split off and head for a different destination. A conductor was there to usher us onto the train. Announcements were made in English and Japanese so we were able to identify our stop at Tokyo station with the greatest of ease. The only drawback to Narita is its distance from the city, it takes over an hour to get downtown on a very fast train. It would still take a little bit of work to make it to our hotel though. We changed trains at Tokyo station to the JR Yamamoto Line. The JR trains are entirely separate from the subway system in Tokyo. With all of the signs in English, it was amazingly easy to find the correct platform for our connecting train even with the crowds at Tokyo station! We did not have the directions to the hotel printed, we just knew it was in the Shiodome Media Tower
and could be reached through the vast system of underground shopping walkways from Shimbashi station. As we attempted to make our way there, we stopped at a Lush (of all things to have there!) for directions. Next we approached an escalator with a man with a megaphone at the top. There were no signs here so he stepped up to help us immediately. Without speaking a word of English, he ushered us along as soon as we stated our destination. 10 minutes later, we were in the lobby of the Park Hotel Tokyo on the 25th floor of the tower. Just as we stepped off the elevator, two white-gloved employees took our luggage and told us to sit down in the comfy lobby chairs. The check in process was a breeze. Our room was the nicest we had stayed in so far on our travels, complete with a great view of the harbor and a multi-function toilet.
We stayed in the Ginza district of Tokyo which boasts lots of high end shopping and plenty of restaurants. My parents had stayed in this neighborhood 37 years ago just after their wedding! Tokyo really is a barrage of lights, signs, people,
and smells. It was wonderful! For both J and I, arriving in Asia was like coming home. We both lived there growing up: I in Korea and Japan, J in Malaysia and Singapore. You can bet we will return to Asia many times to come, perhaps even to live here for a while!
On our first night in the city we decided to eat on the restaurant floor of one of the huge department stores in the Ginza. Japanese department stores are amazing. They are usually about 8 stories with several clothing floors (of course), housewares, perfume, jewelry, a floor of handicrafts and fine art by local artisans, one floor up top with a selection of restaurants (not just Nordstrom cafe!), sometimes a movie theater or pet shop on the top floor, and the best of all - the food market in the basement! The service is incredible and unsurpassed. Nearly every 10 feet there is an employee just waiting to help you, each one greets you as you pass by. Once they have assisted you with your selection, they walk you to the several cashiers who eagerly await. No searching for an employee then waiting at an abandoned
cashier stand to pay. After a fantastic tempura dinner, we headed down to the food market for some sweets. Here you will find counter after counter of specialty foods. There is a bakery area, a gift area with various assortments of plum balls and other treats all wrapped up, fresh seafood, fresh produce, cakes, sushi, whatever you can think of. It's not like a supermarket though, it's like the perfume counter area of Bloomingdales! Another delightful touch is the man at the bottom of the escalator waiting with a smile and a very nice shopping bag for you to put all of your smaller plastic bags into. Oh yes, and check out the photo J got of the automatic wet umbrella bag machine at the door. This is the way shopping was meant to be!
On our second night, we were watching TV when we saw a tsunami warning come across the screen! We quickly got onto the internet and learned that a 7.8 earthquake had just struck 1000 miles from Tokyo. We were a little unnerved, given that we had been in the Phi Phi Islands of Thailand just two weeks before the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004
that took so many lives. It turned out this wave was very small in Japan, just a few inches, but grew to 6 feet when it hit the California coast.
Did we have good sushi? You betcha! J wanted to check out the scene in Harajuku, where the teenagers congregate in their crazy clothing, so we hopped on the subway one evening. Unfortunately, since it wasn't a weekend there weren't that many people out and about. We found a sushi restaurant with a conveyer belt and managed to put away about 8 plates, plus miso soup and some pumpkin fritters. Seems like a respectable showing until I tell you that next to us sat two model-thin, beautiful young ladies who put away 8 plates EACH!
We wish we had the time to take the bullet train down to Kyoto or to take a day trip out to Mount Fuji...that will have to be a future trip!
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