Japan Trip: Day 1 - Arrival in Tokyo

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After 14 hours spent cramped in a coach seat on a Delta Airlines B-777 flight from Atlanta, I landed at Tokyo's Narita Airport. I felt pretty good, I had managed to sleep for almost half the flight. It was exciting to touch down and begin this 10-day adventure, called "Life in Japan" via General Tours.

Everything went smooth at the airport, including the passage through customs, and getting my bag. I was met by someone who made sure I got on the right bus to my hotel. I had about a 20-30 minute wait, so I went ahead and exchanged some currency.

Over the prior few weeks, I had tried to learn some Japanese. I used "Pimsleur" CD's and other resources. I couldn't wait to put it into practice. I asked this guy at the currency exchange where is the restroom ("toyre wa doko desu ka?"). I couldn't understand what he was saying, but fortunately he was pointing and I saw the sign. It was hazy and cloudy that day, and I was talking to the representative while we were waiting for the bus to arrive. I said it's bad weather isn't it ("iyana otenki desu ne?").

Narita Airport is located east of Tokyo, and the hotel in which I was staying, the Keio Plaza in Shinjuku, is on the west side of Tokyo. So, the bus ride to the hotel was about 90 minutes. Pretty much the entire way, for however many miles, it was buildings, streets, and people. Mile after mile after mile. My first thoughts were how big this city was and how many people were here. It was something. My second thoughts were how clean and neat everything looked. I didn't see any litter or graffiti anywhere. My next thoughts were how a lot of the people were dressed up and wearing similar clothing, such as black business suits and school uniforms. Some of them have some wild hair. Even a lot of the younger men had fairly long hair, some of which was sticking out all over the place, sometimes colored. The girls had some pretty wild hair, too, and obviously spend a lot of time and money trying to look good.

Anyway, I arrived and checked into my room at the hotel. The place was nice, with employees wearing uniforms. Someone even escorted me to my room. It was still only late afternoon, and I wanted to get out and explore. It was a Sunday, and I knew that on Sundays, young people like to dress weird and gather near Harajuku Station, which was just two stops south of Shinjuku Station, which was within walking distance to my hotel. I walked down the street towards Shinjuku Station, and with the help of a few people, I managed to buy a ticket and find the right train to get on. People everywhere! Nice-looking girls everywhere.

I got off at Harajuku, and made my way out of the station, and to the bridge across the train tracks towards Yoyogi Park where the strange-looking young people were gathered. There were even a few guys dressed up like girls. I think some of these people would even impress Boy George. I broke out the camera and got some video and still-shots.

After I had enough of that, I went one more station to the south (Shibuya) to see what was going on down there. As soon as I got out of the station, there was a canyon of buildings and lights, and I recognized this huge pedestrian crossing, which I had remembered reading about as possibly the busiest in the world. Again, there were people everywhere. I was so focused on filming, that I stayed out in the middle of the intersection after the people had crossed and cars were trying to get through. I almost got run over, then ran to the side after a truck stopped for me.

I headed back up to Shinjuku. The first few times I went through Shinjuku Station, I came out a different way each time. I got lost once, and was heading in the opposite direction of the hotel. According to wikipedia, Shinjuku Station is the busiest station in Tokyo, and second busiest in Japan, with over 3 million people passing through it each day. A lot of these big stations are not just train stations, there are multiple floors of eating places, shops, etc, above and below.

I got back on track, and found a nice little place to eat between the station and my hotel. Most restaurants in Japan have their menus out front with pictures, or plastic replicas of the dishes. They eat a lot of seafood there, which I'm not crazy about. Fortunately, this place had some beef curry and rice, which was really good. It's not hard to order, most of the time, you can just point to an item.

More coins are used in Japan than in the US. The smallest paper bill is 1000 yen, almost 10 US dollars. There are a bunch of yen coins, ranging from 1 yen to 500 yen. Sometimes, it took a little time to go through the coins in the palm of my hand to figure out what to give them.

A lot of stores have people outside of them talking loud trying to get people to come in.

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Photos

Pretty in Pink
Peace.