Japan I: Getting There is Half the Fun? Really?

Alright, I’ve finally gotten enough time to put together a blogpost about Japan!!! Hooray! I’m guessing I’m gonna have a decent bit to say, so let’s just get right down to it! :D

I confess that I did A LOT of planning in the months leading up to this trip. Considering that going on a vacation to Japan is probably a once-in-a-lifetime event, I figured it was definitely worth the effort. If there was something really cool to see/do, I certainly wanted to see/do it! Plus, I knew that a little foreknowledge about the culture would go a long way. So, you may be wondering, was the planning worth it? Well, I learned 2 important lessons about pre-trip planning: 1) planning is very important, especially on international trips, but 2) planning is NOT going to fully prepare you. In a few paragraphs, you will understand more fully, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Alright, so let’s talk about getting to Japan; it wasn’t as pleasant as it could’ve been. Now, I was fortunate to have a pretty easy flight schedule—Memphis to Detroit to Tokyo, with plenty of layover time in Detroit. First of all, I needed that layover time, because Plane #1 had mechanical issues. We arrived about 45 minutes late. But, no big worries. On to Plane #2. First problem: a leaky lavatory, which took 45 minutes to fix. Here’s where it got interesting. During that 45-minute delay, one of the passengers decided not to fly to Tokyo. I’m sure you’re wondering why, especially since he went through the trouble checking luggage, going through security, getting on the plane, etc. Yeah, we wondered the same thing. Well, whatever, right? Just kick him to the curb and be gone, right? Nope. Since he did check luggage, all of our bags had to be unloaded so his could be located. Then, all of our bags had to be reloaded. Suffice it to say that no one had warm and fuzzy feelings for that gentleman when we finally departed…2 hours late. :( Oh, but I wasn’t gonna be frustrated. I was originally gonna get to Tokyo about 2 hours ahead of Ross anyway, so no big deal. I settled comfortably in to my aisle seat (no one was in the middle seat—score!) for the 13-hour flight.

Fast forward about 11 hours—right when you realize you are definitely tired of being on the airplane. The captain came on the PA system and said (pretty calmly, since a non-calm pilot isn’t especially comforting) that one of our engines had conked out. He did a convincing job of reassuring everyone that 747’s can fly comfortably with 3 engines, but you know, that’s like driving without spare. At some point, you’re probably gonna need the spare. Luckily, three was enough for us. ;)

Oh, but the fun was just beginning! I made it through customs & immigration and found myself in Narita Airport Terminal 1, trying to locate Ross. Now, it’s important to note that Narita is actually more like two separate airports (Terminal 1 and Terminal 2) that happen to have a bus service between them. If you’re in Terminal 1, and your travel companion happens to be in Terminal 2, there’s NO WAY you’ll find each other conveniently. They don’t share PA systems or anything. But, we weren’t supposed to have a problem, because Northwest and Shanghai Air both use Terminal 1. Well…it turns out that Shanghai Air has some codeshare flights with Air China, which uses Terminal 2, and that’s actually what Ross was flying. If we had had this problem in the U.S., I simply would’ve called Ross on his cell phone to see where he was, but that wasn’t an option in Japan. So, I went over to Terminal 2, only to go back to Terminal 1 and wait until Ross appeared. And eventually he did! Hooray! After all the snafus, it was finally time to enjoy the vacation!!!!!

Or something like that. This is where the “planning only gets you so far” part comes in. Here was the original plan: meet up at Narita, take the train to Tokyo (45 minutes), transfer over to a bullet train to Kyoto (3 hours), and finally head down to Nara (20 minutes) to check into our first hotel. Haha, looking back, that was such a silly idea. After all, we were dog-tired; plus, we had zero experience working the train system, which, while easy to navigate, does require a bit of acclimation. The deathknell, though, was the fact that I had no idea how infrequently the trains run in the evening. As in, there was no way we were getting farther than Tokyo, period.

It was an interesting challenge…and an interesting way to be welcomed into a new country. We did make it to Tokyo Station, but then we had to find a place to stay. With minimal searching, we saw that the Marunouchi Hotel was located in the adjoining building, and thankfully, it had a vacancy! It was a very nice boutique hotel, and yes, I paid way more for that room than I’ve paid for any hotel room, but IT WAS SO WORTH IT! I think God knew that, after all the day’s transportation problems, both of us would benefit from a little extra comfort.

Before I close out this chapter, I have to talk about our check-in process at the Marunouchi. Remember, we had reservations at a hotel in Nara that night, and the check-in process is very important in Japan. If you don’t check in by a given time, you forfeit your entire reservation. Well, our front desk attendant at the Marunouchi (her name was Adachi) was very, very kind. She definitely realized we were weary travelers and was kind enough to call our hotel in Nara and have them revise our reservation. But, that phone call was especially memorable. Here’s how the call went (as best as we could tell, since it was in Japanese): Adachi told the gentleman in Nara about our situation; then, the gentleman repeated the entire thing to make sure he understood. As he spoke, Adachi kept saying “hai” (Japanese for “yes”) to confirm that Nara guy was saying everything correctly. And, she said “hai” in a memorable way—think, the woman from the Herbal Essences commercials. Now, slow it down and add a touch of breathiness. That’s what it sounded like. And, Adachi said it at least 25 times…no exaggeration. Ross and I were overwhelmed by it, but of course, we had to be respectful, so we kept it inside. :)

And with that, our first day (or portion thereof) in Japan was complete!