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| Cherry Blossom, Temple (Ueno), Crowds |
[Apologies - very busy so a bit late this week!]
I arrived in Japan for my work trip at around 8am after a 12-hour flight. I was a little alarmed that you had to walk through a temperature check barrier to ensure that you weren’t ill (I assume). I could feel myself starting to sweat, but no alarms went off. The airport was well-organised though and you were directed to the right queues for passport control. I felt secure.
Before I left, I’d been a bit freaked out by the recommendation from the Japanese team that I get a train to Tokyo from the airport – I had visions of my face being squashed against a window, my arm stuck in between the doors, and my luggage hanging out and getting whacked out of my hand by an oncoming train. I got agreement from management that I could get a taxi instead.
However, when I arrived, the counters for the train at the airport were very prominent. I was feeling brave (and suggestible due to my tiredness) and decided to go for it. I queued in the wrong place for a little while, but really it wasn’t too bad and I was served fairly quickly.
I’d forgotten that platforms in Japan are a bit tricky. I was told that the train departed from Platform 1, which sounded simple enough, but they forgot to tell me that there were two platform 1s. There were two different train companies, each with their own Platform 1. Needless to say, I ended up on the wrong one, but did notice that the destination was not the one I desired and so got someone to help me.
The Narita Express train is actually very civilized with reserved seats only and comfortable ones at that with plenty of room. The platform is marked out so that you know where your carriage will be. The train arrives and all doors are blocked while you wait for the train to be cleaned. The seats swiveled, so the cleaners also swiveled all the seats round so that they were now facing the direction of travel rather than having their backs to it. That’s what I mean by organized!
There were big notices up saying that if you locked your baggage in the luggage racks and forgot your code, you could collect it at the terminal station. That was enough to scare me off even trying to lock my baggage, but it was still all just fine.
Arriving at Tokyo was confusing. Tokyo station is huge and there were also loads of shops. I was almost tempted to buy something to eat because some of the stalls smelled so good. Somehow, I got to the main exit. I stared at the local map for probably an hour trying to work out if I could walk to my hotel from the station. In the end, I couldn’t even find the taxi rank when it was just behind me. I guess I was tired.
I’d been warned that the taxi drivers don’t speak English, but unfortunately, I’d got the Japanese instructions too late to be able to print them out. I tried providing the address in English, but after the driver drove round for a while and dropped me off at the ASA hotel (which looked as if it housed rats) instead of the APA hotel, I decided that only Japanese would do. I yanked out my laptop and found the Japanese file. This seemed to enlighten him and after a bit of a detour, I was deposited at the correct place.
I spent the rest of the day trying to fathom out where the work building was but to no avail. I never did find out how to walk there. Fortunately, Sayako picked me up in the morning and showed me how to get there using the metro. I was petrified, but actually it was pretty similar to London (we were probably a bit late – around 8.45am). She seemed to think I’d know how to do it after that and, much to my surprise, I did indeed manage. I had finally become a proper Japanese commuter!
I arrived in Japan for my work trip at around 8am after a 12-hour flight. I was a little alarmed that you had to walk through a temperature check barrier to ensure that you weren’t ill (I assume). I could feel myself starting to sweat, but no alarms went off. The airport was well-organised though and you were directed to the right queues for passport control. I felt secure.
Before I left, I’d been a bit freaked out by the recommendation from the Japanese team that I get a train to Tokyo from the airport – I had visions of my face being squashed against a window, my arm stuck in between the doors, and my luggage hanging out and getting whacked out of my hand by an oncoming train. I got agreement from management that I could get a taxi instead.
However, when I arrived, the counters for the train at the airport were very prominent. I was feeling brave (and suggestible due to my tiredness) and decided to go for it. I queued in the wrong place for a little while, but really it wasn’t too bad and I was served fairly quickly.
I’d forgotten that platforms in Japan are a bit tricky. I was told that the train departed from Platform 1, which sounded simple enough, but they forgot to tell me that there were two platform 1s. There were two different train companies, each with their own Platform 1. Needless to say, I ended up on the wrong one, but did notice that the destination was not the one I desired and so got someone to help me.
The Narita Express train is actually very civilized with reserved seats only and comfortable ones at that with plenty of room. The platform is marked out so that you know where your carriage will be. The train arrives and all doors are blocked while you wait for the train to be cleaned. The seats swiveled, so the cleaners also swiveled all the seats round so that they were now facing the direction of travel rather than having their backs to it. That’s what I mean by organized!
There were big notices up saying that if you locked your baggage in the luggage racks and forgot your code, you could collect it at the terminal station. That was enough to scare me off even trying to lock my baggage, but it was still all just fine.
Arriving at Tokyo was confusing. Tokyo station is huge and there were also loads of shops. I was almost tempted to buy something to eat because some of the stalls smelled so good. Somehow, I got to the main exit. I stared at the local map for probably an hour trying to work out if I could walk to my hotel from the station. In the end, I couldn’t even find the taxi rank when it was just behind me. I guess I was tired.
I’d been warned that the taxi drivers don’t speak English, but unfortunately, I’d got the Japanese instructions too late to be able to print them out. I tried providing the address in English, but after the driver drove round for a while and dropped me off at the ASA hotel (which looked as if it housed rats) instead of the APA hotel, I decided that only Japanese would do. I yanked out my laptop and found the Japanese file. This seemed to enlighten him and after a bit of a detour, I was deposited at the correct place.
I spent the rest of the day trying to fathom out where the work building was but to no avail. I never did find out how to walk there. Fortunately, Sayako picked me up in the morning and showed me how to get there using the metro. I was petrified, but actually it was pretty similar to London (we were probably a bit late – around 8.45am). She seemed to think I’d know how to do it after that and, much to my surprise, I did indeed manage. I had finally become a proper Japanese commuter!
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