Japan in Thirty Days

I’m Back in Japan!!!

25 Mar 2011 2 Comments

by Jillian in Jillian/ジュリエン

As if it isn’t already apparent, but I am stoked to be back in Japan. Just thinking about it puts a stupid little grin on my face. Though I must tell you, it was no easy feat getting here. Weather delays severely thwarted my plans, resulting in my Eureka to SFO flight being delayed two and a half hours… meaning it arrived in SFO at the exact same time my flight to Tokyo was scheduled to leave. Since I only had one carry-on, and no checked baggage (I’m so proud of myself for packing light!) I grabbed my bag and literally sprinted from the domestic terminal to the international terminal. I was sweaty, and out of breath. My throat was soooo dry, but I didn’t want to stop. Every second counted. I run up to the counter at gate 100, and my plane was still there!!! I say in a rush to the attendant “I don’t even have any checked baggage, please let me on!”. She says, “the plane is already leaving, look”. And so I look, and I see my plane backing away from the terminal. I literally almost cried. “And the next flight to Japan doesn’t leave until the same time tomorrow”. Oh, and since the delay was due to weather, they weren’t going to pay for a hotel.

So, Dad told me few days ago that my brother had shoulder surgery. So even though he lives about thirty minutes from the airport, I really didn’t want to inconvenience him. [Sorry Scott and Traci if you are reading this... I know you would have picked me up! ] So instead, I decided to inconvenience Darus, who happened to be at the National Association of Residential Property Mangers conference, having the time of his life, I might add, in San Jose. Darus skipped a seminar or two, and picked me up from the airport. I was thoroughly exhausted from having stayed up late the night before to pack (which was intentional, so I would actually sleep on the plane). As soon as I got to Darus’ hotel, I showered and took a nap. Darus woke me up, and we went for Vietnamese food. I had noodle soup with beef. Some of the beef, was a little, erm, fatty, and kinda reminded me of thinly sliced tripe, I guess, because it had a holey texture. I can’t really describe it. But I didn’t eat those pieces.

The next morning I rode the CalTrain from San Jose to Millbrae, where I took the BART to San Bruno, then SFO. When I arrived in Millbrae, it was pouring rain, and really windy. The result was that everyone trying to purchase a BART ticket on my side of the platform got absolutely soaked. Anyway, made it to my flight, and couldn’t sleep one wink the whole time. I watched Conviction and The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I met a nice guy named Richard who needed to use my phone before take off since he was on a different flight than his original one. He is in the Air Force, stationed in Korea, but he and his wife and kids will move to Okinawa in about 5 months.

At Narita Airport, there was no line to go through immigration. I just walked up to one of the booths, and that was it. I got my Rail Pass, but unfortunately the Narita Express train to Tokyo was not running, so I had to take the slow 1 hour 40 minutes train to Shinagawa. This did not help my already full-fledged motion sickness. So besides concentrating on not throwing-up, at one point there was an elementary school aged kid sitting to my left who fell asleep and started leaning over onto me… It was almost like something out of a manga, except for the 15 year age gap. I really didn’t know what to do, so I just let him be. A few stops later he woke up, hopped up, and got off. I also saw a girl dressed in a full lolita outfit: brown boots, pink floral knee-length dress with petticoats underneath, white fur coat with two huge bows on the back, long curly blonde wig with large pink bow, fake eyelashes, and a cell phone so covered in 3-d stick on pink flower things that you couldn’t see the actual phone.

The man at the Japan Rail Ticket Office at the Airport had booked me a reserved seat on the 19:10 Shinkansen (bullet train) from Shinagawa to Shizuoka. So even though I arrived at Shinagawa at 18:40, I had to wait another 30 minutes. And, by this time, my phone was still not working. It’s not working even now, and I’m not sure why. But anyway, it worked the last time I was in Japan, so I thought it would work this time, and I had told my friend Mai that I would text her to tell her which train I was on so she could meet me at the Shizuoka station. So I’m panicking, because I’m about to board my last train, and I still haven’t contacted Mai. I look over at the businessman next to me on the bench. He has a Softbank (phone carrier) iPhone. Mai also has Softbank, so he could text her for free. So I say “excuse me”, and explain in terrible Japanese that my phone is not working, and may I use his to send mail? He understands, and lets me use his phone. He is catching the next train, so as quickly as I can I type:

“This is Jill. Borrowing a phone. Hikari 485 at 19:10 in Shinagawa.”

I thank him, he takes off for his train, and a few minutes later I board mine confident that Mai will figure out my hasty message. I arrive in Shizuoka at 20:06. As I am descending the last escalator, I see Mai at the bottom with a gentleman I don’t recognize. He turns out to be Masahisa Suzuki, her Dad’s friend. He had seen her, and asked what she was doing at the station. She said “picking up a friend”, and he asked “boyfreind?”. She said “no, girl friend”. And when I walked up he was like “Oh! Gaijin!” (foreigner). He gives me his meishi (business card). Then he wanted to take a picture of us, and also be in a picture with me. He bought us each a bag of roasted chestnuts from a little stall in the station. I know chestnuts are a Christmas-time goodie in the US, but I had never had one before coming to Japan. In Japan, chestnuts are common, and are sometimes mixed in with white rice. So as I type this at 8am the next morning, I am currently snacking on sweet roasted chestnuts. Yum!

Mai drives me to my hotel, and I am met with the familiarity of Japanese hospitality: a small but well laid out room, and a washlet toilet in the bathroom. We chat in the lobby for a while, and I send a hasty e-mail and facebook update on the computer in the lobby. I have been thwarted by 2-prong outlets, and can’t use my computer!! We make plans to meet the following day (today) around lunch time. I head back up to my room, and put my critical thinking to good use (large appliances are probably grounded). I pull the mini-fridge out from its little cubby, and voila! three-prong outlet! I can charge my laptop. A shower and then to bed. I slept restlessly. But maybe if today is a full day, I can sleep well tonight and be on track.