The Plan
- 9/14 – Arrive:
- Land in Narita Airport ~6pm and get through customs.
- Buy a Suica card
- Go to Hotel in Hamamatsucho
- Put luggage down
- Eating some takoyaki day 1
The Reality
- 9/14 – Arrive:
- Land in Narita Airport ~8pm and get through customs SLOWLY because I’m dumb.
- Buy a WELCOME Suica card because I panicked rather than ask for help (I still kinda like the welcome card art better ^^)
- Go to Capsule Hotel in Hamamatsucho
- Put luggage down
- Thoroughly embarrass myself with the shower etiquette
- Eating some
takoyakiRAMEN WITH DA BOYZ day 1- This was ACTUALLY sick. Details later.
The Blog Post
The plane was tough. Holy hell.
Leg 1
The first leg was great going to Canada! Very easy, no customs on the way out like I thought there would be. Getting to the airport 4 hours before a flight in anticipation of 2 consecutive 2 hour lines and neither being there was kinda rough.
I sat next to a wonderful woman, I believe he name was Sue, and we had a great conversation about my trip, all the places she’s gone and how she’s friends with some pretty cool folks. If you’re reading this Sue, “Hey! I hope things went better than expected.” and I hope I got your name right! I’m on so little sleep right now lol (more on that later). Life ProTip: traveling economy is the best way to meet people with storied histories and interesting lives.
Aspirational Goal: become one of their people. 🙂
Okay so flight from Canada to Narita was delayed 2 hours. Rough, because I was trying to align my sleep schedule with my target time zone so I’m ready to like, pass out at this point. It’s “effectively” now 3am for me.
Leg 2
So we get on the plane and the grave mistake of my seat choice hits me… I sat middle aisle, outside. Never again lol. Oh also in the first 15 minutes of take off there were 4 crying babies… It’s a 13 hour flight… Just take me Jesus.
13 hours was uhhhh effing brutal. I fell asleep for an hour (~_~;). I’m blocking it all out as a traumatic memory at this point. Suffice it to say, I watched an entire season of a show AND The Martian AND had 1.5 hours of crying baby left… They gave us 2 meals and a snack, which was nice. The meals are surprisingly good, having never flown international before.
Airport Woes
I got into the airport and was immediately in over my head lmao. The signs are good, but I, having never traveled before, had to fill out my visitor form and my customs form at customs.
Felt stupid, won’t happen again.
The train I got on from the airport is bringing me into Tokyo, from there I have to transfer, get to the capsule hotel and put my stuff down then take a shower. IT IS SO HUMID lol, I feel bad because I am probably sweating and stinking.
I tried a Japanese toilet in the airport. It was “refreshing” lol but I think I wanna crank up the pressure and volume on the bidet. I will look up what the Japanese buttons do and give it another shot.
The whole experience so far has been “interesting” up to this point. The staff at customs was overwhelmed and stressed, but the train staff was genuinely helpful. I said “thank you” and she replied with “thank you gozaimasu”, which I thought was cute. I will be aware when regarding others.
I have already stumbled through some Japanese. “Doko ni Suica o kaemasu?” (Where do I buy the Suica, but apparently this translates to watermelon which is funny if you don’t add card) and I probably got it wrong lol.
I’m just a big sweaty bucket of baka gaijin (lit. “idiot foreigner”) right now but I’ll fix it and adapt.
The Tokyo Skyliner
So first things first, I was nervous and felt like I was in WAY over my head immediately this trip. Like, many many 日本語 only signs, felt lost. Bought a ticket on the Tokyo Skyliner like a coward for like 2x the price of a bus because I had already fudged up so much. Then getting OFF the train I couldn’t figure out the “pay as you leave” aspect to get from there to the other rails. Had to get a security guard to help me. Others did it too so I didn’t feel as bad. After finally figuring out the trains, I got on the correct one and made it to the correct station. Walked to the capsule hotel and checked in.
The Aforementioned “Details Later”
Wanted to take a shower and change before I head out to meet some friends. Did many a big ol’ faux pas. Took shower. (Mission_Accomplished.gif).
Anyway, the park 5 mins from my hotel was randomly having an Oktoberfest and some of my discord friends were there.
We successfully evaded each other for like an hour, until 11pm and then met up to get some food at a local ramen shop. We then hung out LATE into the morning just talking and going to a Family Mart for STRONG ZERO 9% Double Lemons. They’re literally ¥200, it’s incredibly awesome haha. Said goodbye to Steve at 2am and I was back to being a sweaty mess so I needed another shower before bed. Kai and I were at the same capsule hotel so we walked back. The pajamas at the capsule hotel don’t fit me because I’m fat lol. I looked like a tuna can. Reality. Oof.
I got 4 hours of awful sleep. This brings my sleep total up to 10 hours in the past 72 hours. It’s now 6:30am and I have a headache lol.
Final Thoughts
The security guard on the Skyliner train, after checking the car, turned and bowed to the car before entering the next one. It truly is a culture of deeply rooted respect and harmony. I might be romanticizing it a bit, but I already want to leave this place better than I found it.
I’m genuinely so excited to be in Japan. I’m sure as much as I love it here so far they’re probably not loving me, but I’m trying to get it right! Wish me luck!
Edit: I will do a better job taking food/place pics lol. I was so hungry I forgot. I’ll post a pic of the Oktoberfest Kai sent me.
