To the Land of the Rising Sun

We’ve become somewhat frequent visitors to Japan. Not so frequent like every week, or every month, or even every year (although there was one year we visited twice), but certainly frequent enough that we don’t have to do as much research like we used to have to do. We’ve got some standard itinerary, standard hotels, travel routes, etc. It’s not so much that we always want to do the same thing, but they serve as useful fallback plans when we can’t work out something better.

The difference with this trip is that Vanessa came along. It will always be a challenge travelling with young kids. There are a few rare benefits like priority boarding for getting onto the plane, but that’s about it.

We arrived slightly late in Tokyo. That’s partly because our flight left over an hour late. There was an unelaborated “mechanical problem”, that was serious enough that the plane had to be towed away from the boarding gate, presumably to a hanger somewhere to be fixed, before returning to the boarding gate. Of course, better late than never. You don’t ever want your plane to be anything less than in perfect working condition. Mechanical or otherwise.

Oddly enough, Narita Airport was very quiet and desserted. I don’t know if the one hour delay made all the difference. The terminal used to be more crowded in the past. Not to the point of being “packed”, but certainly not quiet with zero queues. We knew exactly what we wanted to do in terms of ground transportation to our hotel, so we headed straight for the Friendly Airport Limousine counter. We got our tickets in a snap, no queue. In case you’re wondering about our choice to go with the Airport Limousine: Well… it’s a door-to-door service to our hotel for 3000yen. The Narita-Express train actually costs more, and we’d still have to struggle with luggage through Shinjuku Station and either walk to our hotel (15 minutes without luggage) or take a public bus. (There may be cheaper train options, but at the cost of additional transfers.)

We have always been traveling free-and-easy to Tokyo and other parts of Japan. Pre-2000, it was quite challenging because there aren’t enough English signs. Nowadays, you will find English signs, at least if you look out hard enough, and if not, then at least you’ll find someone who can speak enough English to figure out some directions. It’s easy for us because we’re familiar with the place.

At least with Tokyo. In fact, we go between train station and hotel without even consulting a map. We breeze our way through Shinjuku station (arguably the busiest train station in the world, at least according to Wikipedia). We’ve become accustomed to the somewhat complicated train system in Japan. The confusing terms like Rapid, Express, and Limited-Express. The fact that Rapid doesn’t simply mean skipping stations that the Local version of the same line stops at. Yup, I actually only learnt about it this trip. Chuo Rapid splits off Chuo Local at some point in the line, so that they go to different places.

The familiarity helps a lot when traveling with kids. At least, we don’t have to be so stressed about finding places. Or getting off at the right station. Or, wondering if we’re even on the right train at all. Or better yet, make educated guesses when we were unable to communicate with anyone for directions at less crowded places. Yup, we were at Hinode Pier after coming down by ferry from Asakusa, and wanted to go to Palette Town. We could transfer to another ferry. But it’s a long wait. Or we could walk out and catch a monorail further down from the pier. So we could all enjoy the holiday almost like it was a guided tour, yet still have the total freedom to do anything we want.

Okay, that’s just a quick update to get started. More about the trip another time…