Japan: Day One
Well, here I am.
It's approaching 8 PM on friday night here in Japan, which is 7 AM friday Columbus time. Walky took me back to the airport thursday morning at around 5:30 AM to get me there in plenty of time for my 7 AM flight. Unlike yesterday, there were no delays, so I got to O'Hare with quite a large amount of time to spare. I ate a surprisingly tasty breakfast for airport food (omelet, home fries, toast, all good) while there, listened to a little bit of news about the NYC police being afraid of anarchists coming to town (even though the vast majority of anarchists and revolutionary communists are pacifists), and started reading a new book. I also noticed there was a money changer in the terminal, so I went ahead and got a bunch of yen there rather than try to do it at Narita.
The international flight was less than half full, I would guess. Although there was originally a guy sitting next to me, he moved to an empty bank of seats once the hatch was closed and nobody else was coming aboard. The flight itself was really uneventful. I tried to sleep for a few hours in the middle, but I'm not sure if I actually slept at all; it felt more like I was just resting / trying to sleep the whole time. Still, that's better than nothing. It was a little difficult to get comfortable with only two seats of space to lie down on. (We were in a 777, so I guess I could have tried to find a bank of five to stretch out on, if there were any free, but I stayed by the window.) The inflight movies weren't even any good, so I watched some CSI, and that was about it. I read somewhere between a third and a half of the newest ESSENTIAL SPIDER-MAN volume, including the whole death-of-Gwen-Stacy arc, and really, really enjoyed it. Poor Gwen... ::sniff:: Also, I think the cover to issue 124 is one of my new favorite covers.
So, finally, around 2 PM Japan time (1 AM me time) we landed at Narita. One of the first things I saw was a big sign up on the property of somebody who apparently lives right next to the airport that said in English and Japanese, "down with Narita airport". I think it's a little late for that, but, I guess I can sympathize. Once we disembarked, I was almost immediately amused by Japaneseness: the "exit" signs here are so awesome. I'll take a picture of one tomorrow, probably, to post. I actually did take a picture of a sign they had by the baggage carousels, but I seem to have inadvertently erased the five or so pictures I took today when I was trying to figure out how to get them onto Seth's computer. (Which stinks, because I really liked that sign, and I also took a cool picture of masses of people crossing the street at a big square outside Shibuya station.) The baggage sign was amusing, like so many other signs here, because for no real reason it had a cartoon on it. I don't mean to imply that all the signs here have cartoons, but, a lot of them do. You know, it's just a sign that could easily be all text, telling you the rules or something, but there's a happy floating head there too, or a couple people smiling as they obey the rules together. It's so awesome.
Now, as I begin to describe my trip from Narita to Seth's place, I should point out that I made this trip alone. Seth and Kris went to the fire festival, and Seth sent me instructions on what trains to take and stuff to get here. Nearly all the train signs have English on them, and all the employees at the airport seemed to speak English, too to help me get started. So, I bought my first ticket, for the longest leg of the trip. Narita is quite some distance east of the city, so I had a long ride to actually get to Tokyo proper. I was a little disappointed that the train wasn't a bullet, which the company had on their signs and stuff, but taking that train (called the "skyliner") is about twice as expensive, so, the regular one was fine. All the train ticket agents at the counter were women wearing pastel uniforms complete with little round hats. I sort of wish I had taken a picture of them, but I was thinking more about making sure I knew what I was doing than getting photos at that point. (Plus I would have erased the picture anyway.) I can probably take one when I pass back through at the end of my stay here. The first stop for the train was also within the airport, and there was a newsstand at that stop with the wonderful name, "Let's Kiosk".
The train ride was indeed long. Seth had said it would be about 70 minutes, but it felt more like 90-120. I'm sure I was on the right train, because the ticker kept saying "limited express", even though it seemed to be making more stops than the little map on their brochure indicated. Also, there was an especially pretty woman sitting across from me. She spent most of the ride sleeping (well, train-sleeping). At different points during the ride, the women on both sides of her, who were sleeping more soundly, kept leaning over and almost touching her, and it was sort of funny to watch her lean, trying to avoid this. She either didn't notice me smiling as I watched this, or didn't find it funny.
Finally we got to Ueno, the end of the line, and I had to find my next train and buy a subway ticket. The fares here are apparently based on how far you travel, rather than the sort of "one token fits all" that most American subways use. I expected to just pay and get a ticket, but I actually had to tell the machine how much I wanted on it (which Seth had told me ahead of time, thankfully). Also, happily, the machines there could work in English, although it was a little spotty. Also, I had to guess which way to insert my money, and apparently got it right. It was while in this leg of the trip that I saw my first Japanese schoolgirls. None of them were in sailor suits, though. I know that some schoools' uniforms really are sailor suits just like in anime, though, so hopefully I'll come across some. It's just so surreal, in some ways, to see these things around me that I've only ever seen in the context of animation. (Well, okay, the hard-hat wearing workman's uniforms I've seen mainly in stuff like Godzilla movies, not anime.) Riding this subway was the least pleasant of the train rides because it was fairly crowded, and since I had my bags with me, I took up a lot of space. There wasn't anyplace for me to sit down, and I ended up standing in one of the door wells. Then, of course, once I was settled, the next several stations all had their doors open on the side I was on, putting me right in the way. Eventually I wormed past some people to stand at the end of the car.
The next and last transfer was the trickiest -- although the signs for the line I needed still had English on them, the map of the line was very busy, and the ticket machines had absolutely no English at all. I discovered pretty quickly that as long as I got on the right line, I couldn't miss my stop, as my present position was the end (the aforementioned Shibuya station). And, Seth had told me my ticket would be 120 yen, and the fares marked on the map agreed. So, then, the question was how to actually get the ticket. The machines had rows of featureless buttons on them, and two buttons further up that both said "JR" (Japan Rail) which I knew I didn't want. I sort of stared at the machine for a minute, and watched a couple people use the one next to me. I figured out, first of all, that when you insert money the featureless buttons turn on, and they have LED displays of numbers behind them. So, put in 200 yen, and fare amounts up to 200 yen light and you can hit the one you want. Also, though, you have to first hit the button for the line you want. And I didn't want JR. With a little more looking around I figured out which Japanese characters corresponded to the Inokashira line, and found them on another button in a different area than the JR buttons. ::phew:: I had been about to start wandering around looking for a help desk, hoping that they would know English.
I got on a train, then took out my notes from Seth, which emphasized that I must get on the Inokashira local, not the express. I realized I had no idea which I was on, so I looked around for an indication, saw none, and got off to be safe. Once off the train I found that, yes, it was a local according to the LED destination display, but it left before I got back on. The next few trains didn't have the same LED display, and just had cards, and the cards had no English, so I just kept waiting for the next one with LEDs that I could be sure of. Two stops later, and it was time to walk.
Seth's neighborhood has very narrow streets, somewhat windy, and some hills. Everything is very densely packed. There are no sidewalks. Buildings come right up to the curb, and pedestrians walk in the road, or along the side. There are few enough cars and scooters that this isn't really a problem. There is a thin lane -- sometimes two -- painted on the edge of the road, but I'm not sure if it's for pedestrians or if it's technically a bike lane or something. The area is mostly residential, and the houses all look so different from each other, but all still look like modern Japan. Almost every house has balconies. The more commercial streets have convenience stores (including a 7-11) and restaurants, mostly. The restaurants appear very small. A couple of them seemed to have no more than five or six tables. There are also establishments that you can't go in, and instead just buy food from a counter that abuts the street. And a tiny, tiny laundromat that appears to be completely unattended. And a playground with a freestanding, aluminum public restroom with no doors and one of those trench-toilets in it. And it has what looks like a police siren on top of it.
Seth's house, which he lives in with a few other English-speakers, is really cool, with a large number of small rooms, and even a few big ones. The toilet, for example, is in a tiny room with nothing else. The toilet has a control panel with at least six buttons on it, but no pictograms -- just Japanese writing. The shower is actually a room -- larger than the toilet room -- which is all tiled, and has a (covered) tub in it. So while you shower, you're standing next to the tub. Seth's bedroom has a balcony, as I assume the others do. (Actually, I'm pretty sure this balcony is shared with the neighboring bedroom.) The balcony extends, at most, two feet away from the building, although as I said it is long. It's just wide enough to stand on and hang some clothes to dry.
There's no AC, so there are a lot of open (screened) windows. There seems to be a breeze coming in almost constantly, no matter what room you're in, which is especially strange considering how little room there is between buildings. The next roof over is slanted, so I couldn't stand on it, but I could easily reach it with a standing jump from Seth's balcony. (If the fence thingy weren't in the way, that is, or from the fence.)
I've now been writing for about an hour; it's 9 PM, and I'm getting pretty sleepy. Seth and Kris are expected back around midnight, and I doubt I'll be able to stay up that long. I'll wake up and talk to them when they come in, but, I think I'll have to sleep soon.
Sorry there's no pictures today. Next time.
It's approaching 8 PM on friday night here in Japan, which is 7 AM friday Columbus time. Walky took me back to the airport thursday morning at around 5:30 AM to get me there in plenty of time for my 7 AM flight. Unlike yesterday, there were no delays, so I got to O'Hare with quite a large amount of time to spare. I ate a surprisingly tasty breakfast for airport food (omelet, home fries, toast, all good) while there, listened to a little bit of news about the NYC police being afraid of anarchists coming to town (even though the vast majority of anarchists and revolutionary communists are pacifists), and started reading a new book. I also noticed there was a money changer in the terminal, so I went ahead and got a bunch of yen there rather than try to do it at Narita.
The international flight was less than half full, I would guess. Although there was originally a guy sitting next to me, he moved to an empty bank of seats once the hatch was closed and nobody else was coming aboard. The flight itself was really uneventful. I tried to sleep for a few hours in the middle, but I'm not sure if I actually slept at all; it felt more like I was just resting / trying to sleep the whole time. Still, that's better than nothing. It was a little difficult to get comfortable with only two seats of space to lie down on. (We were in a 777, so I guess I could have tried to find a bank of five to stretch out on, if there were any free, but I stayed by the window.) The inflight movies weren't even any good, so I watched some CSI, and that was about it. I read somewhere between a third and a half of the newest ESSENTIAL SPIDER-MAN volume, including the whole death-of-Gwen-Stacy arc, and really, really enjoyed it. Poor Gwen... ::sniff:: Also, I think the cover to issue 124 is one of my new favorite covers.
So, finally, around 2 PM Japan time (1 AM me time) we landed at Narita. One of the first things I saw was a big sign up on the property of somebody who apparently lives right next to the airport that said in English and Japanese, "down with Narita airport". I think it's a little late for that, but, I guess I can sympathize. Once we disembarked, I was almost immediately amused by Japaneseness: the "exit" signs here are so awesome. I'll take a picture of one tomorrow, probably, to post. I actually did take a picture of a sign they had by the baggage carousels, but I seem to have inadvertently erased the five or so pictures I took today when I was trying to figure out how to get them onto Seth's computer. (Which stinks, because I really liked that sign, and I also took a cool picture of masses of people crossing the street at a big square outside Shibuya station.) The baggage sign was amusing, like so many other signs here, because for no real reason it had a cartoon on it. I don't mean to imply that all the signs here have cartoons, but, a lot of them do. You know, it's just a sign that could easily be all text, telling you the rules or something, but there's a happy floating head there too, or a couple people smiling as they obey the rules together. It's so awesome.
Now, as I begin to describe my trip from Narita to Seth's place, I should point out that I made this trip alone. Seth and Kris went to the fire festival, and Seth sent me instructions on what trains to take and stuff to get here. Nearly all the train signs have English on them, and all the employees at the airport seemed to speak English, too to help me get started. So, I bought my first ticket, for the longest leg of the trip. Narita is quite some distance east of the city, so I had a long ride to actually get to Tokyo proper. I was a little disappointed that the train wasn't a bullet, which the company had on their signs and stuff, but taking that train (called the "skyliner") is about twice as expensive, so, the regular one was fine. All the train ticket agents at the counter were women wearing pastel uniforms complete with little round hats. I sort of wish I had taken a picture of them, but I was thinking more about making sure I knew what I was doing than getting photos at that point. (Plus I would have erased the picture anyway.) I can probably take one when I pass back through at the end of my stay here. The first stop for the train was also within the airport, and there was a newsstand at that stop with the wonderful name, "Let's Kiosk".
The train ride was indeed long. Seth had said it would be about 70 minutes, but it felt more like 90-120. I'm sure I was on the right train, because the ticker kept saying "limited express", even though it seemed to be making more stops than the little map on their brochure indicated. Also, there was an especially pretty woman sitting across from me. She spent most of the ride sleeping (well, train-sleeping). At different points during the ride, the women on both sides of her, who were sleeping more soundly, kept leaning over and almost touching her, and it was sort of funny to watch her lean, trying to avoid this. She either didn't notice me smiling as I watched this, or didn't find it funny.
Finally we got to Ueno, the end of the line, and I had to find my next train and buy a subway ticket. The fares here are apparently based on how far you travel, rather than the sort of "one token fits all" that most American subways use. I expected to just pay and get a ticket, but I actually had to tell the machine how much I wanted on it (which Seth had told me ahead of time, thankfully). Also, happily, the machines there could work in English, although it was a little spotty. Also, I had to guess which way to insert my money, and apparently got it right. It was while in this leg of the trip that I saw my first Japanese schoolgirls. None of them were in sailor suits, though. I know that some schoools' uniforms really are sailor suits just like in anime, though, so hopefully I'll come across some. It's just so surreal, in some ways, to see these things around me that I've only ever seen in the context of animation. (Well, okay, the hard-hat wearing workman's uniforms I've seen mainly in stuff like Godzilla movies, not anime.) Riding this subway was the least pleasant of the train rides because it was fairly crowded, and since I had my bags with me, I took up a lot of space. There wasn't anyplace for me to sit down, and I ended up standing in one of the door wells. Then, of course, once I was settled, the next several stations all had their doors open on the side I was on, putting me right in the way. Eventually I wormed past some people to stand at the end of the car.
The next and last transfer was the trickiest -- although the signs for the line I needed still had English on them, the map of the line was very busy, and the ticket machines had absolutely no English at all. I discovered pretty quickly that as long as I got on the right line, I couldn't miss my stop, as my present position was the end (the aforementioned Shibuya station). And, Seth had told me my ticket would be 120 yen, and the fares marked on the map agreed. So, then, the question was how to actually get the ticket. The machines had rows of featureless buttons on them, and two buttons further up that both said "JR" (Japan Rail) which I knew I didn't want. I sort of stared at the machine for a minute, and watched a couple people use the one next to me. I figured out, first of all, that when you insert money the featureless buttons turn on, and they have LED displays of numbers behind them. So, put in 200 yen, and fare amounts up to 200 yen light and you can hit the one you want. Also, though, you have to first hit the button for the line you want. And I didn't want JR. With a little more looking around I figured out which Japanese characters corresponded to the Inokashira line, and found them on another button in a different area than the JR buttons. ::phew:: I had been about to start wandering around looking for a help desk, hoping that they would know English.
I got on a train, then took out my notes from Seth, which emphasized that I must get on the Inokashira local, not the express. I realized I had no idea which I was on, so I looked around for an indication, saw none, and got off to be safe. Once off the train I found that, yes, it was a local according to the LED destination display, but it left before I got back on. The next few trains didn't have the same LED display, and just had cards, and the cards had no English, so I just kept waiting for the next one with LEDs that I could be sure of. Two stops later, and it was time to walk.
Seth's neighborhood has very narrow streets, somewhat windy, and some hills. Everything is very densely packed. There are no sidewalks. Buildings come right up to the curb, and pedestrians walk in the road, or along the side. There are few enough cars and scooters that this isn't really a problem. There is a thin lane -- sometimes two -- painted on the edge of the road, but I'm not sure if it's for pedestrians or if it's technically a bike lane or something. The area is mostly residential, and the houses all look so different from each other, but all still look like modern Japan. Almost every house has balconies. The more commercial streets have convenience stores (including a 7-11) and restaurants, mostly. The restaurants appear very small. A couple of them seemed to have no more than five or six tables. There are also establishments that you can't go in, and instead just buy food from a counter that abuts the street. And a tiny, tiny laundromat that appears to be completely unattended. And a playground with a freestanding, aluminum public restroom with no doors and one of those trench-toilets in it. And it has what looks like a police siren on top of it.
Seth's house, which he lives in with a few other English-speakers, is really cool, with a large number of small rooms, and even a few big ones. The toilet, for example, is in a tiny room with nothing else. The toilet has a control panel with at least six buttons on it, but no pictograms -- just Japanese writing. The shower is actually a room -- larger than the toilet room -- which is all tiled, and has a (covered) tub in it. So while you shower, you're standing next to the tub. Seth's bedroom has a balcony, as I assume the others do. (Actually, I'm pretty sure this balcony is shared with the neighboring bedroom.) The balcony extends, at most, two feet away from the building, although as I said it is long. It's just wide enough to stand on and hang some clothes to dry.
There's no AC, so there are a lot of open (screened) windows. There seems to be a breeze coming in almost constantly, no matter what room you're in, which is especially strange considering how little room there is between buildings. The next roof over is slanted, so I couldn't stand on it, but I could easily reach it with a standing jump from Seth's balcony. (If the fence thingy weren't in the way, that is, or from the fence.)
I've now been writing for about an hour; it's 9 PM, and I'm getting pretty sleepy. Seth and Kris are expected back around midnight, and I doubt I'll be able to stay up that long. I'll wake up and talk to them when they come in, but, I think I'll have to sleep soon.
Sorry there's no pictures today. Next time.