Monday, April 23, 2007
April 6
We fly on, and I consult...*the blue folder*. All the information about every place we are staying is in that folder. It has maps, reference numbers, addresses, phone numbers, and everything we (should) need to find our way to the Hostels. Jess was in favor of just winging the hostels and seeing what was open, but I wanted to be sure I'd have a place to stay, especially because many of them had begun to fill up. I knew where we were sleeping, and I knew how to find these places, but other than that, the trip was wide open. We had our copy of Fodors Japan (2006 edition), comically referred to as 'the bible', or 'the orange book'. It contained (nearly) everything I knew about our trip, and we got most of our sightseeing cues from it's pages. Definitely a nice recommendation.
We land. Finally, we land. I've been on a plane for 11.5 hours, and am pretty sick of the plane. Though not, it seems, as sick as the kid behind us, who wakes up as we land and proceeds to throw up all over himself shortly afterwards. His mom is there to help clean him off, though, and Jessie lends some 'moist hand wipes' to the cause. We're off.
My first time through customs now. I have the phrasebook ready to go for any missteps. I've filled out the card (front AND back, after some prompting) and I'm ready to get my virgin passport stamped. We go through, and I get a sticker. A sticker! Japan is so crazy advanced! Then we pick up our checked baggage and just get waved right through inspections. Slick! I’m in Japan!
There are two tasks to tackle before we traipse off to the hostel. I find a counter and rent a Cell phone, and then get the most important item of the trip. A Japan Rail pass. If it helps, think of the JR pass as…a magical carpet capable of transporting you all over the country for free. You walk into any JR station in the country and you get to take any train anywhere you want to go. It’s like your own personal set of wings. The cards are foil-embossed. Fantastic.
The first test of my planning skills is to get us from the airport to the Hostel. It’s early afternoon, but we’re jetlagged and ready to sleep, so Jess admits she’s quite glad I planned the hostels. Certainly beats wandering around Tokyo looking for one now. We hop on the train (the wrong one, but going to the right place, luckily) and start to check out the scenery.
It’s like a light from above, manna from heaven, or finding $20 on the street. The station names are written in English, blinking across LED displays over each door. I don’t have to worry about looking up kanji characters for every place I want to go; I can read it off the walls. This makes travel about 3 orders of magnitude easier. They even do automated announcements in English on a lot of the trains. Thank you JR and Tokyo Metro, thanks so much.
I follow directions from the blue folder. JR line to Tokyo station, Yamanote Line to Ueno station. We call up the Hostel to make sure reception won’t close until we get there, but they’ll be open for a while, and we are good to go. There’s a little bit of confusion as we try and navigate our way from the JR station at Ueno to the Tokyo Metro line, but we follow signs (in English!) and arrows (English arrows!) and read maps, and eventually we make it there. Tokyo metro to Asakusa station on the Ginza line. The blue folder directs me along the 7 minute walk from the station to the hostel. We’re walking along alleyways and side streets, but everything is still clean, people have plants growing at their front doorsteps. It’s all very pretty.
The blue folder serves me well, and we make it to the hostel.
It’s late…well, it’s late in LA, anyway, and we’re tired, so we crawl into bed and fall asleep.
-N
We fly on, and I consult...*the blue folder*. All the information about every place we are staying is in that folder. It has maps, reference numbers, addresses, phone numbers, and everything we (should) need to find our way to the Hostels. Jess was in favor of just winging the hostels and seeing what was open, but I wanted to be sure I'd have a place to stay, especially because many of them had begun to fill up. I knew where we were sleeping, and I knew how to find these places, but other than that, the trip was wide open. We had our copy of Fodors Japan (2006 edition), comically referred to as 'the bible', or 'the orange book'. It contained (nearly) everything I knew about our trip, and we got most of our sightseeing cues from it's pages. Definitely a nice recommendation.
We land. Finally, we land. I've been on a plane for 11.5 hours, and am pretty sick of the plane. Though not, it seems, as sick as the kid behind us, who wakes up as we land and proceeds to throw up all over himself shortly afterwards. His mom is there to help clean him off, though, and Jessie lends some 'moist hand wipes' to the cause. We're off.
My first time through customs now. I have the phrasebook ready to go for any missteps. I've filled out the card (front AND back, after some prompting) and I'm ready to get my virgin passport stamped. We go through, and I get a sticker. A sticker! Japan is so crazy advanced! Then we pick up our checked baggage and just get waved right through inspections. Slick! I’m in Japan!
There are two tasks to tackle before we traipse off to the hostel. I find a counter and rent a Cell phone, and then get the most important item of the trip. A Japan Rail pass. If it helps, think of the JR pass as…a magical carpet capable of transporting you all over the country for free. You walk into any JR station in the country and you get to take any train anywhere you want to go. It’s like your own personal set of wings. The cards are foil-embossed. Fantastic.
The first test of my planning skills is to get us from the airport to the Hostel. It’s early afternoon, but we’re jetlagged and ready to sleep, so Jess admits she’s quite glad I planned the hostels. Certainly beats wandering around Tokyo looking for one now. We hop on the train (the wrong one, but going to the right place, luckily) and start to check out the scenery.
It’s like a light from above, manna from heaven, or finding $20 on the street. The station names are written in English, blinking across LED displays over each door. I don’t have to worry about looking up kanji characters for every place I want to go; I can read it off the walls. This makes travel about 3 orders of magnitude easier. They even do automated announcements in English on a lot of the trains. Thank you JR and Tokyo Metro, thanks so much.
I follow directions from the blue folder. JR line to Tokyo station, Yamanote Line to Ueno station. We call up the Hostel to make sure reception won’t close until we get there, but they’ll be open for a while, and we are good to go. There’s a little bit of confusion as we try and navigate our way from the JR station at Ueno to the Tokyo Metro line, but we follow signs (in English!) and arrows (English arrows!) and read maps, and eventually we make it there. Tokyo metro to Asakusa station on the Ginza line. The blue folder directs me along the 7 minute walk from the station to the hostel. We’re walking along alleyways and side streets, but everything is still clean, people have plants growing at their front doorsteps. It’s all very pretty.
The blue folder serves me well, and we make it to the hostel.
It’s late…well, it’s late in LA, anyway, and we’re tired, so we crawl into bed and fall asleep.
-N
Comments:
We like the "blue folder" concept too. Especially in a foreign country where you can't even be sure of the written language. That way, even if your day didn't go too well, you can be sure of a place to sleep and regroup for the next day's adventures. We think is saves a lot on stress levels.
You are soo cool. Love,
MomanDad
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You are soo cool. Love,
MomanDad
# posted by 
: April 23, 2007 at 11:50 PM
: April 23, 2007 at 11:50 PM