So the fun begins…
I do love air New Zealand, though I had to tell myself wait until the end of the trip before writing every other airliner off.
Touched down into Tokyo Narita, to be met by a whole bunch of people waiting in line to get into to a cue, to get into another line that would snake its way to an old man, who told you to go to another line, to wait for the immigration person. Easy. No dramas there, then down to baggage claim, and onto customs. More lines, but for how intimidating customs looked, they were essentially just taking paper out of your hand and waving you through.
Now into actual Japan. I walked with a misguided confidence that I had a semblance of where I was going. I found the SIM card and the necessary train line, and a good thing I wrote where I was heading down, so I could point and hand the nice lady some giant paper money and I’ve got a ticket.
On the train I had a mini panic, as I needed to email my airbnb folks to tell them of my immanent arrival so that could pick me up from the train station but no wifi (needed a pin to put the SIM card in…). I thought the young ladies sitting near me must have a semblance of English and so I proceeded ask a favour, if they could txt the number. They didn’t understand that, nor my example of writing a txt. In the end she shared her wifi with me so I could email, and were kind enough to tell me when had got to my stop.
I was met by my host on the other side of the ticket booth and I quickly extinguished my limited Japanese to her polite amusement. It is interesting how much you can communicate to people with gestures, actions and nods. Something I learned again the next day at breakfast.
But two things of note from my accomodation, firstly their duvets are like puffy clouds… it was like I was sleeping inside a marshmallow, so comfy! Secondly, and this thing is the “why don’t we do this” award, heated toilet seats. I don’t want to get into the bathroom whatever’s, all I want to say is, it’s cold in Japan at this time of year, and we all know and dread the freezing cold toilet set on such days, but theirs are heated and fricken awesome! It just makes the monotonous so extra special. Natural follow up question is, “yes, but how much to run them?” Hopefully I can manage to communicate that little gem to my gracious hosts and let you know…
Anyways, it’s a beautiful coltish day in Tokyo today, so I’m going to make the most of it.
till next time.