Sayonara, Japan. Back in the US again.

 Japan, Travel  Comments Off on Sayonara, Japan. Back in the US again.
Dec 222011
 

Today was my last day in Japan for a while.

I rolled out of bed, had the hotel buffet, and got back to packing.

I wanted to go by Sekaidou one more time, because I want to get my dad one of the pens that I got at Itoya, but they only had the regular version in black. I think he’ll like it anyway. Pilot makes great pens. I also loaded up on refills, because I have no idea how that’s going to work in the US.

On the way back to the hotel, I stopped by the ticket machine at JR Shinjuku and bought a green car ticket to Narita on the N’EX. Yes, it’s pricey, at 4400 yen, but the green car on the N’EX is worth every penny, and I wanted a little luxury before I got crammed into coach. (Ugh.)

When I got to the airport, I had to do a lot of security dancing just to get in.

I went to the counter to do the automated check-in, and the machine presented me with an interesting proposition. “Would you like to upgrade to Business Class for 50,000 yen?”

Hell yes I would!

Okay, I know it’s a lot of money in today’s economy, but what a coincidence– I had 50,000 yen I didn’t spend on a Vita.

I flew over in business class, and landed feeling almost human. You bet I’m going to take advantage of it on the way back!

I stopped in the Admiral’s Club and spent a few hours chilling out, mentally preparing myself for the long flight back. I understand that it’s perfectly safe, it’s just that when I’m traveling, I like to stop the car and get out every now and then and stretch. You can’t do that on a plane. Even if you do, they always send you back to your seat. Boo.

Honestly, I would prefer it if airplanes had gyms in them. That would help me take my mind off of a lot of things, and leave me refreshed when the flight was over.

The flight back to Dallas was uneventful. I made it through customs okay, and then went to the Admiral’s Club to de-stress and wait for my 8:00 flight back to RDU.

Another uneventful flight, and I was back in RDU at around 11. I didn’t get to bed until 3 a.m., and my internal clock is totally out of whack now. Tomorrow (today?) I have to drive to Asheville for Christmas!

Off to Japan! (Wait, Didn’t I Use This One Before?)

 Japan, Travel  Comments Off on Off to Japan! (Wait, Didn’t I Use This One Before?)
Sep 262011
 

It’s 3:30 a.m. Saturday, September 24th Sunday, September 25th. The driver is going to be here in an hour and fifteen minutes, and I’m trying to close my humongous Samsonite 29″ suitcase.

My plan was to have a giant suitcase big enough to stuff Jimmy Hoffa into, but slim enough to fit nicely behind the last row of seats on the shinkansen.

I have rolled my clothes into Space Bags, and everything looks like it should fit.

But it doesn’t.

One Bag Is the Rule, Except When Money Is Involved.

Well, everything does sort of fit, but the scale says that this bag is off the charts, and that’s bad for my wallet. (Weigh your stuff before you leave home!)

The stuff in the suitcase has the density of a neutron star. But while the suitcase itself is light, it doesn’t really handle very well. The saleslady warned me. I should have listened, but I wanted to save $80.

Cheaper is cheaper, but it’s not necessarily better.

So, change of plans.

I had to dig out my Old Reliable 26″ Samsonite, which I took to Japan the last time, tossed some Space Bags into it, and evened out the loads… and before going out the door, I have already violated my Prime Directive of Traveling: One Bag.

ONE. BAG.

It can’t be helped. I’m going to be gone for almost 3 months, and I pared the clothes down to the bare minimum.

Fall is a troublesome season. You need short- and long-sleeve shirts, and one or two really warm things, for when it finally decides to get cold.

Also, going with two bags will help avoid the overage fees for heavy luggage.

With the Dollar-Yen exchange rate at a crazy high rate of 75 yen to the dollar, I need to save every penny on this trip.

Getting Out of Town

At 4:45 a.m., my driver showed up. A nice guy from Elite Coach came by in a Town Car to whisk me away to RDU International Airport. It’s not my usual way to travel, but in this case, I think it was a good call. It put me in the right mood for the trip for the most part.

I got to RDU, and sure enough, the Jimmy Hoffa bag was over by 2 pounds, so I shifted some stuff to the other bag. Overage fixed. Hooray!

So in this case, two bags wasn’t too terrible.

The TSA check was a lot smoother than this summer. It only took about 10-15 minutes, and there was nobody swabbing my backpack to check for explosive residues this time. (Did I mention that about the London trip? They really did swab out my carry-on bag for explosive residues. Ah, Security Theater.)

I got patted down, but that was because I left a lens-cleaning cloth in one of my pockets. They were professional about it, and I was out of there quickly. There were also no hysterics about the amount of electronic equipment I was carrying, which was nice to see.

We live in the information age, so some of us carry a lot of electronics. I’m a nerd, so you can double the amount I carry compared to others. The hum of a computer is soothing to me.

Off to the lounge to wait for the American Airlines staff to show up so I could start begging. Lots of waiting. And waiting.

Finally, the guy showed up about 45 minutes before the flight, and I just about jumped him, the poor guy. But he was great about it. He got me into business class for the flight from DFW to Narita, which is all I cared about. I just wanted to be spared that 13 hours and 30 minutes of coach pain.

Right about here I started doing the “Upgrade Dance.”

Whatever You Do, Stay In Group 5.

It was time to cram into the S-80 to Dallas/Ft. Worth. The flight was full, in every meaning of the word.

Here’s an important note for folks wishing to fly American: whatever you do, don’t check in online, because then you’ll get to be in group 2.

I would hate to have more people in group 2 competing with me for space in the overhead bins, so please don’t check in online. Check in at the airport so you wind up in group 5 or 6. That’s much better.

In group 5 or 6, you’ll get on last, and have nowhere to put your luggage, while I’ll still be in group 2, and have my pick of anywhere I want to put my giant bags.

That was a public service announcement for all potential American Airlines passengers.

Joking aside, check in online before you go out the door. You’ll save yourself a headache.

I had been worried about what I was going to do on the flight from RDU to DFW, but it turns out the lady next to me had a lot to talk about, so we talked for most of the flight over. I don’t mind on a short flight like that, because I didn’t have anything I needed to do, and it took my mind off of things to just chat with someone.

Good luck to you, ma’am.

Back In Dallas, Briefly.

I got in to DFW a little early, so I had plenty of time to head to Terminal D and relax in the Admiral’s Club. (Huzzah! Free Admiral’s Club passes with every business class upgrade!) I called the folks back home, and then got myself mentally ready for the flight to Japan.

It’s a long flight.

I know that there are longer flights, but it’s still a long amount of time to be stuck in a metal tube, no matter how cozy the seats are. I lucked out– nobody sat next to me, and I had an aisle seat. So I could pretty much do whatever I wanted to. The guy on the other side of the center row was a Navy guy who had flown business before, and he showed me what I needed to know.

In a Metal Tube, Over the Water, at 540MPH

I’m in the club now!

Business class on American is nice. It’s very comfortable. I’m not just spoiled, I’m ruined.

I chose to sleep for most of the flight. I wound up listening to a marathon of “Says You!” episodes that I had bought from their website and stuffed onto my phone. It helped to pass the time.

But thirteen and a half hours is still a long time.

Business class made a HUGE difference in how I felt when I got off of the plane. Had I been in coach, I probably would have been a mess. I was in much better shape thanks to business class. Ah, if every seat in every plane was like that, I think everyone would enjoy flying again. Maybe they would even look forward to it.

Ralph Welcomes You to Japan. Over. And Over.

I arrived at Narita right around 4:30 p.m. Japan Time, and made my way to the bathroom. (Because you should go when you can.)

What music awaited me, but the sound of some poor guy in the stall next to me calling Ralph on the porcelain phone. Ralph wasn’t picking up, so he kept calling.

And calling.

日本へようこそう。

Indeed.

The great thing about Japanese public bathrooms is that the stall walls go all the way to the floor, so there’s no danger of “the hand” coming up from the stall next to you, or worse, “spillage” from the next stall over.

But still, “Ralph” next door made me uneasy. I just hoped I didn’t catch anything that would give me the urge to call Ralph as well. So I boiled my hands on the way out.

I noticed that my eyes were itchy, too. (Foreshadowing?)

Dealing With Paperwork

Here’s a tip for arriving passengers to Japan: fill out your arrival form in INK. They will make you do it over if you do it in pencil.

I learned this lesson The Hard Way.

I also learned that speaking Japanese at this point makes everything go more smoothly.

Seriously. Even my sorry Japanese helped me.

I headed to baggage claim, and I waited for about 30 minutes, while I stared at other people’s luggage. Not mine. So I went to the desk to ask where my bags were, and there they were. Well, I’ll take whatever I can get. So I loaded them up on the shopping cart thing and took them to customs. It was time to do the yakkan shoumei dance. Last time was such a pain.

I asked the customs guy what do I do with my yakkan shoumei, and he got all excited, because apparently nobody ever bothers to get one. He led me to a counter, and showed it to four or five other customs inspectors, who had probably never seen one, too, and they consulted a few binders, then said I was good to go.

I guess I’m the sort of endangered species that bothers to get the paperwork taken care of.

SIM City

I needed to go to the Softbank booth, to get a rental SIM card. The Softbank rental SIM is one of those, “It’s great so long as you never actually use it” sort of things.

It’s great for other people to call you, because incoming calls are free, but outgoing calls get expensive fast. And don’t even think about data. (Just thinking about using the data incurs a separate charge!)

This is the perfect SIM card for an old GSM dumb-phone that can’t do data, like my Motorola Razr V3X. It works like a charm, and doesn’t use data. (Rather, it can’t.)

Off to Shinjuku!

After that, I went to the station to catch the Narita Express (N’EX) to Shinjuku. I thought about taking the Keisei Skyliner, but I didn’t want to carry the bags all over Ueno Station and change trains.

A lot of people talk about taking the airport buses, and yes, they are cheaper, but they’re buses. You won’t get the amenities you get on a train (well, you may, but you may not), and more importantly, there’s traffic to reckon with.

Trains just go. If they’re not running, you have bigger problems to worry about than getting to Tokyo from Narita. Every now and then they’ll run a little late. By a little, I mean 10-20 seconds. More rarely, there will be an accident, and the train won’t come for a while. In that case, grab another train line.

But trains aren’t perfect. They come with drawbacks, especially for someone traveling with a large number of bulky bags.

There are few things more awkward than carrying huge American bags on a local train in Japan. You will get ugly looks from everyone around you.

The ugly stares will double if you commit the unpardonable sin of carrying a backpack on your back, instead of down on the floor, which is impossible with 2 suitcases, because you need both hands to hold on to them.

The N’EX goes straight to Shinjuku, and is designed for me and my American bags.

I had to wait until 6:52 for my train, so I had time to refill my Suica card, which STILL WORKED AFTER FOUR YEARS. It even had a balance of 653 yen on it.

That’s awesome.

Green Green Green

This time, I splurged and went Green Car. The difference is around 1,900 yen or so, but the seats are bigger, and I was bushed.

A woman brought a cart through the car, selling food and drinks, and I bought an onigiri and a bottle of water. I was hungry, but I only wanted to knock the edge off of my hunger. I was going to eat better when I got to Shinjuku. That was the plan, anyway.

What I did not grasp is where the trash bins are located. Call it jet-lag-induced stupidity or whatever, but they’re shown right there on the info card in the seat back. Even so, I still managed to get it wrong.

One nice bit about the N’EX is that there’s ample room for luggage storage in the front of the cars. There’s WiFi too, but I couldn’t get it to work in time… and I wasn’t that desperate.

Shinjuku!

I got to JR Shinjuku, and checked in at my hotel, the Sunroute Shinjuku, which is a really good hotel for the price. The rates run around 9,000 yen or so for a basic room, but the basic room is good enough. You get a good bed, fridge, and a decent TV channel selection. It’s not as good as some top-tier hotels, but everything is solid.

Well it usually is.

The bathroom in my room had some funky stink in it. As in bad funky.

I stopped long enough to change clothes and freshen up, then ran to the Shinjuku Yodobashi Camera, right before it closed.

Second SIM

I bought a B-Mobile Fair SIM card at Yodobashi Camera, because this one gets me 1GB of data on my Nexus One for up to 4 months for ~9,000 yen or so.

The other option is a 1GB for 1 month option for 3,000 yen, but once I’m set up with WiFi, I don’t think I’ll use that much data. And if I don’t, I’ll lose whatever is left over at the end of the month, and that’s no good, either.

Both options use DoCoMo’s network, and give you fast speeds, so long as you don’t break a 300MB soft cap. Then you’ll get throttled. Or so I hear.

No matter how much data I use, when the first GB runs out, I can buy an extra 1GB for 3,000 yen, which will last for 1 month, or I can do the Fair for 4 months again for 9,000 yen. The pricing isn’t great, but I don’t need to have a visa to get it, and it’s a lot better than the rates I’d get charged if I use the Softbank rental SIM for data.

Dinner was conbini yakisoba and whatever I could find in the conbini. No time to find a restaurant tonight.

Oyasumi nasai.

I’m beat.

Returning and Recovering

 Japan, Travel  Comments Off on Returning and Recovering
Nov 242007
 

It’s been 10 days since I got back from Japan, and I haven’t had much of a chance to post on my flight back and on readjusting to the U.S. again.

On the flight back, I met a nice guy, Dave, who shared similar gaming interests as me, so we chatted away in geek mode for a few hours. Then I had to rest my throat, because the desert-like atmosphere of the airplane just kills it.

So I went into cocoon mode, where I put on my noise-canceling headphones, listen to podcasts, and try to doze off in between meals. The food wasn’t bad, but for some reason I just can’t bring myself to order the fish on an airplane.

I spent a lot of time adding up all the various things I bought to fill out my customs forms, too. The last thing I wanted to do was submit anything that looked weird or out of place. I hadn’t really done the U.S. Customs arrival thing in a while, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I figured I’d prepare for anything.

OMG America

When I arrived in Chicago at 3:00 p.m. the same day, my slightly scrambled brain had to deal with being back in the U.S. all of a sudden. It was a weird feeling. I’ve spent the last month or so trying to adapt to Japan, and suddenly having to be an American again was a bit jarring.

Immigration was amusing in a way. When I arrived in Japan, the huge line was for foreigners coming into Japan. When I arrived in Chicago, the huge line was for Americans coming home. I guess it makes sense. After I got processed, I had to go pick up my luggage for customs. One thing to keep in mind– the signs say no cell phone use or camera use. They aren’t messing around. Turn off your phones and put them away.

Now, the whole time I’m going around here, I’m lugging my two backpacks, and my back is hating me the whole time. We’re talking, “I’m gonna get you when you sleep,” hate. This underlines my resolve to change the way I travel from here on out. Keep chanting, “One bag, one bag…” until I remember to carry just one bag.

At customs, I declared my Pocky, and then breezed on through without having to pay. I think the agent said that my books weren’t subject to duty, so I was under the limit. (Woot.) Then they took my bags and moved them on to the connecting flight right there, so I didn’t have to recheck them.

Now the fun part. Back through airport security. One thing I noticed that kind of irritated me was that first-class passengers had a different line for TSA screening. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the TSA was a government agency. Why is the government playing favorites for first-class passengers? Meanwhile, the rest of us in coach are standing in a 40-minute line. Some poor guy with diabetes passed out twice in line. It doesn’t seem fair. We have to suffer in cramped seats, we pay these guys’ salaries in taxes, yet we suffer in line? I don’t get it.

After doing the TSA shuffle, it was off to find the Admirals’ Club. It’s totally worth the $50, because it’s nice to have a comfortable place to recover from your flight while you wait for the next one.

The club in Chicago wasn’t as nice as the one in Tokyo, though. The one in Tokyo had free food. The one in Chicago had one of those nut mix things you get in bars, and some broccoli. I think there were apples, too. But everything else was a cash bar. Tokyo’s Admiral’s Club had free sushi and free drinks. That’s tough to beat.

My flight to Raleigh was only 40 minutes late departing. I wish I had spent those 40 minutes in the Admirals’ Club, but like a dummy, I went to the gate early. No, I don’t know why. Since I was in group 5, I was the last person on the plane. I don’t know how I got put in group 5, but that’s where I had been put, and I wasn’t going to get on the plane any sooner.

My goal for my next trip is to get the hell out of group 5, and move up a bit.

On the flight, I met another nice person, and we chatted about the news and current events before arriving rather quickly at Raleigh-Durham. After that, it was standard stuff. Met my girlfriend at baggage claim, sprained by back getting one of my heavy suitcases, and limped on home.

Home Again Home Again, Jiggity Jig

I would have posted sooner, but I was busy recovering. When I got back, I felt like hell. They say that it’s harder to travel east than it is to travel west, and based on my experience, I agree. Coming back to North Carolina after being away for five weeks also had another effect. As soon as I got back on the ground at RDU, every single allergen that I had escaped for the last five weeks attacked me. I noticed it when my eyes started itching like mad on the ride home, and then the next day when my Eustachian tubes started acting up, too.

The other main problem I had was sleeping. I couldn’t. It took me about a week to get back on an almost-normal sleeping pattern where I could sleep for more than 5 hours a night. I still get very sleepy at weird hours.

Of course, coming back right before Thanksgiving added a certain amount of stress as well. Hey, it’s Thanksgiving. Everything has to be perfect, right? So trying to recover while also getting ready for Thanksgiving had its own impacts.

Finally, the hardest thing to get used to was the change in lifestyle. I was so used to walking a lot and riding trains, and suddenly I’m back in my car, muttering at the other drivers just like every other American. That was a jarring experience. To be honest, it’s the one part of coming back that I liked the least. I’ve gone from feeling like going out and rubbing elbows with millions of people to being in my house-pod, jumping into my car-pod, then doing my shopping in Controlled Shopping Zones, and scuttling back to my house-pod, with precious little unnecessary interaction.

Having a car is handy for carrying groceries, but I’m wondering at what cost.

I’m also not walking nearly as much as I used to, and I’m not even looking forward to going out to walk. It’s weird.

I do know one thing, and that is that I really want to go back to Japan, and spend some more time there. Despite the pain, frustration, and stress, I haven’t had so much fun in a long time. It was probably one of the best experiences of my life, and I’d highly recommend going, even if it is a difficult thing to do.

I think the difficult things are probably the best ones for us to do, anyway. You have to break out of your habits and get over yourself every now and then, you know?

Later, I’ll post some info on what I learned, travel-wise, for a trip to Japan, and for traveling in general. It’s not like I reinvented the wheel or anything, but I figure that if you’re willing to read this, you’re looking for any kind of information you can get.

Off to Japan!

 Japan, Travel  Comments Off on Off to Japan!
Oct 112007
 

I have arrived safely in Okazaki. I have a high-speed Ethernet connection in my room, so I am happy. Let me tell you how I got here…

The Flight Over

My flight from Raleigh to Dallas-Ft. Worth left at 6:00 a.m. I’m an international passenger, so I had to be at the airport 2 hours early. (4 a.m.!) To get there, I had to leave home at 3:30 a.m. That means I had to get up at 2:30 a.m.

I didn’t bother with sleeping. I could do that on the plane.

At 3:30 a.m., a car showed up to take me to the airport. It was a Lincoln Town Car. I wouldn’t use one every day, but it’s a great car for riding to the airport.

When I got to the airport, I realized nothing was open yet. The counters didn’t open until a little after 4 a.m. Great! That meant no lines!

Going through security was a bit of work. I unbundled all of my electronics, then did the shoe dance that they want you to do, and I still set off the detector.

It’s a good thing I went through early. I also realized that I packed way too many electronics. (Why am I taking electronics to Japan? That’s like taking baguettes to France.)

My friend Michael was on the same flight to Dallas-Ft. Worth as I was. What a coincidence! But it was nice to have a close friend on the same flight. Michael also did something noble and wonderful which I will never forget– he bumped me up to First Class. Thanks, man. That was beautiful of you.

I got an Admirals’ Club day pass through American, and when I got to DFW, I promptly went to the lounge and recovered from the 6:00 a.m. flight. I love those lounges.

Sadly, the flight to Japan wasn’t so comfy. I was in the middle section of coach on a 777, and it felt like I was flying in a cave. I got a seat over the wings, so it was pretty smooth for the most part, but the 13-plus hour flight was tiring.

I spent most of the flight trying to sleep through it.

I listened to a lot of podcasts. Thanks Leo.

There were LCD TV panels on the back of the seats that show how far away we are from Japan on a little map, and it made the flight seem longer, because it looked as if the plane just wasn’t moving, even though I knew we’re racing through the air at 500-plus miles per hour. We just had a lot of distance to cover.

Arrival in Narita

We made it to Narita on time. I wish there was an arrival lounge for Admiral’s Club members there. I could have used a few minutes to decompress before getting hit full-on with culture shock. And it is a bit of a shock after flying in a dark cave for 13-14 hours to be dumped in a land where everything is alien, including me.

At immigration, they sent me to the Japanese counters instead of the foreigner counters. I guess it was because they had more foreigners coming in than they could deal with, because I don’t look Japanese. At all. (My red hair gives me away.)

Then on to customs. My tenuous grip of Japanese helped me explain my medicine situation, so I got through without being thrown out of the country, but I had to show them my yakkan shoumei, and there was some unpacking and repacking involved.

On to Tokyo

I had to find the Keisei Skyliner, which is an express train from Narita Airport to Ueno Station in Tokyo. It’s about $10-15 cheaper than the JR Narita Express, and it’s slightly faster, too. One tip– don’t buy the first train tickets you see upstairs. Those are sold by a ticket agency who marks up the actual price. Go to the basement of Narita, where the train station is, and buy it from the company.

I made it to Ueno after an hour and a bit, and had to lug my suitcases to the hotel. Silly me, I didn’t realize that Ueno Station has elevators and escalators. So I had to carry the Suitcases of Death up and down stairs. It was tiring. That one-bag idea is looking really good now, and 2 bags just looks dumb.

For my first and only night night in Tokyo for now, I stayed at the Ueno Terminal Hotel. The room was mind-bogglingly tiny for someone used to American hotels, but the room was clean, the service was good, and everything was laid out in a way I could figure out.

First Night in Ueno

My Japanese has come in handy a number of times already. The people here are very polite, and will try to help you if you try to speak slowly and clearly.

After I made it safely to my tiny business hotel in Ueno, I collapsed for a couple of hours, took a shower in a bathroom so small, it boggled my mind some more.

Tiny bathroom

Then I went to Akihabara for a brief look around. (It’s only 2 stops away on the Yamanote line, so why not?) I decided not to buy anything, because I was totally jet-lagged and dazed, and also, anything I bought, I would have to carry all over the country for the next five weeks.

Off to Okazaki

I went back to my room, slept for an hour,  got up, went to the hotel restaurant, ate some pizza, and passed out at 10 p.m. (First time I’ve done that in a while!) I slept in until 5 a.m., then dashed out to catch my 7:36 a.m. shinkansen to Toyohashi.

When I got to Toyohashi, I promptly took the wrong train to Okazaki, but I got there eventually anyway. The local will get you there, just in an excruciatingly slow fashion.

As soon as I got here, they gave me a Japanese language test.

I’ll let that sink in for a moment.

I know it’s important, but man, my brain is just… full or something. It’s probably the jet lag.

The room in the dorm is small, but the staff is nice.

My dorm room at Yamasa in Okazaki

Time for another nap, then some walking around town.

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