Tokyo: First Impressions

My first glimpse of Japan from the plane's window

We took the 10 PM flight to Manila. We arrived a little before midnight.  Our flight to Tokyo was at 5 AM.  We whiled the time away by first taking a very late decent dinner (more like midnight snacks) at Kenny Roger’s. I came straight from the office and Ate and the kids had their last minute shopping and so we never really had a chance for a sit-down dinner. The funny thing was, anticipating it to be her last official night in the country, Tunga brought all the way from Davao her “Jollibee” meal.  It’s very likely that she’d be missing it for the next two years back in Australia thus the “attachment” hehehe  Only, when we reached the 2^nd floor of the departure area where the restaurants are, the first thing that hit our eyes was the big sign pointing to the direction of the very same!  I had to stifle a smile but gave way in the end when I saw Tunga groan and give her “dinner pack” to Boo. 

Five-Hour Flight. Our flight was on time, thankfully.  It takes 5 long hours to get to Tokyo from Manila.  Since we were practically sleepless the night before, we slept most of the way.  I was fully awake a good hour before we landed though. Having the window seat afforded me with a good view.  I noted the wide expanse which is often broken by a clump of trees already showing the early signs of Autumn.  Boy, was I excited about that!

Queuing up for the immigration.  Being it our first time in Japan, I was a bit apprehensive and somewhat intimidated when we started queuing up for immigration.  It was unfounded however since at the head of the line was a Filipina assisting and checking out entry forms.  If she would chance upon Filipinos, she would immediately switch to speaking Tagalog and point out inconsistencies. Coming from the rear, and judging from the number of times she had to speak in Tagalog, I can deduce there are a good number of us there. Everything reeks of efficiency and I was tempted to take pictures but there was a sign that prohibits it.  It was in Japanese but the “crossed-out” symbol of a camera was easy enough to interpret. 

Yup, every bag you see -- big and small --is ours.  

Overwhelming Luggage.  Ate and the kids are homeward bound to Australia after our few days stint in Tokyo.  Unlike our earlier domestic trip, they brought their entire luggage this time, including pasalubong and all the Filipino goodies that weight limits would allow.  So those plus our own, it would be safe to say that we could stay in Tokyo for three months and still not run out of clothes to wear. 

Getting from point A(irport) to point B. Finding the right train to the nearest station of where we would be staying proved difficult. There were maps, yes, but hardly anything written in English. Everything is in Japanese. Thankfully, we have someone with us, Jeanette, who has lived in Japan before so she could speak the language. Talking to someone in English is not such a good idea because the locals would just shake their head. Most would turn warmly to Jeanette though and gladly offer to help.

ATM: automated (train)ticket machines

We were directed to the ticket booth of Kisei Line. We craned our necks to look at the rail map above us, looking for “Nishi-Nippori” which was our desired stop.  Thankfully this one comes bearing the English names as well.  Under each name are numbers, which I assume to be the fare.  Peering at the booth’s screen and looking at the choices there, I was pretty certain I made the right interpretation.  Even if the ticket booth has an “English” option, it still appeared pretty cryptic.  You just have the numbers and choices on it.  There are “symbols” of one man and that of three.  We readily assumed the latter meant for group tickets and clicked that.  It was for literally just three persons only, displaying 2,160 Yen which is equivalent to 720 times 3.   It means that one way is around 270 pesos per head.  Eventually, having figured it out, we took our turns dropping coins at the automated ticket booth to secure our ride.

 It took a total of 45 minutes to get there.  I had a very important email to make for work (last minute thing I

was not able to accomplish before leaving) so I found myself digging my laptop out of my backpack and eventually typed away.  I promised the office I was sending it that morning.  The 5-hour flight meant it was already half past eleven so I was adamant to send it right away. Having accomplished the task, I immediately sent it to my phone so I could email the document from there using Gmail.  I figured being in Japan, there would be wifi everywhere.  I was disappointed to note that wasn’t the case.  I knew I had no choice but to wait until I get to the hotel.  I was grateful to have accomplished the task soonest though as I was finally able to look out the window and see what Japan is all about from that perspective. 

A Cold Blast of Air. Before we knew it, we have already arrived.  We scrambled out of the train quickly, luggage and all.  Stepping out of the station, the first thing that greeted us was the freezing blast of air. It woke me up.  We immediately hailed a cab for the olds, and another one for Ate and our various luggages.  Some of us opted to walk, myself included.  I thought that I might as well start getting myself acquainted with Japan.

We're staying at Fabric Street in Higashi Nippori. It took a while for us to find our way. We had to ask for directions. I found it funny how that person easily took out his phone and used its GPS so he could point us to the right way.  Probably, back here in the country, we would have been subjected to a lot of lip-and-finger pointing and we would have understood each other perfectly well. 

Walking was good, despite being sleepless.  It was really cold though. I was grateful for my double-lined jacket and scarf. Since my gloves were buried somewhere in one of my bags already headed to our hotel, I content myself with sticking my hands in my pockets.  I wasn’t wearing any headgear as well but did not feel the need to complain about the cold.  I welcome its snips on my face and fancied myself getting a facelift the natural way :P

Fabric Street in Fabric Town.  Higashi Nippori is Tokyo’s Fabric Town. True to its name, the street is lined with stores selling not just fabrics but anything that has got to do with sewing – buckles, zippers, buttons, tassels and what-have-you’s.  I initially mistook the buckles as earrings.  They come in all sizes (minute to biggest) and color (gold to black). There were patterns for sale too from that of children’s Halloween costumes to cute skirts and blouses.  It was fun having to walk through them every morning as we make our way from our hostel to the train station. 

3Q Hostel: Home for the Meantime.  It was a looooong walk from the train station to our hostel.  I think it’s a good 3 to 5 kilometers away.  I’m used to walking and without the heat, it makes it a bit bearable (little did I know that we would be doing a lot of walking during our 4-day stay in Japan.)

The hostel is a three story building.  We occupied 4 bedrooms in all: 1 quadruple-sharing; 2 twin; and 1 triple-sharing.  They were mostly bunk beds.  Mama, Ate Tata and I were in the latter.  I got the detached bed: a thick double mattress on the floor while Mama and Ate Tata got to share the lower bunk bed.  We stashed some of our clothes and luggage in the upper deck. 

What I appreciated most about our hostel is the number of shower rooms available.  It came complete with adjustable thermostats that made the hot showers (a necessity in that weather!) possible.  Most hostels have several shower stalls.  In ours, there really were separate shower rooms.  There was one though that has 2 cubicles which were fine for us.  I could imagine though how a solo traveler would appreciate the lone shower rooms for the privacy they afford. 

The many buttons strapped next to the toilet
Grabbed from: livintothefullest.blogspot.com

High-tech Toilets. What amazed us though was the “automatic-everything” set up even in the toilets.  I read in an online Tokyo guide site, that it’s one of the many fascinating things in Japan.  An establishment selling toilet contraptions was even listed among the “must-visits” recommended. 

The water taps operates mostly through sensor.  I’ve never seen a toilet bowl with so many buttons on it.  Some are easy to interpret as there were characters next to the Japanese characters indicated.  The rest, you just have to brave pushing the buttons and find out.  In my case, I got a very surprising jolt hahaha! (More of the places of interest we visited in succeeding posts!)