2017. That was the last time I set foot outside of the US borders. I have been traveling all over the US between now and then, but the stars didn't align for another overseas adventure...until now. When a longtime friend asked over a year ago if I wanted to go to Japan, I couldn't say no. I blogged the Australia adventure daily as I was there, but since I knew I would be moving around a lot in Japan during this trip, I decided to write the blog after. Because while pictures and video do portray many words, there is still magic in words on a page. So without further ado, here's the story of my trip to Japan (part 1).
We left the morning of Friday September 26th from the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. They have international in their name, but they really don't fly to many other countries direct. We had to take a 30 minute flight to Detroit. Yay for extra airport hassle. After a standard layover, it was 13 hours to Tokyo. Thankfully I had done a long flight before, so I knew what to expect. But that did not mean it was going to be easy. I can't sleep in any moving vehicle. Car, train, boat, or plane, if it's moving, I don't sleep. So when we touched down in Tokyo around late afternoon on the 27th (we crossed the international date line), I had been awake probably north of 24 hours. But we still had business to take care of. The Beastie Boys said it best with No Sleep Till Brooklyn, well it was no sleep till Tokyo.
We exited the plane and had to navigate our way through customs. It wasn't very difficult, but there were a lot of steps. First, we had to follow a path based on whether or not we had filled out the pre-customs form online (we did). Then it was off to a computer terminal to scan our passports and take a verification photo. Then a desk with a person to stamp the passport. In this case, it was a sticker instead of a stamp placed inside the passport. This man did it with ninja like speed. After I got my sticker, I had to follow arrows and ropes for a decontamination process. We walked up to a big video screen which scanned our faces and based on the photo we previously took, it delegated us to specific lanes. I followed my lane across a blue sanitation pad, meant to decontaminate my shoes and luggage wheels. I was given the all clear and had made it past all of the checkpoints and was now officially free to roam Japan.
I reconnected with Ryan and the first thing we did was go get tickets for the bullet train as we were headed for Kyoto the next morning. The ticket people were very kind and welcoming and they spoke English so no language barrier issues yet. We booked our tickets and grabbed a taxi to the hotel. For the second time in my life, I found myself on the opposite side of the road as they drive on the left here. As we made our way to the hotel, I gazed out the window and took in everything going on around me. The city architecture was moving swiftly by and it wouldn't be long before I was going to get to explore it.
A short ride later and we at our hotel. We thanked the taxi driver and wandered inside. There before me was a giant tree all strung up with lights. At the front desk was a dinosaur and a witch. I thought they were Christmas decorations at first, but the reality was that they were our front desk clerks...and they were animatronics. There were no humans behind the front desk. We signed in through the computer, followed the prompts, and scanned our passports at the scanner. The animatronics responded to our selections which was quite amusing. Finally, we were all good and the nearby kiosk spit out our room key. The animatronics thanked us and told us to enjoy our stay. Still no human staff in sight.
The room was smaller than the American hotel rooms I'm used to, but it still fit both of us comfortably. The beds were smaller and a bit stiffer, but I was still able to get a decent sleep. The game changer was the heated toilet seats and bidets. Every hotel we stayed in throughout the trip had them and to me, it was a luxury. With a full day looming closer, we decided the best course of action was to take an evening stroll to a convenience store for a light bite and any interesting drinks they sold. Then it was back to the hotel to wind down and call it a night. On the way back I took in some initial observations. People riding bicycles were prominent. Almost every street we turned onto, a cyclist came cruising by. And the sun had already gone down. Side streets had no car dominance. Pedestrians had a walk path on the side, but with no traffic, would walk in the middle. They would give way to cyclists and also approaching cars. All three types used the center of the street and everyone was patient, but also gave way to the faster form of transportation. This was only the tip of the iceberg of the cycle of everyday life in Japan that I was about to experience. Slightly jetlagged and definitely tired, we made it back to the hotel to call it a night and prepare for the journey to Kyoto in the morning.
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