FedEx Tokyo –
When we got back up to the hotel room, Elizabeth instantly got into bed to lay down. It was still only around 4pm, and I told her that we should get dinner soon. She told me that she was just going to take a quick nap, then we would go out to eat. I had expected our rail pass Fedex package to have arrived and the desk clerk that I spoke to when we checked in, told me that if it arrived they would put a note on our door. Concerned, I told Elizabeth that I was going to go down to the lobby to see if the package arrived and they didn’t tell me.
I took the elevator down to the lobby and there were two young women standing at the check-in desk. They both sort of looked at me, but one of them directed me over to her station. I asked her if she spoke English and she said that she did a little. I explained to her that I was expecting a FedEx envelope, that was supposed to arrive that day. She seemed really confused and told me that nothing had arrived for me. I took a deep sigh and went back up the elevator and told Elizabeth that the packaged hadn’t arrived. She told me the tracking number that her mom had texted her and I looked it up on their website.
According to the FedEx website, my package was stopped at the Tokyo Koto location, because there was a discrepancy on the form. The envelope was held at customs, because the value of the contents weren’t disclosed. I was immediately taken aback as to what should happen next. I told Elizabeth, what I thought had happened and she told me to just call them to find out where it was. I tried dialing the location on my phone, but because Verizon doesn’t have coverage in Japan, I wasn’t able to get through. Elizabeth said that her mom had told her about an app that you can download on your phone, that you can use to act like you have coverage. When she tried to download it, however, it asked her to put in what her Japanese phone number was.
I did a google search for a FedEx in Tokyo-Koto and it gave me two locations. One location was the World Center and the other was a FedEx “station”. The world center sounded like it would be where the package would get held up, because it probably had to go to the World Center first, before it went to a local branch, right? Well, according to the google maps, the World Center was located about 45 minutes away and I would take 3 different subways to get there. I shook my head in disbelief. I looked at the time and it was 4:50pm. The FedEx World Center was open until 6pm, so if everything went perfectly with my journey, I would arrive with about 25 minutes to spare.
I walked back to the Nihombashi station and ran my PASMO through the gate. Now that I was alone, I was able to walk as fast as my legs could take me through the station. As I took the first subway for 6 stops, I was able to hustle across the station with the rush hour crowd to the other train line and squeeze into the next train, which would be leaving at any second. After I arrived at the last station, it appeared to be a part of Tokyo that looked like it was a big office park, with no actual store fronts. I followed the blip on the screen that took me through the Panasonic headquarters, where they were demonstrating their newest line of Technics audio equipment.
I came out of the other side of the showroom and went into the building where the FedEx was supposedly located. The FedEx World Center was located on the 6th floor according to the directory, so as I walked into the building decorated with white marble, then I looked for an elevator. Based on the look of things, I was surprised that I didn’t need to check in with a security guard. As I wandered the first floor, I might have needed one to guide me, but I wasn’t going to stop until I found a way up.
I saw a set of elevators that only when up 4 floors and I followed the signs that took me to the east wing of the building that had elevators that went up to 6. I tapped the button and waited patiently, then rushed to the open elevator door. As I took the elevator up, I looked down to see the time and it was 5:40pm. I had 20 minutes to find the office and fulfil any procedure needed to obtain the envelope containing the rail pass vouchers.
In case I didn’t mention the importance of the rail pass vouchers. We needed the vouchers to exchange them with the Japan Rail company for the actual rail passes. We had set up the trip, so that we would be using the rail passes to travel to Yudanaka near Nagano on the Shinkansen, on the next morning and it was too late for us to cancel our reservation with the ryokan.
When the elevator door opened, there was an arched entrance and on the other side was a FedEx logo. I dashed for the desk, holding a wrinkled post-it note, where I had written the tracking number and the alert that I was given by the website. I politely greeted the two gentleman at the desk in Japanese and then asked them in Japanese if they spoke English. Luckily, one gentleman was practically fluent in English. He was a middle aged man, who was around 40 years old, with a spiked haircut and glasses. I gave him the post-it note with the tracking number and he said that the package wasn’t there. He explained that they don’t actually send and receive packages from this location, which made me wonder what exactly they did do there.
He told me that he would call someone at the main Japanese office and after speaking in Japanese for a few minutes, the gentleman handed me the phone and I attempted to explain my situation, by first greeting the woman on the other end in Japanese and politely asking if she spoke English. I gave her the tracking number and told her that the package was important. And she said, “I know, it’s for your rail passes.” “Yes,” I said, “We are supposed to be traveling tomorrow morning.” She said that the package was at a different location, but it would be closing at 7pm. The gentleman at the desk had a preprinted sheet with the name and address of the FedEx station where the package was located, and it also had a map with minimal details.
He said that it was located about 30 minutes by taxi or 45 minutes by subway. As I thought about the amount of rain outside, combined with the fact that it was still technically rush hours, and I was in the middle of a business park, I couldn’t imagine finding a taxi, with enough time to make it to the other side of Tokyo. The gentleman behind the desk asked for the phone back and then talked to the woman on the other end. He said that they would make the people at the other location aware that I was coming, and then he wrote down the train route by memory. It was about 4 different trains, similar to the journey that I had traveled to get there, but somehow the first two trains were only 2 stops each.
I grabbed the post-it with the directions and the pre-printed map, and opened my umbrella as I dashed out the door. The rain had let up to a certain extend, which was a little better than it had been earlier, but it was already dark, so it felt like I was in the middle of an action movie, where I had to follow maps and get clues, in order to find the treasure. I cut back through the Panasonic building and back to the station.
I rushed back down a staircase and then up a different staircase, keeping pace with commuters. As I looked around the subway car, I had to imagine how much I stood out compared to the other passengers. I was wearing a black jean jacket and a backwards black Kangol hat, while everyone else had their hair combed nice and was wearing a pinstripe suit. I got on and off trains a few more times. Until I ended up all the way on the other side of Tokyo. I looked down at the pre-printed map that I was given and tried to find out where exactly I was compared to the FedEx station. On the map it said Sunamo station, so I was assuming that it was actually at a subway station, but after doing some exploring I couldn’t seem to find it anywhere around. I went up the stairs, then out of the station, where at the top of the stairs with the dark rainy sky above, there was a construction barrier with arrows pointing two different ways and labeled in kanji. This way would take me to this symbol and the other way would take me to that symbol.
I picked a direction and began walking. I looked at my paper map, as well as the google map that I had brought up on my phone and I tried to compare them. I got to the end of the barrier and out to the street, where there was a four lane highway in front of me. I had gone from a business park, to what appeared to be the end of town, but was really right on the Tokyo Bay. I had spent the day surrounded by skyscrapers, and how from the look of it, I was out in the sticks. The sky above was clouded and black and when I looked up to the lights I could see the heavy rain pounding even harder than before. My second pair of shoes for the day had become so soaking wet that I might as well have been standing in my bare feet looking around for any resemblance to anything on my map.
I saw a police officer standing on the sidewalk, keeping watch or directing pedestrians, I couldn’t be sure, but he might know how to get to FedEx. I tried to pronounce the station name and I showed him the map. I asked him where he thought we were. I pronounced something that he understood and he pointed to a building across the street. And so I pointed and said, “I am supposed to go that way?” He looked at me and smiled. I don’t know if he had helped me, but what I did know was that I should probably head in the other direction.
I walked along the sidewalk and came around the back of the subway entrance. I was still thinking that the FedEx might be nearby this station, so I walked up a circular winding ramp back up to the entrance of the subway station that I had come out of. I went to the station agent and stumbled through a conversation in part Japanese and part English. He pulled out another map and drew two circles. And then drew a line from one circle to another. He point up the stairs and I guess that was it. I was on my own. I sloshed in my shoes back up the ground level and went back out to the street that I was wandering around on previously.
I was actually starting to see some people walking on the sidewalk and riding their bikes. I walked passed a McDonald’s, then finally the google map appeared to be showing me going in the correct direction. I looked at the time and it was 6:40pm. The FedEx was going to close in 20 minutes and if they were the type of place that closed 10 minutes early, if there wasn’t any sign of customers, I was going to be out of luck. I started running in the rain, trying not to drop my phone or the maps. With every step I got wetter from the splash up from the puddles on the sidewalk. Then like an oasis in the desert I saw what looked like a mall. There was a row of interconnected buildings and a sign that appeared to be listing different stores. I went down the list and on the very bottom of the sign was a FedEx logo.
I stood waiting at the crosswalk for the “don’t walk” progress meter to go all the way down and turn green, and then I ran across the 4 lanes. There was a guard rail preventing me from crossing to the other side of the street, where the shopping center was located, so I walked down the sidewalk toward the tiny glowing FedEx sign. As I looked down at my phone for the google map, I saw my blue blip getting closer and closer to the red marker. With 10 minutes until 7, I jumped the guardrail, I avoided traffic, and walked up the ivy lined hill leading up to the mall sidewalk. I went into the first unlocked door, where there was a sign for FedEx. I walked through the door and there was nothing, but white walls and a few white doors. I continued to head down the hall and around a corner was a storefront entrance. On the back of the silver wall was a FedEx logo, on the desk was a little model FedEx airplane, and I knew I was in the right place.
A gentleman in a FedEx shirt came out of the door, that I didn’t know was there, and he walked up to the counter. I told him that I was there to pick up a package, then I handed him the wet post-it with ink smudged from the rain. He put in the long tracking number, and then went to the back to retrieve the package. Moments later he came out handing me the envelope with two hands. I felt instantly empowered and raised the envelop above my head with both hands, then stood victorious after my arduous adventure. I signed the tablet, then thanked the gentleman. I told him that I had come along way for this envelope. Unimpressed, he said, “How so? Where did you come from?” I went through my journey from the US to Japan and then my voyage to the wrong FedEx, then to this FedEx in the rain. He sort of nodded and then gave me a look like, “Get out of the office, so that I can close up.”
I turned around and walked out, then as soon as I stepped off the tile that bordered the entrance of the store, the security gate came crashing down behind me. I had done it. I had gotten the vouchers. I could walk a little slower back to the subway station and sit a little taller as I rode the subway back to our hotel. I noticed that the Tozai line could take me from this station to the Nihombashi station. This way, I only had to take one train back. I waited on an out of service train, parked at the station, which was going to be leaving soon. I was one of the only people getting on the train at this stop, so I sat down and opened the FedEx envelope.
I noticed that the train would take me to the Tokyo Station, where I could actually redeem the rail passes, but I needed Elizabeth and her passport, in order actually get them redeemed. The Nihombashi station was only 4 stops away. It was about a 20 minute ride once the train started moving. I came out of the station through the quickest way up. Walking out, I recognized where I was, then took the pedestrian bridge over the highway and ended up at the hotel within a few minutes. As I walked, holding the package I couldn’t help, but think that if I would’ve chosen the other FedEx location first, the one where the package actually was at, I would’ve been 4 stops away. It maybe would have only been about an hour there and back. Instead, I took the crazy adventure way and it took almost 2 and a half hours. Maybe it was worth it for the story alone.