When we arrived in Tokyo, we might as well have been greeted at the gates of heaven. We landed at a gate that was isolated from the rest of the airport and since we were in the back of the plane and not traveling very fast with our bags, we were practically alone as we navigated the wide open, modern terminal concourse. Haneda Airport was incredibly bright and clean, and after being on the dark plane for 12 hours, it really felt like we were in an ethereal place. We traveled down a few different hallways via the moving walkway. We saw a bathroom down one of the corridors and we stopped in, just in case there was a holdup at customs.
As I walked in, the first stall door that I opened was an oval shaped porcelain hole in the ground, which I am assumed that I would need to squat in to do my business. I elected to keep moving forward to find a more suitable place the relieve myself. I would learn very early that there were two kinds of number 2 toilets in Japan. One is the most sophisticated piece of technology that Japan has to offer, while the other is the most primitive. From the restroom of a subway to a high class restaurant, most of Japan has expensive toilets with heated toilet seats, a bidet for the back, a bidet for the ladies, a self cleaning option, and even a sound generator that sounds like ocean waves, in case you are embarrassed that you might make a sound. Nowhere in the United States or Europe have I experience such a luxurious toilet experience, and unlike Europe, every restroom use was free.
As we travel down the last corridor, which was a less wide open space, but still futuristic looking, there were signs in English directing us to customs. Under the signs stood a gentleman in uniform smiling and guiding people to where they needed to go next. We turned right, after I pulled out my tablet with all of my instructions stored. We proceeded to the first passport/customs desk, where we were greeted by a gentleman dressed in uniform and wearing glasses and a smile, which welcomed us into his fine nation. There wasn’t anyone else in line anywhere and although I did my best to try to speak the Japanese that I had learned from Risa, on my youtube videos, the gentleman patiently took our declaration forms and guided us through the process. We were quick to proceed, but no matter how stupid we appeared, he continued to smile and made sure that we got our photo taken, that it matched our passport, and that we had our fingers scanned correctly. The whole process took only about 2 minutes, and then we were free to enter Japan. According to our stamp, we could stay in Japan up to 90 days, and I think that under the right circumstances, I would.
We walking continued to baggage claim, where we waited at the carousels for our luggage. Even though, we were a little slow in arriving there, we still beat our luggage. Close by, I saw the couple, Patrick and Lauren, with their baby, standing on the other side of the carousel. One of their parents walked up to them and I started to get shy about greeting them again. It was taking forever for the baggage claim carousel to start spinning, and what was frustrating was that we had all of our actual bags in carry-on, and we were only waiting on the stroller.
Before the stroller arrived, Lauren came over to us and started talking to us about the flight. She said, that her baby was awake most of the flight, and we told her that Escher was mostly asleep. We saw the stroller arrive on the conveyor belt, then packed it into Elizabeth’s makeshift pocket, that she had sown onto in the suitcase. We were about to walk away, when Patrick walked over to us, and shared the google map that he create from his previous time in Tokyo. It had a number of restaurants that they had visited and had liked. We told them that it would be nice if we met up, but because we would be staying in different parts of Tokyo, it unfortunately might not happen.
We parted ways with our new found friends and we headed out to the main concourse. Based on an email that I received, we were instructed to go to the JAL ABC store, in the International Terminal to pick up our rented pocket wi-fi. The pocket wi-fi is like a 3 inch by 3 inch modem, that you can carry around with you, and connect your cell phones to and always have data available. It’s perfect for using the google maps and wandering the streets to get to a certain location. The store was right on the other side of the baggage claim security gate, and as soon as we walked through, we saw a long line leading to the desk. There were a few different stores around on the concourse, but pretty much everyone around us was waiting in this line. I couldn’t really tell what the other people were doing at this place, but everyone had luggage and boxes on carts, that they looked like they were dropping it off. Were they shipping it to their final destination, so they wouldn’t have to check it? Was this desk an airline check in, but also a pocket wi-fi/package pick up location? I couldn’t be sure, but I seemed to be the only one in line picking up a pocket wifi.
Elizabeth had taken off to find a place to nurse the baby. She had gone down to the restroom area, but then made her way back to an isolated seating area not too far from the line. We had been in the country for about an hour so far, and close to 45 minutes of it were spent in the line for the pocket wi-fi. When I finally got to the desk, the people helped me fairly quickly. I showed them the email that I received from the company, and my passport, then had my package minutes later. I walked over to where Elizabeth was sitting and I opened the envelope. We pulled out the small device and wirelessly connected our phones to it, then we were back to living in modern internet times!
As followed the signs leading to the subway station, we were starting to experience the hustle and crowd that was a signature of Japan. We found a machine, where we purchased a PASMO card, which is sort of a prepaid cash card that, you can use on trains, buses, and even at 7-Eleven. I put $100 (10,000 Yen) on a card, thinking that Elizabeth and I would be able to use the same card. I passed through the gate and attempted to hand Elizabeth the card that I had purchased, the attendant stopped me and told me that we each needed our own card. I breathed a sigh of frustration, then went back through to purchase a second PASMO card but only put 4,000 Yen on it. At least now, we would be able to legitimately make it through all of the subway stations with ease.
I searched google maps to find the quickest route to the hotel. As we headed to the platform during rush hour, we were joined by millions of people all trying to commute at the exact same time. We waited on the platform as people exited the subway car, and then piled into the space that they had once occupied. Everyone around us was dressed in a nice business clothing and was silently looking down at their smartphones. We took the Keikyu metro line for a handful of stops, then transferred to the Tozai line for the last leg of the trip. By now we had opened the stroller and were pushing Escher in front of us, while pulling the roller bag behind us.
We arrived at the Nihombashi station, which was located under an office tower and had a shopping center attached. As we exited the subway car and took the elevator off the platform, we then started looking for the correct exit out of the station and an elevator up to the ground level. As we navigated the station concourse, we seemed to be in a maze of renovation. There were signs indicating that we needed to go down a certain hallway in order to go up, but because there were false walls in place, we appeared to be trapped between staircases. After some further searching, we found an elevator that went up and found ourselves in a low lit shopping area, with some fancy stores and then exit to the street directly to the right.
So, now that we were finally out of the subway station, we needed to get our bearings on the map. While in previous situations where the Roman alphabet was used on street signs, the google maps would say things like, “Turn Right onto 1st Street”. However, because google didn’t know Japanese, it would say, “Turn Right onto Unknown Street”. As a result, we were pretty dependent on following the little dot that was moving along with us on the smartphone screen and a trying to turn in the direction that we thought was the way where it wanted us to go.
As soon as we reached the open air, we were hit with a gust of wind and with it rain hit our faces. It had gotten dark by now and while we had brought our jackets for warmth, we were hoping that they would hold up in the rain. We had tried to be prepared for the rain, by purchasing a transparent cover for the stroller, but we discovered that it was left back in the states. It appeared that we would all be a little late, until we were able to find some ponchos or umbrellas to cover us. We followed the moving dot through an alley and then past a construction site, where workers had just finished up their shift and were still dressed in bright yellow safety vests and hard hats. We turned back onto the main road. There was a pedestrian bridge up ahead, which would bring us safely across the street, where our hotel was location. However, Elizabeth saw the wet steps and declined the journey up while carrying the stroller. We looked ahead and about 500 feet in front of us, there was a stop light and crosswalk.
The rain was really coming down, but as we continued forward, we could see our hotel peeking out from in between the buildings to the left. The place that we were staying was the Belkin Hotel. From the photo that was posted online, I knew that there were large numbers shining brightly along the side of the building, going from one to eleven indicating each floor. We continued down to the next intersection and crossed the four lane road. The crosswalk sign displayed a progress bar, indicating how long it would be before it would switch from walk to don’t walk and we made it across just in time.
We turned left down a narrow road, without sidewalks and dodged oncoming cars as they approached. There were a number of small businesses and a restaurants, but the street looked fairly abandoned compared to the crowded subway, from where we had just come. As we approached the end of the block, we found our hotel on the left.