Japan Trip (March 21, 2001)

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First Contact

The flight to the Narita International was fairly short. It seems the Northwest seem to occupy the oldest part of the airport. It was very crowded and stuffy looking.

Anyway, after I picked up my backpack I went through the customs and immigration. Actually, I got more nervous as the date of my Japanese trip approached. I hadn't been to a country where I wasn't sure I could communicate with the locals in more than a decade. The last proper Japanese instruction was also about a decade ago. And it was such a short trip (5 days) that I wasn't sure if I would be able to stay on schedule if I started having communication difficulties.

Within the airport, I chickened out and relied on English to exchange money and ask directions. At least within the airport premises, most of the employees spoke English.

Although I couldn't understanding fully, I was getting used to the sounds of Japanese. So the first true test. :) I walked down to the terminal to get on to JR NEX (Narita Express) to the Tokyo Station. I was planning to take Shinkansen from there to Kyoto. Before I would be able to get onto the train, I needed to exchange my JR Pass receipt with an actual pass.

So, from here on all the texts from my notes are going to be like this and my comments or more explanation will be in square brackets. So here it goes.

Japan Trip, 3/21

My Room at Hiraiwa Ryokan.

SEL-NRT-Kyoto, Shinkansen. [This is to note from where to where and what kind of transportation used.]

Hajimete nihongowo tukau, [while trying to exchange the receipt with the] JR PASS. JR NEX de Tokyo ekimade. [Things seen out the windows of JR NEX.] Small & compact buildings. Automated parking structures. Because of the Shinkansen ticket (they take them away unless you ask them, had to talk to a conductor in Japanese. [They stamp it as "souvenir" before returning it to me.]

Bought a phone card, but not for intl. calls. Bought a pre-paid phone card & called home.

Yuhara ryokan was full [I didn't make any reservations]. Ryokan Hiraiwa had a room. A small Japanese-style room. Clean. An 77-yr. old lady (forgot her name) was there. Asked [for a recommendation] for an [cheap] udongya. Nakau, a franchise [was okay, but not too great, but cheap around 400 yen].

Stuff in the Room.

Walked around. Yasaka jinja. Lanterns [quite a few of them with the names of the individuals or the organizations]. No camera [with me], maybe tomorrow. Walked around Hanamikouji in Gion [a lot of traditional restaurants with girls dressed with the geisha costumes, but I didn't feel "tourist"-enough to take their pictures]. Kyoto has a lot of old-style buildings. Bought some snacks on the way back. People use bikes a lot [just a thing noticed that day, not that a lot of bikes were out during the night].

>> "The Castle"...