Arriving in Japan was not a problem. The plane ride was uneventful, unless you count the mysterious call “Doctor on the plane to row 28” about ¾ of the way through. It was a long day, however. I had gotten up at about 5:30 in the morning, gotten packed, and ready, and the plane departed at 2:30 in the afternoon. It was about an 11 hour flight, and we landed about 5:30 in the afternoon local time – the next day. Darn that International Date Line.
Getting through customs was a breeze, and I couldn’t believe that I was in Japan. Never having been to Japan before, I was rather giddy. Now, I have travelled around the world, but Japan was new to me. I have always wanted to go, so as soon as we were through customs, I started grinning jumping up and down in excitement.
Getting to where Stephen and I were going, however, was a little more involved than filling out a customs declaration form and getting waved through a line. We purchased a ticket for a train from the airport into Tokyo, had to find the right platform and wait for the train. It pulled up, the people got out and then the doors closed again, because it wasn’t ready to embark on the new trip. The train was cleaned and the seats were turned around. Yeah, the seats on the train were facing one way one minute and the other way the next. At the appointed time the doors opened as we were allowed on the train.
After about a 50 minute ride we got off at a connecting subway stop, transferred to more traditional subway line (after paying our fare of course) and then travelled on that for about 15 minutes, after which we needed to make another connection to another subway. This last one was tricky because we needed to exit the subway station, or at least it seemed like it. After having found our subway and riding on that for about 15 or so minutes, we disembarked and caught the local bus.
We arrived at the house where Stephen and I are staying in Japan a little after 9:00 at night. We then stayed up talking with our hosts until sometime after 11:00. I don’t know exactly what time it was in Seattle, but I know it was a very long day.