The Big Blank

Tokyo Arrival

We came out of the airport in arrival lobby and ahhh it almost looked like the Delhi airport lobby. There were people all around and chaos was ruling. This was a welcome change from the too clean, too sparse airports of Bangkok and HongKong. There were bus counters, metro rail counters for tourists minus the bargain doling agents lurking around.

We were advised to catch limousine bus service to Tokyo. But we opted for a cheaper way i.e. through the complicated rail network of Tokyo. After a long hour on a train we came a bit closer to central Tokyo. We had to change the rail line from here. Man it was a nightmare with our luggage. To change you need to sometime walk like more than a km in underground tunnels and esclators. And these stations are like underground cities with multiple levels of platforms and all. Atlast we came out of the station to the surface of the earth. The weather was good and a cool breeze helped us recuperate. We were told that our hotel is 5 minute walk from the station. So we asked around for our hotel and though people were helpful noone knew where the place was. There was this one guy who started running all over the place with our address in his hand, pointing to various buildings. In the end we gave up and got on a taxi whose old driver gave us a indulging smile to us and took us to this building barely 100m away from the place. It costed us 660Yen though. We got to our place and dumped our luggage. The reception guy was extra courteous. He explained in detail how to use an access card-key by inserting it in the slot in the door, then a green light will come on, then one should pull the door by your hand(!!!) and now the door was open(pheww!!) and all this in faltering english, took around 10 minutes. Dinner was at the familiar McD as did not want to take chances on the first meal. McD is amazing in consistency of flavor, anywhere you go in the world.

One peculiarity which I noticed was that everything was very efficiently used. Advertisements posters in trains were covered till there edges with slogans and smiling faces. Platforms were not very large. In all nooks and corners there were either vending machines or a small shop selling trinkets. Everything looked a bit cluttered. Though this effect has worned off now but it was surely there. This should have something to do with the scarcity of natural resources in Japan.

Next - First Weekend in Tokyo

posted by Pankaj Jain @ 7:07 AM