protocol 7

Travels + Day One + Japan

To note: electronic kiosk check-ins don’t work without an American passport which caters to a hectic check-in process. Despite the extremely long line for analog ticket check-in we made it to our gate several minutes before they started to board the 757 with “continuing service to Narita”. I thought perhaps I misheard them, but as soon as we stepped on the plane it was quite clear we were indeed on a 757. Minutes later, after cramming ourselves into tiny seats, I began to bawl at the prospect of taking a 757 all the way to Japan. Upon arrival in Seattle kzi asked one of the flight attendants if the 757 was the plane we were taking to Japan at which point they started to laugh. The happy conclusion being that we were not taking a 757 to Japan and we had to disembark so that we could board a 777.

For someone who hates to fly, the trip to Japan was actually quite pleasant. A novelty on this flight, opposed to other international flights I’ve been on, is that for the duration it was constantly light outside, which psycologically makes the flight quite different. There is something tedious, exhausting, and isolating (more than it already is) about flying through the night that I can’t quite place my finger on.

In a nutshell (full sentences optional):

Touched down in Japan… the Narita airport is expanding faster than it can accomodate flights, so we rolled around on the tarmac for a while before coming to a halt, at which point we ran down a bunch of stairs and boarded a little bus that took us across the rest of the tarmac to a terminal. The escalators in the airport are motion sensitive and stop moving when no one is on them to conserve energy. Being the dumb gaijins we are we thought it was broken (as did an Indian family whose luggage we helped haul up the stairs thanks to the cursed broken escalator). Customs is quite easy to get through and the traffic is well handled (as it is everywhere in Japan). Running around the airport trying to get money and tickets (well, really kzi doing that and me sitting in a xanax haze). Jump on the express train to the train station in Tokyo. The subway system reminds me a lot of the subway system in New York City, though rather than looking around at the diversity, one is captivated by the homogenous-ness. Lulled to sleep once again on the train, mostly because I think the motion and environment of trains I’ve taken over the years, with such frequency, induces that kind of reaction. Finally arrive in Hamamatsu, and hey, remember to keep all the ticket stubs you receive because you’ll need them to get back OUT of the station… rumor has it you need to buy the tickets all over again to get out, but I’m not sure if that is true. To Sebastian and Nanae’s, brushing of the teeth, and then to sweet, sweet sleep.

In and out of lulled sleep, somewhere on the fringes aware that I’m not at “home” but at the same time unsure of where I am. Not plagued with the semi-concious worries of Boulder; what about the house, clean the carpets, who on earth would want my dishes. Faced with an empty semi-concious testing out the waters feeling around for something to worry about… without anything concrete bizarre half-lucid dreams float in and out for several hours as kzi and I shift through various sleeping positions in our single bed.
Hunger finally dissolves the hastily (and poorly, I might add) filled pathways and we flail around unable to do the simplist of things in a new country with new systems. kzi spends a good deal of time trying to heat the water, and I lay in bed pondering the fact that I’m actually in Japan.

After the hot water and with the rest of the day (sentences still optional):

The bus, buttons everywhere, and oh-my-god the vending machines (see picture - a line of vending machines selling only cigarettes… they continue around the corner for several more machines). To summarize the day in a nutshell and to avoid boring people with details such as the way the lighting indication system works at the bus stop, I’ll just say that kzi and I thus far love this country. The grocery store was heaven… and to think that all grocery stores in Japan are like this… not traveling 45 minutes to a specialty store… everything we like is here and ubiquitous. Obtained bus passes, grabbed things from vending machines, went to the top of the act tower, got lost, drank beer in public without reprimand and without hiding it. Hoping to find our own place soon, but key money is an issue. Happily, the entirity of key money isn’t kept, as was previously thought.