Some reflection

 

December 4 2024

Haneda Airport

Tokyo

I am in a real hotel room. It even has carpeting on the floor!

The guy next door must have thought he was Fred Astaire last night. Instead of dancing with a mop, he was dancing most of the night with a chair. I mentioned that there was no carpeting in the rooms and every movement of the chair rumbled through the adjoining rooms. I’d just get to sleep and then ‘Gronk!’. Sigh, I am very happy to have that hotel behind me.

Checkout was easy. They needed to refund the entire 3 day payment, and then charge for the 2 days that I actually stayed there. I’ll have to keep an eye on that card when the bill comes. I don’t anticipate and problems, but the potential is there.

I thought about taking public transportation to the airport, but in reviewing what Apple Maps said it was a subway ride and then a subway route change to get to the airport. I wouldn’t have given it a second thought except for that large red bag of mine. Can I lift it? Yes. Do I really want to lift it? No. Except for the most major of the subway entrances, there are no escalators. The thought of humping Big Red down several flights of stairs to get on a train, and then possibly needing to hump them up a flight or to to get to the next rain. Really did not sound like fun in the least.

I App’ed a taxi and it picked me up in about a minute. I was in no hurry to get to the airport. Check-in isn’t until 2pm, so I ‘No, do not take the toll road’. She was insistent and I gave up and said ok “Highway”. She must have driven Japan’s version of NASCAR before, because there were some lane changes the made me very happy I was wearing my seat harness. We did get to the airport very quickly, and for fewer Yen than the app estimated.

Check-in is several hours away. The hotel does have a salon, but not a spa. I’ll settle for what I can get. I’d love have a massage, but a blowout is good enough, for who it’s for.

Some wandering the terminal, some reading and some watching people and check-in time arrived. I hate myself when I get tired and cranky. I just want to check in to a room but handing my passport and credit card to a human. Instead I get told to use the automated kiosk and check-in that way. Of course there is a staff member there to help me push buttons, so I don’t know what they are gaining by forcing guests to check-in via touch screen.

So now all there is to do is wait until tomorrow. There are several eating choices here. I am leaning hard, to a hamburger, made with Waygu beef.

The Japanese food is supposed to be healthy. Lots of fish, and vegetables With the main carbohydrate being rice. When I look at the meals offered in restaurant windows, all I see are bad and worse choices. Everything seems to be battered n Panko and then either fried, or deep fried. Chicken, pork, fish all battered and fried. I wonder if eating out at home looks the same to visitors to my country.

A friend asked me why I wanted to visit Japan in the first place, because she has absolutely no no interest in visiting here. Well I like the food, that it is famous for. Sushi, Rice balls, good Ramen (Not cup o noodles), Bento boxes. What I found this trip was yes I like Japanese food, just not every night.

The culture is totally alien to any other in the world. They are a very polite society. It seemed something different to experience. They had basically No contact with the outside world until the 1850’s and were never colonized by any others country, so there are no influences from France, Spain or England. This carries over in so any ways that for a non Japanese it is difficult to get around the teeny everyday things. Lots and lots of Don’ts. Shoes? On? Off? Money in hand or in tray? Lines everywhere. Restaurants have lines beginning an hour before some restaurants open. Standing at a 20 foot wide alley, with 100 others, waiting for the walk icon appear so we can cross the alley, even what there hasn’t been a car through it for the past 5 minutes. Interesting to read about, difficult to experience.

The sights were what drew me. I had a list of maybe 5 big ones, and saw them all. They were all completely overrun with myself and the rest of the tourists. Not just western tourists either, more Asian than western. I expected crowds, but thought since it was late November and early December that the crowds would dissipate. Maybe they did but I didn’t feel it. If this was low season, how bad could it be at the peak of the summer?

In the end. I am glad I came. Right now I am ready to get home as soon as possible. Will I reflect of the trip differently in a month? Possible. Right now, I doubt that I will return to Japan. I think I have seen what I came to see and experience and once is enough for that.

Knowing what I know now, I would have been better served with a small group tour (think Rick Steves)for two weeks, instead of me winging it solo. I made too many mistakes that could have been avoided, with someone else making the arrangements. I am having a hard time saying that, because I loathe the thought of following a teddy bear on a stick or yellow head through the sights, but in this case it would have increased the pleasure several fold.

Burgers are calling my name. I’ll send this to close friends, but may not post it