I was so dazed and confused by the jet lag and the International Date Line that I started my previous blog post thinking that April 8 was Thursday. I have come to my senses. I have corrected the prior blog, so don’t try to look it up now to see where it says “Thursday, April 8.”
We were very tired when we got to the hotel on Wednesday night. We couldn’t stay up very long and were in bed before 10 PM, which is pretty early for us. The bad news is you can’t cure jet lag with good intentions. We were awake by 3 AM on Thursday. We tried to go back to sleep, but it wasn’t happening, so we got up and got busy. We had a very productive morning because we had those extra hours between 3 and 7 to get things done.
Often our first full day after arrival at the start of a long trip is a Logistics Day. There are always a lot of things to do that you can’t do at home for whatever reason. So Thursday was Logistics Day on this trip.
I made a list of all the train trips we would be taking in Japan and we walked up to Shinjuku Station and bought all of the JR tickets we will need for this trip. We used to always buy the JR Rail Passes, but they have restructured the fare system, and it is no longer cost effective for us to buy the Rail Passes. The only way they work is if you are taking a lot of short trips and/or your trips cover very long distances. If you plan to go somewhere for 3 days and to the next place for 3 days, and then a third place for 3 days and back to Tokyo, it is unlikely that a Rail Pass would save you money. However it is still good to buy tickets ahead of time if you want reserved seats or if you are traveling during a busy period such as Cherry Blossom season, or if you don’t want to have to worry about how early to go to the train station on your day of travel because you don’t know how long the line to buy tickets will be. We like to buy these tickets in person at the ticket office rather than from a ticket machine because we have found that the ticket office employees are very good and they are likely to know something that you don’t know that will turn out to be helpful or important.
We also had some things to talk to the concierge about and sometimes we had to talk to mor than one concierge about some of the things. Things like what time should we get a cab to Tokyo Station to make a 12:00 PM train? What is the best way to get to Osanbashi Pier in Yokohama when you have a lot of luggage?
We brought 5 bags with us: 2 carry-ons and 3 checked bags. We packed primarily for weight, making sure no bag would be over the weight limit. We also had to make sure no liquids would be in the carry-ons and no devices with lithium batteries would be in the checked bags. Hence, today we had to unpack and repack all of the bags to meet new criteria. Weight no longer mattered. Liquids no longer mattered. Batteries no longer mattered. The new goal was to be able to take the train around Japan bringing only the two carry-ons with us. We will leave two of the checked bags at the hotel while we travel around Japan. These bags will contain things we won’t need until we start the cruise portion of the trip - things like dressy clothes for onboard special events, and warm clothes for visiting Alaskan glaciers.
In Japan it is rude to bring large suitcases on trains, or lots of bags. Most trains don’t really have space for them. At most, you should bring one carry-on. And then there’s just the awfulness of having to schlep a lot of luggage around in a busy train station and to a busy train station and from the next busy train stationn to your next hotel. Who needs that?
Fortunately, there is an efficient, convenient, reasonably-priced system of luggage forwarding in Japan. You can drop off one or more bags at the front desk of almost any hotel and it will be delivered to another hotel within 24 to 48 hours. There are also drop-off locations at airports and convenience stores (which are everywhere). If you plan carefully, you can ship a larger bag two hotels ahead and by the time you catch up with it you will have a trove of clean clothing waiting for you, along with any other supplies you shipped ahead. Let’s face it, it’s hard for most people to travel with only carry-on for more than a few days.
We have met many people on cruises and other trips who do that, and they really like to brag about it. I’m sure you’ve seen them, too. They are the ones who wear the same two outfits day after day. They must be washing their clothes in the bathroom sink every night. At least I hope they are. I am not going to be that person.
We took a coffee break and went up to the Executive Lounge. It was worth it because we could see the top 25% of Mt. Fuji from there, despite a lot of clouds and haze. She really is a perfect mountain.
There are always lots of other little errands to do the first day, so we were busy. We stopped at 7-Eleven for snacks to sustain us throughout the day. The 7-Elevens in Japan are ubiquitous, and they are awesome. You must try their onigiri.
We finally got all these chores done and decided to go out for a little walkabout to see if we could perk ourselves up. I want to try to find at least one geocache a day on this trip. We went to a park near the hotel for the first geocache of the trip. It was so nice to be in a park with flowers and cherry blossoms and green everywhere. You could almost forget the “concrete canyons” of Shinjuku all around us.
I also started a new hobby today called “eki stamps.” Find out more here:
i was able to get my first one at a Metro station called Tochomae. It is a couple of blocks from the hotel. We didn't;t want to go too far afield this afternoon because rain was predicted to start within the hour. (It turned out that the prediction was inaccurate.) And also because we were so stiff and tired from the inactivity of getting here that we just didn’t have the zing for walking very far yet.
Considering the jet lag, I think we got a decent amount accomplished today, but after dinner it became an uphill battle. Ken passed out around 7:30, and I pretended to be functioning until abut 9:00 and then I called it a day. And I knew it would be like this That’s why I didn’t bother making touristic plans for the first two days. I am beyond happy to be back in Japan. I am ready to visit some new places and revisit some old favorites starting tomorrow.
Now for some more bad news. I have been working on the photo problem for a couple of days now, but I still haven’t been able to upload any photos. I am considering a few options:
- Switching to another blog platform
- Posting photos somewhere like Google Drive
- Something brilliant that I haven’t thought of yet
The problem with my options is that 1 and 2 come with a big learning curve and all three call for a really clear head. I’m not sure if I am there yet.
So, yes, this means “Today’s Fabric” is not going to be available for a while. (Actuallly I do have a fabric for tomorrow, and it is perfect because it is not normally visible. What could it be?)
Love your descriptive blogs. Cant wait for pictures…..hopefully….Shirley
ReplyDelete