HARROWING is the only word that fits my journey to the Philippines from Nicaragua. The biggest challenge, Tokyo, without a doubt.
First leg Nicaragua, through El Salvador to San Francisco. A breeze – 7 hour flights, arrive midnight, go to sleep, ready for a full day of “normal work” while I wait for my evening flight.
Second leg San Francisco to Tokyo Haneda airport. This was a long flight of 11 hours, but again, nothing unusual… until I get to the actual airport that is.
Once in Tokyo, my connecting flight is not from Haneda but from a different airport, the Narita airport. Normally, that’s not a big deal, as you can take a shuttle that takes 1h30. BUT, the flight arrives at 10:30 pm and the shuttle doesn’t run anymore.
I check for a taxi and the price is $300!! I don’t have $300 in cash and the ATM machine does not recognize my Nicaraguan debit card.
What to do? I start asking some people for suggestions and here starts my journey through logistical hell. There are no trains to Narita either. BUT, a young man with a notebook tells me, it’s no problem. I just have to be creative, he says in halting English.
What does creative look like? Well, first take a subway from Haneda airport to Hamamatsucho, which is 15mn away. Then connect to another train that goes to Tokyo station, another 40mn. Then, if I am lucky, I can catch another train from Tokyo to Chiba, which is 45mn away. Then, no one is sure how exactly I can make it to Narita, but they assure me I am closer to my destination. After 3 sentences I have exhausted my young friend’s English and my sole means is my very rusty Japanese. My very attempt to deal with these logistics in Japanese is somewhere between comical and tragic and there soon is a hord of semi-drunk salarymen eager to help me. No one is sure, but they tell me that from Chiba, I should be able to find another train (don’t know how long) for “close to Narita”.
As I write this, I am seated in a fast train to Chiba. What awaits me on the other side, I don’t know yet. Good news is that it is only 1a.m. Tokyo time (8:30am Nica time per my computer), and I have 7 hours to go before my flight from Narita, so tranquilo I know I will make my way.
What is absolutely sure is that were it not for my remaining bits of Japanese, I would absolutely NEVER have made the connections or found my way, looking at signs all in Kanji, swimming my way, salmon-style, against the current of late night workers and partyers who seek to make their last train connection.
Ahhh Tokyo. Suddenly I remember why foreigners find life here challenging. Worst part, with all this logistics, the furthest thing from my mind is trying to get sushi. Too bad because one of my 5 trains took me through some restaurant, bopping neighborhoods…
Latest update: am FINALLY in my hotel. I’ts 1:30, so took me 5 trains and 3 hours to get here. Wake up in 4 and a half hours to go to Narita for last leg. WHEW!
And, right downstairs from my hotel is a delicious ramen shop (got pictures of my first ramen to prove it)
Your first ramen ever, or your first ramen of the night? 🙂
First ramen of the trip. I lived in Japan for 5 years and Ramen was pretty much my daily staple.