3 posts tagged “sakk trip”
This is my work space in the SAKK office. I can't say I've made it my own, though those advertising tissues on the right are mine! I only mention it because last time I was in Japan I couldn't get anyone to give me one of these free advertisement tissue packs (they hand them out in front of subways). I guess they assume the advertising would be wasted on me. The problem was it was winter and I really needed those tissues!
What was I talking about again?
This morning I woke up at 4am and couldn't go back to sleep, so I got up finished my book and quized myself on some vocabulary (yes, I was trying to get myself to fall asleep again).
By 7 I decided that I should just get ready and go to work. I noticed a lot more people in the subway this morning, probably because I was comming in a little earlier than yesterday (8am vs. 10am). After getting off my first train in Shimbashi the number of people seemed to grow to fill the wider hallways of this bigger station.
I had to cross the station to pick up my second train and when I got to the platform I was glad to see that the lines queued up were not too long (everyone lines up where the train doors will be when it arrives). While I waited more and more people filtered onto the platform.
While waiting, I became absorbed by the game the guy in front of me was playing on his Nintendo DS. None of it made any sense, but it didn't need it to; I was zoning out. Suddenly I snapped back and looked around. The platform behind me was filled. Each queue as far down the narrow low ceiling platform was filled. I looked to the exit and the stairs going up were completely filled with people.
Everyone was waiting, everyone was silent. The station attendants on duty shifted nervously in place, eyes scanning the crowd. I was in a loaded gun; I was a particle in an ocean of people; I was in a giant nose that was about to sneeze itself into the next train car that came.
But when it came, I saw that it too was packed with people. I clutched my bag close and got ready. When the doors opened a few people got out and tried to find a path through. A few people, but not enough. The crowd surged in to the train anway and any attempt on my part to give anyone any personal space was taken out of my hands as everyone compacted against everyone else.
Then another surge and I began to feel bones popping that I didn't know I had. One more small crunch. I turned my head to look at the door; three more people were trying to squeeze in, their hands above their heads grabbing the top of the door frame so that the doors would clear when they closed. I didn't think they would close and that those station attendents would have to pack us in with those wooden clubs that I'd seen and heard about.
But the door closed with us securely packed inside. The train lurched forward and we sloshed around like jello, unable to fall or move freely. After a few lurches forward then backward everyone managed to gain stability either through footing or by propping themselves against someone else.
And then at the next stop everyone got off. The train was now only marginally crowded. Two more stops and I got off the train, no worse for the wear. I emerged above ground triumpant and wrinkled.
After a long flight I landed at Narita airport at around 2pm, local time. I didn't get much sleep on the plane, though you can be sure it wasn't because of this planes myriad of entertaining distractions; this was the first trans-pacific flight that did not include a screen in the back of each seat with movies/tv/games. We didn't even get evenly spaced flip down LCDs above each row of seats. On this 747-400 we had the standard, old-school CRTs hanging above the aisles, spaced for (weight) economy. Ugh.
After disembarking (sorry, customs-form speak) I got myself a ticket on the Narita Express to Shinagawa station, near my hotel. The woman at the ticket counter welcomed me in English, but I pushed back with Japanese, determined to engage some language skills. I mostly understood everying and was understood by her, so it was a success!
The train ride to Shinagawa was hot. I could hear airconditioning, but maybe they had it pointed out to cool the outside because I wasn't feeling it. At the station I hefted my bag and walked towards my hotel. I knew it was near the a subway so I just walked until I found the first one before starting to really look.
When I found the subway I realized my map didn't seem to have the detail I needed and that I didn't feel like sight seeing with a 50lb backpack, so I stopped and asked someone. We had a short conversation with a better map that he had and I think I understood where to go, but he insisted on accompanying me which was fine. I tried to tell him what I did and what blogging was but I'm not sure how successful that was.
I found the hotel and checked in. Aparently this hotel does a lot of weddings (my floor has a chapel someplace) and there was a reception going on as I came in. As the person at the front desk led me to the elevator to show me my room I felt incredibly out of of place. The lobby was filled; neatly dressed men in suits and tuxedos, lithe women in summer dresses laughing and taking pictures and then me; the 6'1" American, bags under his eyes from lack of sleep, sweaty from carrying the huge bag on his back through summer streets. As I escaped to the elevator I got momentarily stuck in the door because my bag is so big.
After a shower and a change of clothes I leave the hotel to find some food. I walk back to Shinagawa station looking for restaurants. However I realize that most of these restaraunts don't have convienent pictures or english; I can read hiragana and katakana, but I know little kanji. I can read 'ramen' because its always written in katakana but all ramen has pork in it, which I don't eat. So I'm stuck with a gift I can't use, like some tragic/ironic greek myth.
I know how to talk about food a little bit, so I finally just pick someplace with hopes of ordering "something not meat or bird, but fish and vegetables are ok." However it turns out the place I picked has an english augmented menu in addition to its normal one. So at the "Yabu-kuni 'Beer Restauant'", I order a Kirin, some tuna sashimi and grilled mackeral.
Afterward I walked back to the hotel and fell into bed, deciding against catching up on the reading materials provided my hotel:
