We had a pleasant, uneventful flight. John had splurged — he swears it will be his last time — and bought us business class tickets. It is rather wonderful having seats that recline into beds and all that attention from flight attendants. This was our first time taking ANA, All Nippon Airways, and I would happily fly with them again.
We had a less pleasant time when we landed at Narita. After we left the main terminal, we had to all walk in a single file line past a camera which took our temperature all the time looking at bizarre cartoon figures of camels. Apparently Japan is seriously concerned about MERS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, and I later learned that contact with dromedary camels is one of the principal means of transmission of the disease. I wonder how many Japanese people really go to Saudi Arabia anyhow. And many of these people wear face masks to go to their neighborhood grocery store. Would they really be snuggling up with camels?
After having our temperature monitored, we were then stuck for about an hour in long immigration lines. The government is apparently trying to automate the process somehow and had a bank of about 20 small machines, all painted a light pink color, vaguely reminiscent of a 1956 washing machine. These machines were supposed to scan passports, take photographs, and maybe capture fingerprints. All of them seemed to require a human to operate them, but, nevertheless, most of the were not working most of the time.
We were met by a charming lady holding out a sign with John’s name on it. She gave us a packet from the tour operator with all the various tickets and vouchers in it. We went to an ATM and took out some Yen. The kind lady took us to the van. Our driver was well-dressed, extremely polite, and able so speak some English; he was, in short, typical Japanese. It took us about ninety minutes to get to from the airport to the hotel. Narita is located about forty miles from central Tokyo and while I am sure that it is better for many reasons to have the airport located so far out, it does make it difficult for travelers.
We are staying at the Park Hotel here. This is in the Shiodome area of central Tokyo, not too far from the Ginza district. It’s a high-rise business area, and occupies several floors of a business building. This is apparently a fairly typical arrangement here in Tokyo. We had to take an elevator to the twenty-fifth floor to find the lobby. We checked in without difficulty, and were given the card key to our room on the twenty-ninth floor.
We have a pretty spacious room with an absolutely amazing view.
In the evening, we went out to try to find something to eat. One of the disadvantages of staying in an area like this is that it is fairly deserted after the office workers leave in the evening, and although there are scores of restaurants here most are closed on a Saturday night. It is also not an easy area to get around. Pedestrians are supposed to use second-story walkways instead of the street level, and while this is no doubt safer for all the walkways do not always quite follow the pattern of the streets. We wandered about for a while until we found the Shiodome City Center building. We had an inexpensive though pretty mediocre meal at small Japanese cafe there. This lady enjoyed her meal or the company, maybe both.
Tomorrow, we get to explore a bit of Tokyo — I hope — before we head into the mountains. More pictures in the upcoming posts!
