Arrivals and Retail Therapy

I’m back! Now with added Gem…

(Note: I have most of my blog posts in draft format, and will be posting over the next day or two. I’m slow, yes, but that’s what happens when you’re out doing stuff all day…)

The flight on Monday was surprisingly comfortable – the extra however many dollars ($20? $40?) for exit row seats on Jetstar meant we arrived at Narita feeling far less seedy than is usual after a long-haul flight in cattle class. Somehow managed – despite being in the back half of the plane – to be the one of the first through immigration (there was no queue; I can’t remember that ever happening before at any international airport), where there were no delays. Fingerprints, photo, stamp in the passport and out the other side in under a minute and a half. Bags came out within the first twenty on the carousel. Fifteen minute wait for the Keisei Skyliner, which gave us ample time to use up the coinage from last year’s trip for (hot!) canned coffee from a vending machine. Fifty minutes on the train, then a fifteen minute walk to the ryokan (thanks to Google Maps’ street view for giving me a virtual walkthrough in advance!). All overseas trips should be this simple!

Annex Katsutaro is a clayton’s ryokan – they don’t give you brekkie as a matter of course (it’s at an extra charge), and the facilities are limited to two computers in the foyer. The rooms are comfortable, though, and it’s in a quiet residential area out the back of Nippori (Yanaka, to be exact). It has a cute little shoutengai (商店街 – high street) running down the middle of it, which makes me feel like I’ve stepped on to a j-drama set (“結カツ！” anyone?).

We made do with a conbini dinner – onigiri, followed by coffee jelly for me (oh, I had missed it so) and berry-cheesecake-y thing for Gem (G, if you can remember what it was, tell me!). Given how late it was, and how the trains stop running at midnight, we decided a walk around Yanaka and Sendagi was the best idea. Here are some highlights:

Incidentally, it appears 10pm is peak dog-walking hour. Not sure whether that’s because the owners have just got home from work, or whether it’s a last-trip-out-before-bed kind of arrangement. Chihuahuas and dachshunds are arguably the most popular breeds – I guess compact dogs work best in compact housing.

Finished the night with the last ever episode of Arashi no Shukudai-kun (though Gem fell asleep before the end – unsubtitled tv in a foreign language at midnight after half  day of travelling probably isn’t that enticing). Yes, people, roll your eyes at the Arashi love if you must, but this was kind of significant. They’ve been running various incarnations of the show in the slot since 2002 – same cast and crew, but changing titles and formats. This time, it wasn’t a show change, it was an end. The boys are moving to a prime time slot, and the crew isn’t coming with them. It was sad, okay? SAD.

Tuesday was spent in Harajuku and Shibuya, having our eyes assaulted with endless floral, lace and denim. Yes, it’s nice in small quantities. Yes, we might actually buy something  of this ilk when we go shopping later in the week. But eight floors of floral-print boaters, lace dresses and denim playsuits in Shibuya 109 (yes, I know, there are more than eight floors, but I’m excluding the restaurants, beauty salon and floor of makeup and hair extensions) is enough to send you round the bend. We exited shell-shocked (and in my case 2000 yen poorer and with a new scarf), and headed to a conbini for fashion magazines, and then Starbucks for  a debrief. And coffee jelly frappacinos, of course.

On a more productive note, we also grabbed a LAN cable and new headphones at Bic Camera. Amusingly enough, doing so somehow triggered a resurrection in Gem’s existing headphones, so I guess she had a back-up now!

Had a chat with M&D (eventually), then headed out to dinner, only to find that – due to something being on the line at Mejiro (looked like a big piece of wire on the news the next day, but my ears couldn’t keep up with the reporter), trains through that station stopped. Bye-bye Yamanote line. So once we twigged to what was going on, we jumped on a Joban line train to Ueno, thinking that was a major enough interchange. Apparently not. Transferred to the Keinin Tohoku line through to Akihabara, then switched to the Chuo line through to Shinjuku. Whew!

Went to dinner at the same sushi joint Ma and I visited last year (because my brain was fried from all the trains, and Gem really wanted sushi). The food was a good as last time – bellies stuffed to bursting for under 1000 yen. Oh Japan, how I love thee.

The Yamanote line was up and running by the time we got back to the station (though there still seemed to be a backlog of passengers who couldn’t or wouldn’t find alternative routes in the meantime. We had a nice, cramped ride back to Nippori, and then headed for bed.

Tagged as: japan 10, Travel