I got up early this morning. I’ve been getting up early every morning. I’m not a morning person so it is weird to be awake before 6:00 each day. Today it was extra nice. It would give me time to explore Ueda before I left after lunch. Plus, I had no need to hang out in my smoking room.
I walked to the Ueda castle. It was originally built in 1583. Now it is part of a park and museum. It was so peaceful walking around the park. There were other people, but it seemed private compared to Tokyo. I took pictures and wandered. I heard drums off in the distance so I walked towards those. I imagined they were the big ceremonial drums. They stopped long before I could find them.
I also walked to the Historic Street. It looked like Japan from the 1500’s. I enjoyed the walk through the alley neighborhood to get to the historic street as much as I enjoyed the historic street. I love getting a glimpse of where people live. I always try to imagine what life might be like I lived there, rode my bike to that shop and ate at that restaurant. A bakery was open on the historic street, but none of the shops. It was still fun to walk down the street trying to imagine what life was like back then.
For lunch I met up with my spiritual teacher and one of my past classmates. She was not only one of his past students, but is now his translator and workshop organizer when he teaches in Japan. The main reason I am here is to attend one of these classes. I have met this class many times both in Japan, in Colorado and on zooms. So I was excited and honored to see them again and spend a week paying witness to their growth and their journey in person.
We left Ueda and headed up to the retreat center where the class will be. The class consists of 2 men and 10 women. A few minutes after I was shown to my room the guys came to say hi and take me to see where the girls were staying. Most everyone was there. I was welcomed with hugs and huge smiles. Those that spoke minimal English told me they were glad I came. The others told me in Japanese. Even through the language barrier, I knew they were grateful I came all this way to be with them. My heart was full and my happy tears were many.
Today was a travel day. In Japan you can have your luggage shipped from one hotel to the next. I asked my hotel about this. They looked up the address of where I was going and said they could not do same day shipping. It would get there the next day. My smaller bag was not big enough for a change of clothes, all my chargers, my toiletries, etc. I decided to travel with my suitcase.
In the morning I walked around the area of my hotel so I could explore without my suitcase as long as possible. I found a shrine near the hotel and a park which were both peaceful and beautiful.
An area near the hotel was a well guarded secret. Every entrance had guards in front of it. After walking by dozens of entrances all blocked off and guarded, I started to guess it was an area of government buildings. Eventually, I learned it was the National Diet Building. It is the center of political activity in Japan. It is where their House of Representatives and House of Councilors meet.
I also noticed many small buses and vans just parked on the streets nearby. They were all the same colors, white with a bright aqua blue. They all looked like they came out of the 1950’s. The windows in the back were covered with a heavy steel aqua colored mesh. Was this to keep prisoners in or to keep politicians safe from attacks from the outside? Upon doing some on-line searching, I found out they are police busses. They can be used for transporting prisoners or transporting police to an event where many police are needed. They can be used as mobile command centers as well.
So I still don’t know why there were so many in this area, but I was pretty sure something important was going on.
I had to check out at 10:00 and my shinkensen train (fast train) wasn’t until a little after 1:00. In theory, it would take a half hour to get to the station the shinkensen left from. What should I do for 2.5 hours? There was a big park next to the station. What could be more fun than taking your suitcase for a romantic stroll through the park on a lovely Saturday morning?
It took a few tries to figure out the best way to navigate the escalators with the suitcase. Too far in one direction and it might fall off the step when the step appears. Too far in the other direction and you’ll get squished by it when the step appears. Then when the ride comes to an end, you better be ready to give a good shove or it gets stuck on the transition and the person behind you runs into you. There were plenty of escalators to practice my technique on the way to the park.
There was also one giant staircase leaving the station just to make sure I got a good arm workout for the day. Then all the different sidewalk paver textures, street crosswalks and the park trail rounded out the workout as I use various muscles to push, pull, drag, lift, and skitter my suitcase along. I hoped the wheels would survive Japan. I need an adult sized version of the suitcase some kids have that they can sit or ride on. Why aren’t there more ride-on suitcases? So, of course, I got on line and looked up ride-on suitcases. There are quite a few options. One was a scooter suitcase. That’s what I need.
I felt silly taking my suitcase through the park, but I wasn’t the only one. I saw quite a few other people enjoying the day with their luggage. I sat on a bench by the lake and watched people in pink and white paddle boats paddle slowly by. You could hear children’s laughter echoing from all parts of the park. The sound of footsteps all around as some people wandered and some were out for their mid-morning jog. And the sounds of conversations filled the air as well.
I couldn’t fathom taking my suitcase out to lunch so I reached to the bottom of my purse and pulled out the emergencheese – individually packaged cheese I had shoved in there in case of a food emergency. What if the plane only had fish? I’d have emergencheese. What if my hotel restaurant wasn’t open and I couldn’t find another place to eat? Emergencheese. What if you were in a park and didn’t want to look for a restaurant and then shove your suitcase into that restaurant? You guessed it – Emergencheese. It did the trick but was completely unexciting.
I gave myself plenty of time to find my train. My train name was the Asama, but of course none of the signs said Asama. I followed the signs to the shinkansen assuming all the fast trains were in the same location. There was a big sign above the gate to the shinkansen that had a lot of the train names, departure times and platform numbers on it. There were no trains past 12:30 shown yet, but I felt I was headed in the right direction. I went in the ticket office and asked what platform mine would leave from – platform 19.
I got to the gate, put my ticket in. The machine sucked my ticket in and spit it out farther ahead, but the gate didn’t open. A train employee nearby instructed me about what I did wrong in Japanese. I scooted backwards until I was out the gate and got in line to see her since I had no idea what she said or what to do. Each shinkensen ticket comes with a local ticket as well. I needed to put both in at the same time. It would have taken me a half hour of trying other wrong ways before I would have thought of trying that…..
I put both in. They both got sucked up and spit out. The gate opened and I was free to go find Platform 19.
I got to Ueda and found my hotel with no problem. Again, the hotel had an automated machine with a guy standing behind it helping me push all the correct buttons. He took my key out of the machine and proudly exclaimed “one smoking room”. No, I didn’t book a smoking room. I asked if there were any non-smoking rooms I could switch too. He told me they were fully booked. I looked at my email booking confirmation. Oh, right there – smoking. I can’t believe I did that. I can’t argue with it now. I checked online for quite a while. I used Agoda, Google Maps, Hotels.com and Airbnb. Not only was this hotel fully booked, every hotel in the entire town was fully booked.
I opened the window in my room and sprayed the room/fabric spray they gave me. The spray did nothing. I did some laundry, shoved my clean clothes in my suitcase and vowed to not open it again until I had to. I doubt the room would have ruined my clothes since no one was actively smoking in my room, but better safe than sorry.
I found a delightful place for dinner that had a caprese salad. It was really good. The woman that made the salad was excited to tell me she made the mozzarella that day and showed me pictures of the process. I find most people I have come into contact with want to welcome me and have an interaction with me even if small. People are quite friendly here, especially outside the big city.
I decided to keep my window open all night. There didn’t seem to be too many bugs to make this a problem. When the train went by, it sounded like a jet plane was landing in my room. Either I was too tired to care or the trains stopped running at night, because they didn’t keep me awake.
Rain was predicted for today. In fact it was raining when I went down from my room to breakfast. I debated if I should bring the umbrella and rain jacket or just the rain jacket. The umbrella is just another thing to carry and the rain was light. I chose just the rain jacket. I should have taken both.
Today, I had scheduled a tour through the streets of Tokyo on go-karts. I was quite excited. I hoped the rain didn’t ruin the activity. I headed over to the kart shop. There were four others signed up to go with me.
It was no longer raining, but the cart guy said it was expected to start back up in the middle of the 2 hour tour. I could get a refund or if I decided to go, they would lend me a rain coat, rain pants, gloves, goggles AND a rain poncho. Under all that, how would I even know if it was raining. I should have taken the refund.
The group of 4 came in after me and didn’t know you needed to have an international driver’s license to go on the tour. So they couldn’t go. It was just me. I expected it would be me and a guide in karts zipping around. That didn’t sound as fun as a big group, but it sounded fun enough so I suited up in all the anti rain stuff and watched the safety video.
There would be a lead car and a follow car so I just had to follow the lead car and not run any red lights. After a hands-on tutorial of the kart, I was ready to go. Wait, there was no guide in a kart going with me. This suddenly went down on the fun scale to fun adjacent.
It started off ok. I was a little slow at first. I didn’t want to gun it and run into the lead car. I would start up slow and then speed up just in time to have to break at a stop light. Apparently I was driving around with my hazards on because the guy in the follow car ran up to me at a stop light and asked if I was ok and then turned them off. Ooops.
The turn signal was trying to get the better of me. I couldn’t see the toggle switch under the wheel. I missed it quite a few times and I bet I was driving around with it on when I wasn’t turning from time to time. I don’t even know why I cared. The follow car had a clear view of the lead car over my head and knew when we were turning.
It rained a little harder. The break and gas pedals were slippery. My goggles were streaked with rain. The rain jacket hood slowly slipped farther back exposing more of my face and allowing water to drip into the jacket. I couldn’t tell if I was mildly wet or completely soaked.
I basically was flying slowly (felt fast to me, but probably was annoyingly slow to everyone else) in a bubble between the lead and follow cars so I felt safe-ish. But I was sitting on the ground by myself completely exposed to the elements in a vehicle that is squirrely. Water was everywhere. It rained harder and harder and became more difficult to see or push the pedals. I had dropped solidly into the category of pure un-fun – no fun anywhere to be found.
I raised my hand at the next light which was the signal to abort. Someone from the lead car ran out and asked if I wanted to abort. Yes, very much so. The lead car found a safe place to pull over and I was shuttled into the lead car. I have no idea what became of the kart. We drove around a bit. Then we stopped for a photo at Tokyo Station, then went back.
I have a coupon for another time. I still think it would be a lot of fun not by myself.
I asked if there was anything they recommended I could do that was fun and not in the rain. My plan was to go to a park after, but that was solidly in the non-fun category now. My feet and pants were dry, but my top was not. Both TeamLabs and the Harry Potter Tour were recommended. Everyone kept asking if I was cold – not in the slightest. I had my rain jacket, but they gave me a poncho to add to the mix.
I looked up TeamLabs – no tickets available. I looked up the HP tour. There were tickets, but it seemed far away. To HP or not to HP? I didn’t have the energy to come up with another idea. I ordered a cab to the HP tour which cost the same as the HP tickets.
They gave me a plastic bag to put my wet poncho in. That was nice. The tour covered a lot about how the movies were made. It also had a bunch of sets that looked like the movie sets so you could walk through them. Most of the instructions by staff were in Japanese, but it wasn’t hard to get the gist. There were places where you could act out scenes or get your picture taken. I tried them all, but, wow, I’m horrible. Not that anyone around me was great, but each time I watched the video I just made, I cringed. It wasn’t even funny bad acting.
The best part of the whole thing was that about 90% of the people, including the adults went into the gift shop ahead of the tour and bought a cape, scarf and wand. The place was completely covered in giddy, excited people running around pretending they were wizards. They were posing for pictures, waving their wands to do spells, and having the best time ever.
Halfway through the tour was a cafe and a bar where you could get butter beer. I was quite ready to try butter beer. I love everything butter. I got the butter beer and popcorn combo. The butter beer smelled like butterscotch, but didn’t quite taste like it. It just tasted sweet. It was fun to sit at the pub and have a butter beer. It also came in a souvenir cup. My poor husband is going to get a bunch of souvenir cups when I get home and not a single cat hat.
After taking way too many pictures it was time to figure out how to get back to the hotel. The trains would take over an hour and would involve walking in the pouring rain. I was in a zone Go Taxis were not allowed because there was a formal taxi stand nearby. Go is like Uber. There was no taxi stand anywhere in sight. There was nothing. I thought if I headed out to the street, I might get out of the no Go zone. I got out of the zone, but no Go’s were available in the area. I was completely soaked now anyway despite the gift poncho. I ask maps to find the train station. I hoped my phone continued to work even though it was also soaked. Wandering through train stations and riding trains for an hour and my clothes were dry again. Yay for quick drying clothes.
This was going to be a good night to eat at the hotel. No, it was closed for a private party just like every other night. Back out into the rain. I went back to the place I went the first night for more meat on a stick.
There are a lot of small restaurants in Tokyo. These are often found in alleys. They usually hold 10 to 20 customers. You sit at a counter facing the kitchen which I like as well. It’s fun to watch the cooks.
When you enter the restaurant, the cook, waitress and any other staff call out to you. It’s like they are giving a cheer that you have arrived at their establishment. I have no idea what they are saying, but I imagine it is “Yay! You are here! Welcome!”. When you order, the waitress calls out and the cook answers. In my head they said “She would like a steak”. “Great choice, foreign lady”. When you leave everyone cheerfully yells out in unison. Again, I made up the words “Have a great day!”.
I bought some shoes on line that were touted as the best travel shoes ever. They were grey flats with lots of padding, lightweight and apparently smell resistant. I tried them out on a trip to Norway and again in Thailand and they lived up to the hype.
Today, I had nothing planned until a wagyu beef tour in the evening. After breakfast I headed to Harajuku. I had been there before and loved wandering through all the interesting shops. I also thought a park I remembered loving was there. Last time I was there, we went to a very odd cat cafe. I had no desire to do that again, but Google has decided that it would let me know there was an owl cafe and that peaked my interest.
I arrived in Harajuku an hour before the owl cafe opened. The area was super crowded with tourists and Japanese girls, about age 6, with their parents. They were all standing in lines in various places (not the tourists). Something big was happening. I googled it and found nothing useful. Instead I found some other news articles about someone running over 7 school aged kids. Not what I was looking for, Google. First you give me owls, then car accident….
I wandered around the little shops. There were tourist t shirt shops, stores with only gumball type machines. You put your money in, twist the knob and out pops candy or a plastic figurine of your favorite cartoon character. Last time I was in Japan, I found one with cat hats and proudly went home with a cat hat to give to friends I knew would get it. I looked for cat hats this time because I have 3 cats. I found none. So sad.
As I wandered, I walked by cat cafes, two dog cafes, a hedge hog cafe, an otter cafe, and three mini pig cafes. What the hell is going on here? Why so much interest in mini pigs? I didn’t go to the owl cafe.
I went to the park I remembered. It wasn’t a park, but the entrance to a temple. There was a park next door that I decided to go check out if I had time after.
I got a call from a Japanese number. That seemed odd so I answered it in case it had something to do with the food tour. It did. They cancelled because the guide was sick. I sat down on a bench and looked through other tours. There were only three that specialized in wagyu. Two had no availability and one looked like it was pretty far away. I looked at other food tours and found one that looked ok except the sushi part (I don’t like fish). Still, I could try the sushi and if I didn’t like it, I’m sure there would still be plenty of other food. I booked it and then contacted the tour company to make sure they got the booking. It took awhile of whatsap-ing back and forth before they got the booking.
I had a couple hours before I had to make my way to Shinjuku station. My right heel was hurting like I was getting a blister. I just booked a walking food tour. So, I looked for a pharmacy. Google maps was having trouble in this area so I walked back and forth across the same crowded intersection three times before I could get it to stop jumping around. It led me into a building that was not a pharmacy. I used translate to ask a woman if she could tell me where the pharmacy was. Instead of directing me, she walked me there – underground on the opposite side of the building. I bought bandaids and bandaged two hot spots I felt. Ready to go!
Shinjuku station wasn’t too far away. I had plenty of time to get to the Starbucks that was the meeting place. A coffee sounded good too. Google maps went nuts at the same intersection again. I crossed it and then it showed I went the wrong way. I did this several times before I had to go old school and just read the actual map. The intersection was a quarter block from the train station! I still had plenty of time, but was running low on willpower.
I arrived in Shinjuku station and looked for the exit signs. In every other station the exits were numbered and signs with arrows directed you. No signs. So I picked a direction. Five minutes later still no exits, just signs to other train lines. Up escalators, down escalators, past other train lines, through ticket gates, past shops, NO EXITS. If I could just get above ground, maps could re-route me. After about 15 minutes, I started seeing exit signs for East and West. I was looking for the Yasuda Exit. I never saw a sign for Yasuda and maps didn’t tell me an exit number or East or West. It appeared the meeting place was west of the station and I no longer had plenty of time. The West exit sounds great! I never saw any other exit signs. About 5 minutes later, I saw an exit and took it. I looked behind me and saw it was the Yasuda Exit (or entrance for anyone reading the sign). I made it to the Starbucks just in time. I actually suspect I might have nightmares in the future about being stuck in this station.
The tour was good. We walked around Shinjuku and learned a little about the area. We went to four different restaurants and tried a variety of food and drink. Unfortunately the first restaurant was sushi and sashimi. I tried it though. Some was ok and some was not to my liking.
After the tour, I headed back to my hotel. It was so much easier to navigate back to the hotel. I was so tired and my feet hurt so bad. After I took my shoes off, I counted 5 blisters, 4 of which were on the bottom of my feet. Those shoes will not be continuing the trip with me.
Some things I learned today:
The word Godzilla comes from the words Gorilla and Whale although Godzilla is neither a gorilla or whale.
Shinjuku Station is considered the busiest train station in the world – 3.5 million people pass through a day (in 2018) – It has 16 train lines – It is roughly 182,000 square meters (45 acres) in size – It has over 200 exits. It’s a miracle I am not still in there.
Gambling for cash is illegal in Japan, but Pachinko machines are legal. You can win balls from the game. The balls can be turned in at the Pachinko parlour for prize tokens. The prize tokens can be sold elsewhere for money.
A small alley named Nonbei Yokocho has other names such as Drunkard’s Alley, Memory Lane, or Piss Alley. I didn’t really need to know that, but now I do. Now you do too.
The last time I was in Tokyo, I went to a light exhibit by TeamLabs. I don’t even know how to describe it, but it blew my mind. Digital light effects, computer generated, interactive, magical,….. Since then I have gone to everything like it including one in Singapore by TeamLabs. None came close to comparing. So first order of business for the day was to go to their second installation in Tokyo, Planets.
Planets did not disappoint. There were three exhibits that included water. One was wading in a koi pond. The water was up to my mid calf. The koi were digital light images on the water. They interacted with you as you walked through the pond. Some swam around you, others skittered off when you approached. When they ran into each other, they turned into flowers that floated off. Pure magic.
I could explain more of the exhibits, but I couldn’t do them justice. The pictures and videos below are just an approximation also, but enjoy.
After, I went to the small cafe outside. They had a “bar” where you could sit with the orchids from one of the exhibits and get a sake or a tea. I got a tea. I sat in a dark room with a couple while the vases the orchids were in lit up on a slow neon fade. My tea cup also lit up. It was an odd, not quite satisfying experience. It also came with a free orchid (no flower, just the plant). More odd. Now I’m toting a rather large green thing around that I can’t take home with me. I hope my friend that I will see later in the trip or the retreat center I am going to will like it.
After stashing my orchid in my hotel room, I decided to head off to a park near the Tokyo tower. I walked from the train station toward the tower and saw a shrine along the way. I stopped in a cafe for lunch. The tower was close so I decided to take some pictures around there before heading to the park. I went in and saw that tickets to the observation deck were not very expensive. I bought a ticket for entry to the top observation deck. I had an hour to kill before my ticket entry time. So, I went up to the mid observation deck and walked around about ten times. I got a coffee, snapped some pictures and watched a movie about the war and the building of the tower. The park I was aiming to go to didn’t look too impressive from way up high. In every direction I looked, there was just city as far as the eye could see. No end to Tokyo in any direction. Then I went up to the top deck in a very crowded elevator. The views from the top deck looked a lot like the views from the mid deck so I did a couple laps around and headed back down.
All of this took the better part of a day. It was so nice to have a planned activity followed by wandering. I decided to wander to a different part of the city in search of ramen for dinner.
I decided to go to Shinjuku for dinner. I looked for ramen restaurants on Google maps and picked one nearby the station that had good reviews. Maps led me down a busy street and then turned me down an alley. The alley was quiet and dark except for a place that was lit up and had a line of people in front of it.
I had to wait in line for ramen? Normally, I would not be up for waiting in line for dinner, but a line down the alley had to be a good sign. So I got in line.
A lady came out of the restaurant and took tickets from a couple a few people ahead of me. Huh. How did they get tickets? Was I in line for take out? I hoped not. I wouldn’t know where to take it. The guy behind me hadn’t done anything so I just stood there, waiting.
Two people came out of the restaurant and got in line up ahead of me. No one seemed bothered by this. Oh…..something was going on that I didn’t understand. After about 5 minutes the guy in front of me went in and came back out with a ticket. I think I got it – kind of.
The lady came out, asked him some questions, wrote on his ticket and took his ticket. She then motioned for me to go inside to get a ticket.
I went inside. It was a tiny restaurant that only sat 12 people. I’d only been in one ramen restaurant before and it was tiny too, but without the line and ticket system. There was a machine and it appeared to have menu items on it. There was shrimp and miso, shrimp and tomato, and shrimp and dipping sauce. I pressed the button for shrimp and dipping sauce, but nothing happened. I pressed another button below it. Nothing happened. I stared at the machine for a minute, trying to figure out what to do next. Finally, I see the lady who was outside and motioned for help. She showed me where to put money in the machine. Duh. It was obvious after she showed me. The machine lit up and I pressed a button. A ticket popped out and then my change.
I think I might have ordered ramen with shrimp, dipping sauce and egg? I went back out and stood where I was in line. The lady came to get my ticket and asked what size I wanted. I said small. Small apparently came with another topping, pork or something. I understood “pork” so I picked that. She wrote on my ticket and took it.
I watched the system continue with the people behind me as I waited to go in to eat. Now I was excited. It was like dinner with a guessing game. Guess what happens next….. This is one the things I love so much about travelling – feeling kind of clueless or lost because something is so different than I am used to.
When I got closer to the door, I noticed the sign for the restaurant. It had a huge shrimp on it. Aha, that must be their speciality and it explained the choices.
When it was time to go in, the lady told me “two” and motioned to a bar stool with a 2 on it. As I sat down the guy in seat 1 got up and went to a counter behind the bar stools where there was a stack of cups and a water dispenser. Suddenly I was so thirsty. I got up, got some water, a packaged wet cloth for cleaning my hands and what I thought was a napkin. It was the least absorbent napkin I had ever felt. Wait, it wasn’t a napkin. It was a bib. I hadn’t noticed before, but everyone was wearing bibs. I don’t think I’d worn a bib since I was a kid. This was oddly super fun.
Proudly, I put my bib on, grabbed my chop sticks and waited for my food to arrive. They gave me two bowls, one with noodles, lettuce and pork in it and one with the sauce and “shrimp”. Watching others, I see that you take a little of everything and put it in the sauce to soak for a few seconds, then eat, then repeat. The shrimp had the consistency of shrimp, but didn’t resemble shrimp in any other way. The pork was excellent.
Still not used to the time change coupled with a belly full of carbs I was exhausted. I decided that going back to the hotel and going to bed by 9:00 was the best plan.
I am in the process of writing a book. The book will be about what it was like to join a search and rescue team as a middle aged woman. Also, about the beautiful and wonderful moments found in nature and the diverse people I have met along the way.
Unfortunately, writing a book in 2025 also involves having a marketing plan and having an on-line presence. I’d like to bump up the number of people subscribing to my blog to help show publishers that people like my writing.
I decided to make some rain drop themed metal charm pieces as an incentive/thank you for any of you that are willing to share my blog with others so that I can increase my number of subscribers. I have sample photos below. Most can be used as a necklace pendant or other decoration. I can also do key rings or a fidget spinner (also pictured below).
If you can help me gain 5 – 10 new subscribers I will send you a charm. 10 – 15 new subscribers I will let you choose the style and metal (copper, brass, bronze, jewelry nickel) you want and make it specifically for you. If you can help me gain 15 – 20 new subscribers, I will add a stone to the piece and/or make it in silver. 20+ subscribers, we can discuss another design, earrings, or whatever you may want that is in my jewelry skill set.
Once new subscribers sign up, I will email them to find out who recommended them and keep track.
Other ways you can help. If you want to write a short testimonial about why you like my writing, I can gather those to give to publishers. It would also help me for future blogs. You could post a comment here or email me. rrainefiore@gmail.com.
Upcoming: 1. I am currently in Japan and will be sharing stories of my travels with you. 2. Later, I will be posting a survey to help determine what I should put in the blog after Japan. What do you want to read about? 3. I will post some chapters from my book.
I’ve been planning this trip to Japan for about a month now. I’ve been to Japan twice before so this should be easy. I feel like the world is getting more crowded and reservations for things are more necessary than they use to be. Gone are the days where you just show up, find a hotel, wander, find dinner and then decide last minute to do that tour or see that thing. In some places, it could still work out that way, but I might be too old to just show up and find a hotel when I arrive, especially when travelling alone. I booked all my hotels ahead of time for this trip. That was pretty easy. I booked some activities that I was pretty excited about. Then I started to book all the high speed trains (and one normal speed bus) I would need. I had it all mapped out only to find out you couldn’t order tickets more than a month in advance. It was quite a bit of work to figure out times and routes to get where I wanted to go as there were so many options. Which options would involve the least amount of walking with my suitcase? I found out that you could ship your suitcase in most situations, but I wouldn’t know for sure until I could check in at each hotel. So, I had to assume worst case, I would be dragging a suitcase with me. It took me the better part of a day to figure out which trains I wanted tickets for so I recorded the various websites to buy tickets from later and the times and routes I wanted. I just wanted to buy the tickets then and be done with this part of the planning, but I would have to wait.
After I bought the first tickets, I expected a ticket I could print or a QR code I could download. Instead, I found pages of information on how to “receive” my tickets in Japan. I looked up a large list of stations where I could receive tickets and the one I would be departing from was not on that list. I looked it up twice – not sure why I thought it would change – it didn’t. So I switched gears and looked at the pages of instructions on how to receive tickets from a machine. It felt like the worst easter egg hunt ever – find a machine (somewhere in Tokyo?) that had this symbol or this symbol and then go through these 10 steps to receive your ticket. You will need the credit card you bought the ticket with and a four digit pin you chose. At this point I started to regret deciding to do this trip and seriously wondered if I was getting too old to travel, too old to learn new things. My house and life in Colorado were starting to feel all too comfortable. In small print I saw that tickets could be received at select ticket counters in Tokyo. It didn’t say which ticket counters, but at least I could formulate a plan now. I would try to find a ticket counter at the airport when I landed. I remember getting train tickets there in the past. If that didn’t work, I would go to the main train station in Tokyo one day and find a ticket counter.
Over time I bought four more train tickets and a bus ticket. Four of the five train tickets had the same “receive” instructions. The other and the bus ticket came with QR codes. One train ticket required that I set up a membership before I could purchase. I have no idea what I am a member of. Of course, this is the one that my credit card company denied. I had to enter my membership information at least fifteen times due to the website timing out, the website verifying my membership, the website going under maintenance, and the transaction not going through because of the credit card denial. I spent over a half hour on the phone with the credit card company trying to resolve the issue. Again, I almost threw in the towel on the whole trip. I will still have to pay as I go for all the local trains and one bus ride that are not reservable.
By the time it was time to leave, I felt beat up and incapable. Add that to some health issues and I wasn’t sure I even wanted to go. I checked in for my flight the day before and got to the page where it asked if I wanted to change my seats. There were plenty of first class seats still available and I was feeling sorry for myself so I clicked on a first class seat and put my credit card in. I felt a mix of better and worse at the same time. It felt like this would be my last trip ever so I might as well have a lie down seat for it. Who am I right now and where are these doomsday thoughts coming from? Is this just because the train scheduling got the better of me or because I’m not as healthy as I used to be or do I just need a snack?
I woke up early for travel day – earlier than I would normally so that put me in a bad mood. I immediately regretted buying the first class seat. I was going to really miss my husband. I was hoping I would say healthy. I had a weird thought that I was afraid my government wouldn’t let me back in the country when I came home – some crazy things are happening in our government right now. As with a lot of things lately, I blame menopause. After I checked in and went through security I found some breakfast and immediately started crying. I hadn’t told my husband that I upgraded my seat. Ultimately, he was the person working and paying for it. It felt like a huge weight. It felt like I was lying to him even though I was technically withholding information, information he probably would never know. I called him sobbing and apologizing. He was fine with it. I realized that part of why I feel so horrible is that I’m leaving him behind. Even though he chose not to come, it still feels weird to not take my partner in crime with me.
The flight was ok. I had trouble sleeping partly because there were two women that talked the whole flight and partly because there was an infant babbling most of the flight. First class does not buy quiet. I did get two blankets, two pillows, slippers and a kit with ear plugs, eye mask, tooth brush, etc. I watched a few movies and got a little sleep. I woke up mid flight, hungry and was able to get a grilled cheese and some tomato soup. That was the best timed grilled cheese ever. I guess I’m off the keto now.
After landing, I was able to find a JR East ticket counter. Even though all my tickets were on JR West, the lady at the counter knew exactly what I needed and easily printed all my tickets for me. It took less time to print all my tickets than it took to read about how to receive them. All that stress for nothing. She also helped me with a local train card that I could reload with money later if I needed. Then I took a taxi to my hotel. I should have taken a couple of trains instead. More money down the drain and no grilled cheese to go with it.
My hotel had check in agents with an automated check in screen in front of them. You were supposed to enter all your information and it would spit out your breakfast coupons and room key. So basically, the lady behind the desk pushed all the buttons for me when I got confused on how to do the automated check in steps by myself. Again, am I too old to be travelling? My room is tiny. The window looks out at the side of another building. The bathroom is slightly bigger than the bathroom in our camper van. But the TV is giant. The hotel reminds me that some people in the world live in spaces this size. I am filled with gratitude for all that I have.
I picked a hotel with a restaurant so that if I was too tired to go out on the first night I wouldn’t have to. The restaurant was closed for a private party. So, out I will go. Google maps found a few restaurants with in a ten minute walk. I picked one with a medium price. I was in an area that seemed to be more business offices so it was very quiet out. Maps took me down some quiet streets to a closed restaurant. The second restaurant I chose was also closed. I should have clicked the “open now” filter. The third one was open and not at all crowded. They specialized in yakitori and I happen to like meat on a stick so it was a win. They brought me a small dish that looked like a salad before my chicken trio. Aw, how nice. I looked in the bowl and saw something silvery under the beautiful micro greens. I don’t eat fish and I’m sure that is raw fish hiding under the microgreens. I felt bad for not eating my free treat. But the chicken was excellent. The walk back to the hotel was cool and peaceful. It took this long, but I finally felt my nervous system start to relax. Maybe I wasn’t too old to travel after all.
The tv in my room told me that this hotel has a public bath. The tv comes on automatically every time I come in the room. It comes on to a hotel information page with lots of helpful and not so helpful little videos that tell me about Japan and the hotel. There is a little sign that tells you if the public bath is busy or not. Tonight, it wasn’t. The tv told me the correct way to put on my bathrobe (yukata) and that I could wear it from my room to the public bath. That seems like a simple bit of information, but I was happy to know it. It also told me that tattoos are not allowed in the public bath, but the hotel has stickers you can use to cover them. That was good to know too since I wasn’t sure which baths allow them and which do not. I will need to cover that very offensive snowflake on my foot, the terrifying bird on my shoulder, the rude turtle on my chest, and the kuma (bear in Japanese, my old dog’s name) on my leg and the dirty frog on my back. To be fair, the frog is a blue poisonous tree frog so it could be dangerous, but the rest are not. I asked for stickers at the front desk and the guy gave me two. I felt funny asking for three more. All stickered up, I looked like I had gotten in a knife fight and was all bandaged up from it. The baths and lack of good sleep put me very ready for bed by about 9:30. Finally I was looking forward to the rest of my trip.
My Tiny RoomQuiet StreetsHidden FishYay! Meat on a StickTemple?Road Block for Nobody?Free to BorrowView from my Hotel Window
What a wonderful trip, but I am extremely ready to go home. I have a theory that no matter how long I travel, I am done and ready to go home 1 to 2 days before actually going home. Once again, this theory has turned out to be true. This is great because it also means I live in the right place, a place I look forward to going home to. I have a husband and furry kids I look forward to going home to. I had help packing this morning from Hannah’s furry kids, but I miss mine. Now, I also have a new career to go home to. I left an engineer and I go home an artist.
There is only one commercial airline that flies to and from Valdez. Yesterday, my tour guide said there is one flight a day and a 50/50 chance it flies. Mild panic. I tried not to think about it. It will fly because I’m on it. Her comment did ruin my sleep last night. As much as I knew I could manifest a timely flight, my dreams were frantic with me losing things or getting lost.
I learned you could buy salmon in a jar in a vending machine.
The flight took off fine. Only one person on the incoming flight and 6 of us on the outgoing flight. They gave us a drink and cookies. The attendant was so cheerful and all the staff at the airport was delightful.
I was not on the harbor side of the plane. I would have liked to see the harbor, Prince William Sound, and whatever else could be seen in that direction. But, I did get to see a glacier, then another and another. Glacier after glacier and steep white capped mountains. It was breathtaking. I got my glacier flight after all. The view was through the distorted tiny window while peering under the wing, but it was still amazing. I sat for half the flight with my head pressed up against the window, crying at the wild beauty of it while shoving cookies in my mouth. Then we flew into a cloud, and all the mountains disappeared in the blanket of white.
Got to Anchorage, had some lunch, and borded a less delightful but good enough flight to Seattle.
Froze but butt off from Anchorage to Seattle. Got to Seattle and exhaustion set in, but multiple gate changes helped me pass the time before my next flight.
Got into Denver around midnight. So good to see my husband! After one more hotel room tonight, I’ll be home tomorrow.
Rraine Drops 