"My Inspiration of Japan"

By Juliet Lac
July 17, 2010

It took me one hour to get through the Immigration line.  By the  time I picked up my baggage, my five other colleagues had decided that they would take the Narita Express Train. I quickly looked outside, it was late and gloomy.  But then I told myself, "be brave" and kept my original plan and went on to take the Limousine Bus. I proceeded to the ticket counter and bought a one-way (¥3000) transfer to Shinagawa Prince Hotel. Mind you, my land journey did not stop at the hotel, it was only the beginning.  There from the hotel, I would need to walk to JR Shinagawa station to catch Keihintohoku line for 10 minutes to arrive at JR Kamata station, then walk again to Tokyu Kamata station to catch Tamagawa line for 6 minutes to arrive at Tokyu Shimomaruko station.  Then from here, I have another map to walk for about 15 minutes to reach my final destination.

My colleagues appeared somewhat surprise, they asked again, "Are you sure to go alone?"

I reassured them and jokingly said, "If you guys don't see me for dinner at our training center, it means that I am lost somewhere in Tokyo."

We all laughed and parted our ways.  It was about 5:30 pm and my bus scheduled to leave in 20 minutes.  I swiftly headed out toward the exit, quickly located the meeting point and stubbornly boarded the bus, finally found a seat then slowly opened my road map to premeditate my challenge ahead.  Suddenly I stopped and asked myself, "Do you really think you could get there?"  I was about to turn-around and run to join my other colleagues, but oh well... it's too late now!

Ok, the bus ride was about 90 minutes.  During the ride, I've noticed that Japan is much smaller--everything seems to shrink compare to where I came from, especially the  Japanese cars in the U.S. are much larger than the cars driven here.  I felt like I have just landed in a miniature country! Another interesting thing I've noticed that water  seems to be everywhere.  There were many high-tech industrial activities alongside the highway and the ocean with tall buildings of familiar names like Sony, Hitachi, and so on.  When the bus arrived at the hotel, as soon as I got off, I grabbed a hotel staff, showed him the map, and asked how to get to the JR Shinagawa station. 

He smiled, pointed to my left and said, "You walk straight ahead." 

I bowed to thank him, then walked across the street, stopped at a small window scratching my head trying to figure out how I can buy a ticket because everything is written in Japanese. Luckily, there was a young woman who's waiting in front of me, I gently tapped her shoulder and asked in English, "Can you show me how to buy a train ticket?"  She looked at me for a second, I showed her the map and pointed at the Keihintohoku line. She nodded and said, "Not here. You go up there."  I looked up the escalators in amazement, then begged her, "Can you show me where?"

She smiled, then signaled me to follow her up the escalators.  When we reached to the top, oh lord, there were so many train lines and most of the directions are in Japanese. I was confused, turning to my right, turning to my left.  She then pointed to the machines for the tickets, but I shake my head and said, "I don't have coins, only paper money."  She seemed not to understand what I was saying, so I bowed to thank her.  At that time, I didn't even know that these machines accept paper money too--I only found out some days later on my way back to the airport. 

When she has left, I rummaged around for the ticket office, went inside nervously.  The girl at the ticket counter was helpful, she told me the line number that I would need to take.  I got through the gate, got up the train, and asked an older man where do I get off for JR Kamata station.  He pointed to the electronic announcement board, I nodded slowly.  I was stunned that there was air conditioning on the train, and almost everyone was playing with their cell phones quietly--gosh, it was strangely noiseless!

When I arrived at JR Kamata station, I followed a few men into an elevator because I didn't want to carry my baggage up the stairs.  I showed to one of the men the map and pointed to Tokyu Kamata station for Tamagawa line, then asked, "Can you tell me how to get there?  He kindly stopped and took me to the exit that lead to the station.  At the station, a woman showed me how to use the ticket machine.  Immediately as I got on to my last train,  I turned to a man on my right asking him when do I get off for Tokyu Shimomaruko.  He looked up on the board and signaled by hand, "Three more stops."  Miraculously, a young woman on my left saw the map I was holding, she pointed to ANATEC and pointed back to herself. 

I turned to her, exclaimed, "You go there?"  She nodded. 

"Wow! Thank you!"  I was overjoyed.  I had made it for dinner.

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