Arrival

8 Sept 2009


After dodging typhoons and a 16 hour sleepless flight via Sydney (which gets my vote for World's worst airport), we finally arrived at Narita. Jubilation, due to my hatred of flying. Solid ground is good.

The Japanese are notoriously efficient at, oh, everything ... and so its no surprise that 5 mins after leaving the plane you're out of the airport. No bullshit queues in customs here! It's super smooth and fast, and very welcome after a long flight. They'll take your photo and do a fingerprint scan, then you're off.

However, as Narita airport is not in Tokyo (its not even in the same prefecture) you need to catch a train into Tokyo itself. This takes between 1 to 1.5 hrs depending on how much you want to pay. The cheaper option, (around 1500 yen) is a standard train where you take your chances of getting a seat (although that's usually not a problem), and it stops at stations along the route. The more expensive fares give you your own seat on a an express train that stops less. The train station is inside the airport itself, and is about a 1 minute walk from exiting customs.

Mobile phones

We had organised mobile phones on the Softmap website, so that my gf and I could more easily stay in touch. You can pick them up and drop them off inside the airport itself, so its very handy. Highly recommend this.

Don't necessarily trust your telco when they say your phone will work in Japan. Tried that last year. Didn't work. Japan has a 3G network, so for a start you need a 3G capable phone, and also you need one that works on their particular brand of 3G, which may well not be the same type as you have at home.

To save the hassle, hire the phone while you're there. It's not too expensive if you mostly txt - just resist the urge to send photos or smileys ... those add up pretty quickly.

Clean

The first thing I noticed about Tokyo was how clean it is. It's bigtime CLEAN. The 2nd thing I noticed was that I couldn't find a rubbish bin. How could this be - do they not have rubbish in Japan? Well, according to my girlfriend, they removed all the bins because people were setting fires in them. However, I think the reason was better explained when she berated me for eating while walking.

This isn't done in Japan, its considered uncouth. You eat at home, or you eat where you bought the food. And guess what - there's rubbish bins at both those places.

Fashionable

Tokyo women are exceedingly well-groomed and fashionable (and in that regard its not just the women, although the men are more likely to be geared up in suits). The outfits in Tokyo are diverse and spectacular, ranging from classy to cute to outrageous.

In mid summer when we arrived, Daisy Dukes were very popular (denim hotpants, worn with heels of course), as was the quintessential 'miniskirt with thigh high black socks' look. I even saw one young woman wearing denim hotpants combined with stockings and suspenders over the top. Of course that's without mentioning the famous cosplayers, the gothic lolitas, and the french maids you'll see on every corner in Akihabara.

The Japanese, it seems, just love to dress up. Almost every occupation imaginable has a uniform, so I guess its partly a culture thing. But no doubt also due to the fact that Tokyo is a very populous place, in fact, its THE most populous place on the planet with 35 Million+ souls in the greater Tokyo area.

Safe

And the third major thing I noticed was just how safe Tokyo is. Given its size you'd think there'd be rampant crime, but not once did I ever feel unsafe, at any time of the day and night. There just seems to be no scumbags wandering around. In fact, the only rude people I came across in my entire trip were foreigners - a group of obnoxious Australians, and an African American trying to hustle me into a strip joint who wouldn't take no for an answer. (He did however understand 'fuck off').