December 19, 2016. 48 Hours in Tokyo en route to Myanmar

Kon’nichiwa. (Hello) from Tokyo

We are in Tokyo for just 48 hours as we head to Myanmar.

Long story – hopefully short version. We had long planned to go to Myanmar this December and decided that since we needed to come through Tokyo we should stop for 5 days or so, visit some friends, and see the city. (Believe it or not, despite having been to more than 55 countries, neither one of us had ever been to Japan (except to change planes and once for just a day between two cities in Asia)– thought about it often, but prices always seemed totally prohibitive. But this time we figured since we had to pass through we should bite the bullet and spend a little bit of time here.) But, as many of you know, a few months ago I decided to move my office in Oakland down the hall (same building) to a smaller space (cost of rent was getting ridiculous). But the date for the move was pretty squishy so I didn’t think much about its impact on travel, until the landlord found a tenant for my space and said they needed to take occupancy on January 1. That set my life into turmoil – projects that needed to be completed before I could travel, grades for my class, new projects to begin early in January… purging 13 years of “stuff” to be able to downsize into a smaller space, packing, moving computers and Internet and books; deciding what to keep and what to toss, etc.; not to mention hosting the annual open house event on December 9!! — the last one in the space we’ve called home for so many years.

So, we shortened the trip by about 5 days and most of that was cut from the Tokyo part of the trip.

The last two weeks have been unbelievable – working, purging, packing; 14-hour days. The Open House went well and the office didn’t even look like we’d actually be moving a few days later. I managed to lock myself in the laundry room on the day of the Open House, but that’s another story for another day. Just know I was locked in (along with my friend from Chicago) for about 2.5 hours.

But, I was packed and ready to leave for Tokyo and on to Myanmar by 3 am on Sunday morning and then after a whole two hours of sleep headed to SFO. The flight was remarkably relaxing. I managed to read all the final papers and do grades, watch a few movies, and work on a project or two.

Arrived in Tokyo (Narita) at about 3:30 pm on Monday afternoon (Sept 19) and headed to the Narita Express (train) to Tokyo Station (about an hour). We opted for reserved seats so that we didn’t have to deal with finding empty seats; I think that was a good decision. By then we were pretty exhausted so when we exited at Tokyo Station we opted for a taxi rather than the subway to go the 10 minutes more to the hotel. As soon as we sat in the cab, Mike realized that he didn’t have his computer bag (small canvas bag that pretty much just holds the computer and some cords and a few pieces of paper (in this case, important papers like visas for Myanmar!) Realized we’d have to deal with this once we got to the hotel because the train had clearly left the station!

Checked into the hotel and immediately discussed our “problem” with the reception desk. Hotel called the train company and the station. Nothing would be known until 24 hours (Tuesday afternoon) because of the train route and when it finally pulls into the station to end its run. Had to be patient.

Until tomorrow..

Fern (and I’m told that I should be signing as : ファーン。マイク (which I think is actually Fern and Mike)… planned to tell you what we did today (Tuesday) – our first real day in Tokyo, but I’m beat. It was a truly long day and it’s nearly 1:00 am now. So, tomorrow will begin my tales of our 48 hours in Tokyo.

Send good vibes to Mike for the recovery of his bag and computer.

Oyasumi (good night)

Fern