22th August 2004

After I had spent the past week adapting to the Japanese time zone by going to bed and getting up early in order to avoid the notorious Jetlag and packing my huge rucksack in the night from 20^th to 21^st August finally the time had come. I went to the sauna, took a shower and then, at precisely 5:18, the three of us, my dear parents and me, left the house heading for Vienna airport. First I only sat there in the back seat, happily watching the night scenery gliding by and listening to the monotonous hum of the engine. It was that unique feeling of leaving your house for a travel you always wanted to do and knowing that you wouldn’t be back for a long time. Still, after some time the novelty of the feeling wore off and so I decided that the radio should be turned on, tuning in FM4, one of my favourite radio stations in Austria, and so I spent the rest of the journey listening to some alternative music in the morning programme. As we then stopped on a short-time parking lot directly in front of the airport entrance, I ate some breakfast – a muesli drink and a banana. Already having a slight surge of nervousness in my stomach I really couldn’t eat much. Next thing we entered the airport building where I instantly found my check-in counter. The check-in counter hadn’t yet opened, so we returned to the car to hang out a bit. As we returned to the airport hall there was already a long cue in front of the counter and I had to swallow down a wave of curses… Nevertheless I had to wait for only twenty minutes and then I could finally get rid of my heavy bag! Checking the flight tickets again, I suddenly realised it: I somehow had mixed up the departure times before, believing that the plane to Paris would leave only at 11:15. Nonsense! The truth was that the plane would, with me on board or not, leave at 10:10. That meant that if my brother and his girlfriend, who I had agreed to meet with at eleven, wanted to see me before my departure they would have to hurry big time! Well, they made it just in time and all we could do before I had to hurry off to the gate was to shake hands. Run, Forrest, run!! 5 minutes before scheduled takeoff I was sitting inside the plane to Paris and as it finally accelerated I was excited and overjoyed – a feeling that lasted but several seconds because upon takeoff I became a bit seasick. Strange, normally that doesn’t happen to me. I felt a bit dizzy all the way to Paris and also I was quite tired… but as I finally got out of my seat in Paris and left the plane I instantly felt better again. I quickly rushed to the next toilet to relieved myself; then I walked on, looking for the terminal where the plane to Tokyo would wait. On my way there I unintentionally misled another traveller: thinking that he wanted to get to the plane to Tokyo too I dragged him behind all the way to my terminal, only then realising that the poor guy just wanted to get his luggage and then sightseeing to Paris^^. Ok, no hard feelings mate!! The first kind of “Japan-feeling” I got when I was standing at the gate to the plane to Tokyo – Narita Airport and about eighty per cent of the passengers were Japanese! That was really a novelty for me because where I live you don’t normally see Japanese on the streets – you just know them from photos… I had already started to imagine my seat neighbour - one or two cute Japanese girls wanting to practice their English with me but, alas, on the seat next to me was empty and the next seat was occupied by an old Japanese fella who hardly talked all the way… Fortunately I’m sitting next to the window, I thought, but the one big disadvantage of window-seats I should find out soon enough: it is bloody damn hard to go to the toilet! So I opted for dehydration-diet, hardly drinking anything and therefore only having to go to squeeze myself out once during the whole flight. Luckily the backs of the seats had little screens built in and I killed time watching the actual flight data – altitude, airspeed, outside temperature,… that kind of stuff. You wouldn’t believe how cold it is up in 30000 feet! The food that was served was quite alright, not at least because it was served by Japanese-speaking stewardesses who already understood “Koucha wo kudasai” (“Black tea, please”). And it was really an exalting feeling not only not to have to talk in German but even not to be able to talk in German because no one would understand it!! I went on killing time until about 0:00 Japanese time, and then “went to bed”, curling up in my Economy-Class seat. Fortunately Air France was providing blankets, had they not I would have caught a terrible cold already in the first hours of my travel – it surely is cold inside airplanes… Although a baby was crying incessantly I slept quite well, first with the provided ear plugs and then, after waking up with sore ears and taking them out, also without them. At about 5:00 I woke up to the loud drone of the jet engines and soon breakfast was served. And then, as I just had finished my breakfast, one of the greatest views of my lifetime unfolded before my eyes: Japan from the air in the orange glow of the sunrise – a true eye-opener!! After that, the hour left until landing passed quickly and then, on 22^nd Aug 2004 at exactly 7:39 Japanese time I would set foot on Japanese ground for the first time in my life!

Narita Airport

The first peculiar thing I noticed was, that the toilets were mounted lower than they are usually in Europe: for a short bloke like me an encouraging sign…^^ Satisfied with myself after noticing such a little thing I then proceeded to the passport control where I saw myself confronted with my first task in Japan: filling in the immigration form. It looked easy enough but then I noticed that I didn’t have my address in Japan at hand, so I simply left the gap empty and hoped for the best and as luck would have it, the immigration officer, a dutiful-looking middle-aged Japanese man, seemed to have overlooked it. Then, again without long queues (maybe because it was Sunday morning), I went through the passport control without any problem and also my rucksack was just coming around the edge on the conveyor belt as I got to the baggage reclaim. Everything went perfectly!! The last thing to do was to pass the customs – also without problems – and there I was, standing in front of Narita airport!! I quickly took some photos of the airport hall and then I tried to find the bus stop of the Limousine Bus to Tokyo only to be told that I first had to buy a ticket inside the airport building. So back into the big hall, laden with my heavy bags and looking for the counter of the bus company. It took me five minutes to find it and then I bought my ticket (in Japanese – hooray – I had bought something in Japanese!!^^) spending my first 2900 yen there. Next thing, I got out to the bus stop again where the schedule told me that I had to wait twenty minutes for the next bus. Standing out there in front of the airport, feeling the humid air that was hot in spite of the early morning hours, the thought came back to me with a striking clarity: I was finally in Japan, I had made it! Still captured in that moment and being in high spirits I saw the bus pulling in, got my luggage ready which was carefully put into the trunk by the attendant and then I got in – the inside equipped with air-condition, just perfect! By the way, despite of it still being nine in the morning and the temperature still being rather low at 23 degrees Celsius, I already got the notion of what the Japanese call ‘mushiatsui’ (humid and hot). When the bus reached Tokyo Air Terminal, the first stop on its way, I was shocked to see employees of the bus company pulling out my big backpack from the trunk and then getting on the bus to ask who it belonged to. “Watashi no desu” (“It is mine”), I quickly respond and jump off the bus. As soon as I had gotten off the bus it started moving - and that while my little bag with all the valuables was still lying around on my seat. So I jump towards the door, rap on it with an expression of panic in my face and – phew – the bus stops again. A staff member explained to me that my ticket was only valid to Tokyo Air Terminal and that I had to top up if I wanted to go to Tokyo Eki, so I paid the additional 100 yen and got back on. Arrived at the Tokyo Eki I saw myself confronted with yet another problem – finding the underground – no easy task in a building as large as the central station of Tokyo. Outside it was not. So I entered the building, looked for signs with the white ‘M’-logo on blue background or for signs that said ‘chikatetsu’ (underground) but somehow couldn’t find either of them. So I search my bags for the folder with the subway map, take it out and only two minutes later I was already approached by young Japanese guy with a friendly voice, asking me “May I help you?” “Wow”, I think to myself as I get the way to Nezu station explained in rather good English. On the way to the subway I also stumbled across a drinks vending machine – my very fist one in Japan – and bought a bottle of Japanese tsumetai ryokucha (cold green tea) – oishiiiiii!!!^^. As I finally arrived at the ticket gate it popped into my mind that I still didn’t have a ticket, so I went to look for a ticket machine which took some time but once I had found the machine everything was fine. When you can speak, understand, write and read only some Japanese there seem to be no unsolvable problem at all. So, equipped with an ichinichiken (one-day-ticket), I went to Nezu station and as I emerge that air-conditioned subterranean refuge I noticed that it had already become a lot more ‘mushiatsui’. Might sound a bit strange but somehow I do like the feeling of ‘mushiatsui’. My body is able to cope with it and perspiring a bit doesn’t bother me too much; and somehow the humidity of the air feels quite okay, ‘the very air somehow smells good’, I would say... Standing in front of the underground station I took out that little map showing the way to the sawanoya-ryokan, the inn I would be staying at, thought about the directions for a while and then set off – and found it straight away! I don’t mean to brag but give me a map and I’ll find any place in any city of the world… As I then explained to the friendly old man behind the counter that I had booked here, filled in a form and could finally get rid of my rucksack, I felt genuinely relieved. Still having unplanned time on my hand, I simply set out for a walk through Tokyo. I didn’t have any plan but I did have an ichinichiken, and so I started with going around all over the city by subway. For some time I strolled around in the streets, not exactly having an idea where I was, and some time I spent at the koukyo-gaien, one of the big parks around the Imperial Palace.

Koukyo-gaien

Then, at about three in the afternoon I bought a phone-card for kokusaidenwa (international telephones – you can’t phone out of Japan from just any Japanese payphone) and phoned to Europe (where it was still eight in the morning^^). Then I walked on, buying something to drink every now and then and then went the ‘big round tour’ on the yamanotesen, Tokyo’s circle train line. I got on the train at Kanda station, bought a ticket to Ueno station, the next stop, and then I circled on the yamanotesen for a bit more than an hour, savouring the view at the skyline, and then, really, I got off at Ueno station and therefore only paid the 130 yen for the one-station-ride^^.

Street somewhere in Ueno

Around six in the evening I then returned to the ryokan (inn), where I was shown to my room in which I am sitting now. I unpacked got the internet to work in a jiffy – and the connection is unbelievably fast! Then, after copying the photos and videos to the hard-disk, I started writing my diary. And here I am. I guess I’ll go to buy instant ramen now, go to the ofuro (the Japanese-style bath) and then sleep soon so that I hopefully won’t be too tired tomorrow. Good night!!