Jet Lag and other ramblings

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Trip Start Feb 12, 2010 Previous
Entry Trip End Feb 23, 2010 Next
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  Maihama, Kanto, Japan
Friday, February 12, 2010

Jet lag is a funny thing. Really, if you think about it, the entire concept of traveling 4,500
miles in one sitting is a funny thing too.  Our bodies just weren't designed to
do that.  Imagine if someone had told Christopher Columbus, "Chris, come on into this funny shaped room and have a seat.  Now, just sit here for the next 9 ½ hours or so.  You can read, or sleep, or listen to music.  (Imagine explaining the concept of an iPod to Columbus – every note ever played by every musician that ever lived fits in this little case. But that’s another story…)  Chris, when you step out of this little room you will be on the other side of the planet.  By the way, the earth is round after all.  Anyquestions?"

 
In a weird sort of way I get where Columbus was coming from.  While I don’t have the patience to sit on a boat for months on end, unsure of the destination and worried  about contracting rickets, there is something inside me that wants to know what’s around the corner.  I get excited about maps.  (Nerd.)  I want to see what that little red line looks like in person, what kind of people live there.  I seem to have a prejudice against GPS, which indicates two things: 1) I am getting older and am easily confused by new technology, 2) I like to look at the whole picture of a place and figure out where to go and how to get there.  (Also I don’t like the snooty British woman on Garmin telling me she is “recalculating” after I’ve missed a turn she thinks
I should have taken.  She’s so pompous.) 
 

Really everybody has that drive inside of them, it’s just that Elizabeth’s and mine is on constant overdrive. Even when we’re at home, Sunday drives are the norm.  The only Latin I know is “Quo Vadimus,” which I believe roughly translates into “where to next?”  Those Romans had a word for everything.
 
So as I stepped out of my little room after 9 ½ hours yesterday, I was pleased to discover I was once again in the land of the rising sun.  Super clean, super efficient, super friendly.  Literally zero wait at immigration, same at customs.  Hello Kitty EVERYWHERE.  The crisp uniform and
white gloves on the Japan Rail station guard as he waited on the platform and saluted the train when it arrived in the station.  The two JR custodial employees who were also waiting and bowed as it arrived before jumping into the train and resetting it for its journey into Tokyo. 
 

My limited self-taught Japanese allowed me to catch snippets of the platform and train announcements – primarily numbers (this is either the 5:44 train or the 1,544 train, I’m not sure) and “kudasei” (please.)  Fortunately in Tokyo, almost all signs are bi-lingual so I managed to reach my first destination without trouble.  My friend Tomomi, who I used to work with at MGKR, now works for Walt Disney Attractions Japan.  She has a wonderful apartment just three stops from Tokyo Station – complete with everything a wary traveler needs:  Friendly face, hot shower, and a bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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