It’s amazing all the thousands of tiny foundational components that make up our daily lives. Things we don’t think about and just inherently know. Okay fine. We learn them as kids, but as adults, they’re second nature. Think about it. When you walk down the sidewalk or up a flight of stairs, which side is the socially acceptable side to walk on? In the States, it’s on the right. In Japan, it’s on the left.
Traveling to new places shakes up what you think you know and forces you to start over. It’s exciting. It’s thrilling to know you can still learn complicated and not so complicated new things. I also love the sense of accomplishment when I become competent or even master a new skill.
Unfortunately, it’s also mentally exhausting especially when combined with the sleep deprrivation that often accompanies travel. It often makes our intitial day in a new place rough. One day, I will master sleeping on airplanes but today was not that day.
Same ol’ Same ol’
Our day started super easy with all sorts of known activities. We walked to the Space Needle and snapped a selfie because we weren’t climbing it today.
We boarded the monorail and went to Westlake Station. We took the stairs all the way down to the light rail and took it to the airport. We got second breakfast in the form of Low Rider cookies. These are all well-worn, known habits and processes. Easy peasy.
New Thing #1
Japan is brand spanking new to me and it’s been 20-ish years since Chris last visited. Things have changed a smidge since he was last here.
I swear the customs process in every country is different. I feel like it’s very common for the group to go up together for integration with the customs people. Japan wants you to fill out an online form, which Chris had taken care of before we left. It turns out you need 1 form for every person in your party. Even kids! I was filling out my form while standing in line but didn’t finish before I reached the front of the line. This meant that we got separated for a little bit. It didn’t matter because we would have had to speak with the customs agents separately anyway but it was a bit stressful.
New Thing #2
There was no interrogation by the customs agent! Just a scan of my passport, face, and fingertips. I guess it’s fine because most of the standard integration questions (why are you here? how long are you staying? where are you staying?) were on the form.
After that, we headed off into more chaos. There were so many different lines, but no signs to indicate what any of it was or how to migrate through it. Seriously. We got into 2 different lines. In the first, we scanned our passport and the same QR code we had to use with the customs person. Absolutely the exact same process but without a human to validate that the photos matched.
The machine told me to proceed to line 1 and there was a huge screen that put the letter A over my face when I walked by it so I assume that meant I was in the right line? I was then waved down a long cattle/people corral and I guess there was a test and I passed because the doors at the end opened up. I’ve no idea what it was all about but we made it!
New Thing #3
Next up was to follow signs to the train. We did the needful and got to the train station, only to realize we were on the wrong side and the train was going the other direction. Oops.
We figured out how to get to the right side of the train tracks but then I had issues with my super fancy public transit card my husband hooked me up with. A kind person helped me out. I paid my fair and we got on the next train heading to the city center. Everything was going great until the train was just a few stops away from our hotel and then it started to go back the way we came.
Again. I’ve no idea what happened. I suspect it was because it was an express train but then why didn’t it stop at the same stops we hit up on the way to the turn around point? I’m unlikely to find out.
Long story short, we had to ride another 2 trains to make it to our hotel. Nothing dramatic happened. We just didn’t understand the process and ended up on a few local trains that made more frequent and much longer stops at each. It was fine. We made it!
Too (Mentally) Tired to Tiki
All of this to say that while on train number 2, Chris and I decided to cancel our reservations for the Tiki bar we had booked. We looked it up and it was another 30 minute train ride from the hotel. We didn’t think we had the mental capacity to navigate yet more transit plus the language barrier of ordering drinks.
We ended up getting a plethora of snacks from the Lawson’s across the street from our hotel. We may or may not try the tiki bar before we head home but we have no regrets about giving ourselves grace on day 1. Tomorrow will be another day and another opportunity afterall!
Sounds like an interesting and eventful first day!! Yay for cookies- a flying tradition!! Admirable that you took the time and energy to write this post!!!
And yay Lawson’s! For me- the worst part of travel is that first day when all you want is comfort food and a great night’s sleep, but you can’t find any food that gives the comfort you want and hotel beds are rarely as good as our home bed!!
Hoping the rest of the trip is awesome!!!
Ha! I wrote the first half of this last night before bed, but I just finished it at 3 PM on day 2. We have a host of new stories to write about, but first drinks at the bar before we go to our food tour 🙂