Our 11 hour JAL flight to Tokyo was relatively uneventful which is a very good thing these days! We exited at Narita Airport and navigated our way through customs relatively easily.
And then we were thrust in the maw of teeming humanity of the Tokyo train system.
However, we had a guide. Perhaps you know Claude as well. Very helpful in figuring out which train to take. Very supportive in suggesting alternatives,
But absolutely useless in helping us figure out the task of finding our assigned train line and then the correct train car line. For that, a kind human also headed our way assisted. He even kept an eye out that we took the correct station exit as well.
However, we decided to take an earlier stop—We exited at Tokyo Station— to take a cab the remainder of the way to our hotel. Claude thought that would be easier with baggage.
However, Claude didn’t warn us how hard that seemingly simple suggestion was in reality!
We were instantly assaulted by swarms of rush hour people moving in every direction. And there were no clear exit signs anywhere in sight. We shlepped said baggage through countless crowded corridors to no avail.
Finally, I called out to a solo woman. “Do you speak English.?” She said no…but then she stopped. I tried various words to try to communicate our plight. Exit. Go out . Hotel. Shiba Park. Taxi.
At “taxi”, she brightened. Taxi. She waved her hand to another direction. Then, amazingly, she turned around and proceeded to walk us through the tunnels to the foot of a steep staircase. Taxi, she pointed up.
But that wasn’t the end of her kindness. She grabbed my heavy suitcase and walked us up the stairs to the glass exit doors. Outside, in the dark (we lost a day flying East) was a taxi stand.
Our human guide turned to us and smiled and seemed genuinely happy to be of service. We were so astonished by her kindness, we hugged her and she hugged back. She then retreated to the sound of our repeated arigatos and returned to wherever she had been heading. A total zen moment.
Ten minutes later, the taxi arrived at our beautiful boutique Shiba Park Hotel in Minato City.
Our little room was perfectly appointed but we didn’t linger.
Because we were so tired and so hungry, we didn’t do our usual running around searching for a perfect restaurant. Instead, we took the elevator back down and walked into the hotel’s nearly empty dining room which was closing in less than an hour.
We ordered 3 dishes to share. Blue fin tuna sashimi. Seafood and veggies stir fried and crab fried rice. It was all super fresh, beautifully prepared and politely served. There was soft music in the background. It was so Zen.
And then we went up to our room and slept like babes till morn which is so rare on our first nights in new places. It was just so so Zzzzz…
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