The time finally came for me to take time off work and go travel.  My first stop is Okinawa, Japan to see my sister.  To get there I needed  to take the train from my town to Narita International Airport outside of Tokyo.  I left my place an hour before my train was scheduled to leave.  My schedule was to get the 9:57 train to Tutsuka, a stop one beyond Ofuna.  (Keep that in mind, it will come in handy later.)  I knew the schedule had the train to Narita leaving Ofuna at 10:15 to get to Tutsuka at 10:18 to continue it’s ride to Narita.  I knew Ofuna was a huge train station so I decided to catch the train at the assumed would be the smaller station.

I got on the 9:44 train and thought to find my track and wait for my train.  I followed the sign to Narita Express, waited for the train, and got on the spiffy Narita Express…to Ofuna.  Yep, I got on the wrong train.  Luckily I had time to grab my backpack and my suitcase and hush to the other track.  I managed to get on the correct train right before it left the Ofuna train station and sat down to wait.  The train was supposed to pull into Narita at 11:58, it puled in at 12:45.  From what I could tell a bullet train had thrown off all the trains in the system by breaking down.  That slowed my train down but I had planned for that.  Thanks to previous experiences nearly missing a plane at Narita due to assuming the schedule,I had gotten the schedule for a train route arriving at Narita over two hours before I needed to board so being nearly an hour late arriving at the airport didn’t bother me.  As I hurried through the airport to find the domestic flights I passes a Japanese who had decided to cause a scene.  He was screaming (in Japanese) and swinging a large metal something to keep the airport cops away.  I walked around the attendants keeping us away from the scene and saw as I went up the elevator that about four cops had finally gotten the man on the ground and they were restraining him.

I finally found the check-in place for my plane and realized they were already checking baggage and all for the flight.  I got through the line (had to check my suitcase since it was too heavy to be in the car) and looked at my clock.  I had an hour before the flight started to board and I was hungry.  Having been to Narita before, I headed for the shopping area above the international departures terminal for lunch.  I walked around the area and saw mostly sit down restaurants.  Since I couldn’t be sure I would get my food in time to enjoy it, I settled for McDonalds.  I couldn’t read the menu and pointed at a fried burger.  Turned out their fish fillet was a shrimp fillet.  Not bad for lunch and I had a half hour to wait.  I tried to call my sister but she was busy so I went through the security checkpoint.  I didn’t realize that I could bring an open bottle of water through the check point so I threw out my half empty bottle, only to have them ask if I could take out my water for the x-ray machine.  After informing them I had no water in my bag, I got through and my sistercalled me back just as I walked through the checkpoint.

I called her back after I’d put all my stuff back in my bag and gotten out of the loud area.  We talked as I walked to the gate and we hung up after I told her it looked like my plane would be on time.  We were supposed to start boarding at 2:25.  At 2:45 a lady came down and put a note up, all in Japanese but the numbers 1600.  The plane would take off at 4:00 pm.  Um, okay.  Boarding started a little after 3:30.  I was told to come back at 3:50.  They wanted to board the back of the plane first and I was near the front of the plane.  I got back in line a little before their assigned time and we got on buses.

The bus took us to the plane and this what I saw:Yep, they were just finishing loading the luggage and the meals were still being loaded.  We sat on the bus for about twenty minutes before they let us on the plane. I got to my seat at 4:21, yes, that is after the plane was supposed to have taken off.  We all got in our seats and I started to dose on and off.  The plane finally took off at 5:30.  Yay.  After some turbulence and some awesome views of the sunset over Japan   Unfortunately our altitude and the fact that the window reflected the image of me inside the plane after dark kept me from getting any really awesome pictures.  It was fun watching the clouds go by because they reminded me of ghosts: just wisps of white floating in the air outside my window.  I ate a bento box and got a bottle of water as my meal and finally got to Okinawa at 8:05 pm.  After picking up my checked bag I headed to the arrivals area to hug my sister and we were off to her house and her two cats.  (Her husband is away on emergency business for now so he probably won’t be here for my visit.)  Ah, travel time wth family.

Share this:

Yes, you read correctly.  Last week I told you about the Japanese drink vending machines that are everywhere.  This week I’ll show you some of the cigarette vending machines in my neighborhood.This is a cigarette vending machine next to a cigarette store.  They sell the cheaper or more common cigarettes in the vending machine open 24/7 while the tobacco store next to it is run with regular store hours.Travelers beware though, you can’t just go up to a cigarette machine and get a pack of smokes.  You need to have a card that the reader next to the cash/coin input reads to see you are of age.  Putting in coins without having a card will get you nothing.These equate to roughly $5 a pack, if you have the card.

Share this:

If you walk through Japan at all you may wonder what all those huge boxes are that you pass along the sidewalks and in many doorways.  It’s impossible not to notice these drink vending machines.Often in sets of two or three, most blocks  in a city have at least one vending machine on them and those who live in suburbs always have a machine within walking distance.  The drinks are usually 100 yen to 150 yen, roughly $1.20 to $2 a drink depending on the yen rate that day.

The drinks offered in the machines are anything from warm coffee to cold coffee to teas to juices.  I once saw a pancake breakfast in a can which was rather popular at work until they got removed from the one machine they were in.  I commonly see the creamed corn in a can so that must be good and their can of hot cocoa is delicious.  All the bottles in the picture above are cold drinks, they have blue prices, but hot drinks are available in most machines.  My favorite drink from a machine is the Apple Tea from Lipton.  It is very tasty and a treat I look forward to every time I leave Japan.

Share this: