Shinagawa
In brief, our plan was as follows. After an overnight sleepover in Shinagawa, we would head directly for Kyoto followed by a trip to Hiroshima, Mount Fuji and then back to Tokyo. In all, we would spend 2 weeks in Japan, with pretty much every day packed with planned activities
Our first stop once we arrived at the Narita airport would be Shinagawa where we would spend the night before continuing on to Kyoto.
I had spent considerable time just planning on what luggage we would take. When you go to Japan, you must count on a great deal of walking just to get from hotel to hotel. Huge, crowded airports and train stations, up stairs, down stairs, tight schedules that give you only minutes to embark or debark. And you will have to carry your luggage for most of that time.
My advice is to never, never take more than you can carry yourself in one trip. As such, I still ended up with three bags. A rolling cart backpack for clothing with a small removable day pack, a backpack computer bag for my electronics and finally, pictured here, a small shoulder bag for my camera gear. In an extreme worst case, I could carry everything on my back and shoulders for a fair distance or stack everything on the rolling backpack for longer distances.We had a 2 hour stopover in Newark, NJ before getting on the direct flight to Tokyo. Even with all my planning, I had forgotten one small but critical element. The electrical outlets in Japan are mostly two-prong and my computer adapter required three. However, a quick stop by one of the airport shops netted me an international conversion adapter that would more than address my needs. You can see the small white adapter above Josh's head on the power pole as we charge our electronics.
We arrived 18 hours later, very low on sleep but excited to finally be here in Japan. I had a huge packet (part of which was spread out in front of me) that contained everything we would need from our rail pass certificates to itineraries to details on our planned spiritual walk of Kyoto. Everything that could be stored electronically was also copied onto my USB memory stick which I kept as close to me as my passport as a backup in case the packet was somehow lost. I knew in principle what we needed to do next, but I took a moment to check our itinerary as well as my map of the Narita airport to see where we were and where we needed to go.
We arrived at Shinagawa without incident. It was just after 4 PM, so we were in no hurry as we made our way to the hotel which involved us crossing this busy highway via an overpass. This view is looking to the south. The wheeled cart backpack arrangement worked out fine as we rolled our stuff along with us.
Exhausted, we crash for several hours, but then both Josh and I were wide awake at 1 AM in the morning which would have made it around noon back home. Left to my own devices, I was going to read a book and force myself to go back to sleep. However Josh lit a fire under my tail and we headed out into the dark night to see what Shinagawa had to offer.
It was cool, quiet and a bit eerie as we strolled down the dark streets. I was so wide awake and elated to be walking in Japan once again.
It was good to be alive.Thank you Josh!!
The front desk receptionist had directed us to a little pizza place down the road, but, in the end, that was not what we wanted so we kept walking.
This was Japan and darn it, I wanted more! In the end, it was like we had been given divine guidance directly to exactly what I wanted, a little hole in the wall ramen shop.To pay proper respect during your visit, approach the entrance and bow respectfully before entering. In the provided basin, first wash your left hand, then your right, then rinse your mouth with water poured in your hand. Tip the ladle backwards to wash the ladle handle with the remaining water and replace it, opening side down, on the rack where you found it. As you wash, do not let the water fall back into the fountain, but off to the side.
The mysterious Covalent sign. A little Google research indicated that they make silicon wafers, i.e. the little disks to the right of the name. Of course, it was so obvious that we should have known.
Click here to move on to our arrival in Kyoto:
http://phoenixanime.org/Japan-2008/Kyoto-Arrival/