Day 0: Post rush musings

It’s now 2am and Scott and I are awake after only getting  6 hours of sleep.  Gotta wake up and have Onigiri which we picked up at a Lawson at Narita airport.

Combini, or Convenience Stores have all kinds of services.  You can learn about them in this episode of Being Japanology.  The snacks they have are just awesome, and yes they’re going to totally derail me from my diet.

A few things stand out from the rush of getting from Narita to Ebisu, for me.

  • The work uniform!  Everyone is almost wearing the same thing.  A white button down shirt, dark trousers – typically black.  I knew to expect this, but still, seeing it in person is another thing.
  • The crowds going through Tokyo Station is ordered chaos.  It’s quite neat to see how it all works.  And if you mess up, no one gives you attitude, or at least I didn’t notice it.
  • Lining up to go up an escalator and standing/walking on the appropriate side just seems to work beautifully here.  I can only describe it as a very zen experience.  You wait your turn and chill out.  There’s no rush, everyone is going in the same direction, etc…  I like it!
  • Every station stop on the Yamanote line plays a different tune when you arrive.  It’s awesome.
  • Despite being in the country 3 hours, travelling on two modes of transit (N’EX and Yamanote – essentially airport express train and subway), I only picked up one StressPass on my Nintendo 3DS!  I’ll check Near on my PS Vita shortly.
  • Onigiri is not that difficult to open, if you understand the instructions. *GRIN*  For the record, I did it correctly and it was tasty!
  • Yes I am a foot taller than everyone on the Yamanote line that I saw, but it didn’t phase me as much as some people thought it would.  Maybe later today when we hit Akiba, Shinjuku or Shibuya it will.  *shrugs*