Day 1 - A little bit of Tokyo on Our Own

Technically, our tour starts today. But, it really starts this evening with a welcome dinner, which the Lady who accompanies me on these tours calls the Opening Ceremonies. I’ll be carrying the flag of Peachtree Corners, GA which is red with a dollar sign emblazed on it.

So, that means that the bulk of today was on our own. As we often do on these trips, we decided to find the local HOHO. For those of you new to this blog, that stands for Hop On Hop Off. These relatively inexpensive bus tours are a great way to quickly get the lay of the land in a new city.

We were joined by our friends Betsy & Bert, late of California, for this adventure. Betsy got directions from the hotel staff and we headed in the general direction of our quest, the ticket center for the HOHO. The weather was not ideal: in the low 50’s, temperature dropping, cloudy and a chance for rain. This concerned us because the brochure we had indicated that the HOHO was upper deck seating only, not covered, but with the reassuring note that while umbrellas were not allowed in case of rain, the bus company would provide raincoats. Gee, that sounded like a lot of fun. We did, however, see at least one photo of a normal enclosed bus.

We were told that the HOHO ticket center was in the vicinity of the Japan Railway Tokyo station. We had to stop several times to refer to our map. Each time, a local would see our navigational distress and come over and offer help. In most cases, their English was about as good as our Japanese so there was a lot of hand waving, head nodding and smiling. How could we lose? We eventually stumbled upon the Rail Station and headed inside because we thought the HOHO place was on the other side of the station. Bad move.

Just so you will know, The JR (for Japan Rail) Tokyo station is bigger than the small town in South Georgia where I grew up. We were swallowed up by rivers of people moving through it with not a clue as to where we were going. One tributary we flowed in eventually went to an exit and we were once again consulting our map. Again, a kind local appeared and gave us a fresh set of directions.

So as not to exhaust you, I’ll skip to the end. We eventually found HOHO Central and realized that it was near the first entrance to the Rail Station we encountered. We had walked in a very large circle but finally reached our destination. We first found a HOHO stop and kept seeing their busses pass us by. One did stop and we jumped on only to be told that this bus was out of service. It was only then that we were directed to a not very well marked ticket center close by.

We bought tickets and returned to the stop where we were told a bus would arrive in about 30 minutes. We carefully planned our attack by making sure we were first in line because we noticed that at the front of the open air upper deck there were four seats that were covered and shielded by glass in front of those seats.

Imagine our surprise when the bus that showed up at the stop was not an open air double decker, but a conventional closed regular bus. Score! The tour lasted about an hour and a half, and we discovered that Tokyo is a large, very crowded but orderly and immaculately clean city. I kept looking but could not spot any litter on the streets or sidewalks.

American Brands

Sunida River

It was so clean that I saw two pigeons that appeared as though they had been shampooed and blow dried. That’s clean. We were also surprised at the amount of water we saw. The Sunida River flows through the city and has lots of interesting bridges crossing it. Also, American business brands were everywhere.

The HOHO tour now over, the next issue was finding our way back to the hotel. We first started walking with guidance from Google maps on my phone. The problem was that, as some of you may have experienced, Google Maps is not very accurate in canyons of tall buildings so it was difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain our direction of travel against the apps suggested course.

After wandering to and fro for a while, we eventually snatched a cab. I say snatched because we were not sure of the correct protocol for hailing a cab in this city. Luckily, while standing forlornly at a corner trying to figure our next move, a cab stopped to discharge some passengers and we grabbed it. Fortunately for us, the hotel had provided a card which basically said in Japanese, “Please take us to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.” We later learned that in Tokyo, you hail a cab just like most any large city: stand out in the street and wave your arms! File that tip away for your future travels.

We then found a small café near the hotel and enjoyed a light lunch while congratulating ourselves on a successful outing. Please note that our bar for success is quite low.

Bottom line: Crowded city, lots of very nice helpful people, spotlessly clean, modest traffic.

After a brief rest we headed to Opening Ceremonies. My flag work was awesome, and we met our other 32 tour mates. Looks like it is going to be a fun and interesting group. The meal was, as we have come to expect from Tauck, splendid and plentiful.

More to come tomorrow.

Japan Tour Day Minus 1

Greetings from your intrepid time travelers. You see, we are now experiencing Friday, March 31, which you will see later. Good news – I think you will like it.

We took a Delta time machine from Atlanta to Tokyo yesterday, leaving at Atlanta at 11am Wednesday, and arriving Tokyo at 2pm, Thursday. During that ‘three-hour time span’ I was able to eat three times and binge watch Seasons 9 & 10 of The Big Bang Theory, and sleep for a few hours. Time travel is amazing. In case you are interested, I thought the writing for Season 10 was crisper, but that’s just me.

I also experienced the worst decaf coffee on the planet. In a money saving move several years ago, Delta replaced brewed decaf coffee with Starbuck’s Instant. Bad move. I keep trying it flight after flight and expecting a different outcome. It is still insanely bad.

My time travel was aided by several glasses of a delightful Portuguese white wine, Terra de Touros. I recommend it even if not for time travel.

Our arrival at Tokyo Narita’s Customs and Immigration once again reminded me of why it’s so great that I spend way too much time in airplane seats. There were about 150 people ahead of us in the Customs and Immigration line so we momentarily settled in for a long wait. Then, remarkably, this lovey Japanese Delta representative appeared just outside the queue asking for any Delta Diamond & Platinum members to follow her. Didn’t have to ask me twice. We ducked around the queue bollards and followed her to a line that contained – no one. After a few moments with the immigration man it was on to pick up our luggage which, also remarkably, was coming off the carousel as we stepped up. We picked an empty Customs line and the man there took our passports, looked at me (gray, worn and frazzled) and then eyed the Lady (picture perfect as always) whom I’m sure he decided was my trophy wife – and waived us through.

Alas, we had to wait for our new friends who are also on the tour but are only Delta Gold. Then it was off through traffic into downtown Tokyo. I forgot to mention that our morning in Atlanta started slowly on I-85 as we worked our way past a garbage truck on fire near North Druid Hills Rd. At the time, I was crossing my fingers and hoping this would not set the tone for the day. It didn’t. Delta’s time machine actually got us in to Tokyo 45 minutes ahead of schedule.

Today is a day on our own. The tour does not start until tomorrow. Stand by to see what kind of trouble we can get into.

OFF WE GO!

Ok, so the refrigerator is empty, the house has been cleaned to within an inch of its life and there is a significant dent in the contents of my closet. What does all that mean?

It’s time to hit the road. Vacation adventures await. The last requirement that fell into place was finding a suitable companion for Mindy, the cocker spaniel that owns and runs this establishment where we live. That being done, we are ready to go.

Go where, you say? Japan! I say. The land of people mostly shorter than me who live in a country that occasionally shakes itself awake and who never developed a need for forks.  One of Delta’s big birds will whisk us away on Wednesday morning on a nonstop flight to Tokyo’s Narita airport. I use the term whisk to try and convince myself that the 14 & ½ -hour flight will be quick and easy. Quick -- probably not so much. Easy -- well those Business Class seats will go a long way toward making the ride bearable.

Japan is roughly half a day off (13 hrs to be exact) from U.S. Eastern time. I keep telling myself that will make resetting my internal clock easier. Right. The Lady who usually tags along on these voyages got me totally confused the other day trying to figure out how to adjust our medication schedules.  My blood pressure will either be fantastically low or high depending on how this schedule thing works out.

Homeowner sad that she isn't traveling.

I look forward to your joining us on this adventure and hope my remarks don’t create any kind of international incident. In the spirit of our new political reality, I had considered creating an invoice to the government of Japan for several billion dollars since I understand we need our friends to start paying their way, but then I looked at our schedule and there really is no time for a stop off at the Emperor’s place. You will have to take care of that the next time you visit.

Looking forward to you comments!