Rakkity

11/27/05

Chicago to Tokyo takes 12 hours by the polar route. Somehow, by the mysteries of longitude, you can leave Chicago at noon and arrive at 4 pm in Tokyo on the next day without ever seeing the sun set. I was lucky enough to have a window seat on my flight, and could watch the sun-dappled lakes of Minnesota, the windswept snowbound tundra of Alberta, and the magnificent snow-pinnacled mountains of southern Alaska, 30,000 feet below our airplane.

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The experience of really being in an asian country was thrust upon me by the Japanese subtitles in the flight movies. That‚’s a new experience for me. And between the movies, when the screen shows the distance to the destination and traveled, the airplane height & speed and arrival time, somewhere over the Pacific the labels switched from Engilsh to Japanese, signifying that we were then in the Asian sphere of influence.

We landed at Narita airport just north of Tokyo right on schedule, and the previously omnipresent sun resumed its delayed descent to the horizon. Narita airport, fortunately, has lots of English signs mingled with the Japanese, and the staff all speak English, so it was a breeze to find an ATM, collect a caboozle of yen, and buy train tickets to the town of Kofu. Mukul led the way while I helped with his 3 bags. He says he regrets not taking enough clothes, because it‚’s going to be cold in Nobeyama. It was 60F here in Tokyo when we arrived, but Nobeyama is high up in the mountains, maybe they’ll even be snow.

I‚’m writing this on the clean, smooth express train to Shinjuku, an intermediate stop on our way to Kofu, The train left right on the minute and is due to arrive at 19:41. Do the trains run on time here? Will I find my way to the hotel? Tune in and find out in the next episode tomorrow.