Trip to Japan, 2. The Train

The plane landed at around 15:52 Tokyo time in a cloudy afternoon on July 22 of 2009. It took approximately six minutes to get to the gate. At first, I thought since I arrived in day time, there may be a long line to wait for getting through the immigration procedures, but wrong. To my surprise, I got through the whole thing in around 40 minutes, and that includes getting all my baggage from the convey belt!!! Within minutes, I found the NEX/Suica ticket office and purchased both by 16:45.

The NEX (Narita Express, dedicated train serving to/from the Narita International Airport and the major cities) train I took was scheduled to leave for Tokyo at 17:16, so I spent a few minutes exploring the surrounding area. Not many shops around, probably due to the fact that I was in arrival area, where passengers were less likely to have spare time walking around. The train station really didn't look like one for me. Maybe due to the fact that it really was not crowded at all?

I hopped onto the train about 10 minutes before the scheduled departure time. Nearby the entrance, an area is dedicated for passengers to keep their luggage so they do not have to bring the luggage to their seats, which definitely have no enough space if the luggage is anything bigger than carry-on or backpack. The train departed the station as scheduled. the whole trip took around 1.5 hours. My stop is Shinjuku, the 4th stop. Once arrived, I had to haul my luggage to the hotel I was staying.

Along the train ride, I had a window seat. Looking through the window, I actually felt that the scenery was very similar to those I've seen in Taiwan when I took train from Taipei to Kaohsiung. Green hills and small roads. If it was not because of the Japanese style houses, they were almost identical. Oh, and there were some drops of rain along the way, which made me concerned. I did bring an umbrella with me, but it was not big enough to cover everything and me. Luckily, there was no rain when I arrived the Shinjuku station.

By the time I arrived the Shinjuku station, it was close to 7pm. I has already pulled my luggage out the storage area, and standby next to the exit. Once the train stopped, I hopped out, and looked around to determine which way should I go. Since my car was the last of the train, the choice was pretty simple: To the front cars. So, I turned accordingly, and started to walk toward Car 1. Along the way, I encountered an escalator going up, so I decided to go to surface first.

As I approached the escalator, I was still wondering how should I get in touch with other BLYA who stayed in the same hotel, but then, there was something flashed into my eyes that I felt very familiar... CARMEN!!! It's Carmen Liu of Toronto, and from her, I see the 8-people gang of Vancouver~ I never thought we'd actually took the same train, as they arrived the airport approximately 2 hours before my arrival. Now the rest of the trip to the hotel is simple. I just follow them all the way...