Japan Revisited - Lost in Transition

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Going to Japan is a contrast of traveling both to the future and the past all at once.  In terms of travel time it is a seventeen-hour difference in time the next day, and landing in Tokyo, one lands in what is arguably one of the largest, densest and most marvelous modern cities in the world today.   Yet even when you gaze down at Tokyo or Japan in general, you see pockets of the old world peeking through the new, like spirits gazing out from bamboo made of steel and glass.  The new will catch your eye, like a moth to a flame, but it is the old that holds you, beckons you deeper into the shadows where the real mysteries lie in wait.   This is the true nature and allure of Japan.

First glance at Japan

Our flight lasted twelve hours on Japan Airlines from LAX.  We left at 1:05 exactly and got in at 5:00 the following day.  If time travel is ever invented, or at least perfected, this is what it must be like.  One arrives in a place and time so very different and discombobulating, that just the difference in time is impossible to explain it in words.  I will say of the flight over that the food was excellent, the seats comfortable and the hostesses courteous and professional.  It was leagues over flights we’ve taken with United.

Of course, nothing goes as planned.  Narita Airport is large, and we were taking the Narita Express into Tokyo since it goes directly to Tokyo Station where we were staying.  I believe I’ve mentioned before, trains in Japan wait for no one.  We bought reserved tickets on the train, but there was an earlier one available.  We got on, only to find our seats were taken, and instead of taking empty seats that we could have, we started to pile off.  Well we got everything off except one thing … my Mom.  Yes, poor mom went back for her purse and the doors to the train closed on her.  Dad and I could only watch, helpless as the train shot away.  I managed to yell at her to wait at Tokyo Station.  The lovely Narita express slid away and out of sight, and she was gone.

This is one of those moments like out of the Home Alone movies where the mother is on the plane and realizes that Kevin is gone.  So it was with Dad and me.  We had an agonizing 20-minute wait for the next train, then another 50-minute ride to Tokyo Station.  I ran upstairs, and tried to explain the situation.  The kind station staff did their best to understand me and mentioned they would try to stop the train at Chiba.  I believe they thought my Mom had gotten on a local train, not the Narita, which goes straight through.  It was a lost in translation moment of epic proportion.

I wasn't sure I'd done more harm than good so I slunk back down to the platform just in time for our train to arrive.  Dad and I sat on it feeling sick to our stomachs.  We pressed our faces to the windows and watched desperately for my mom as we rocketed past Chiba.  Going 90 miles an hour, we couldn't see squat.

I can’t express how helpless I felt.  It is the most terrible feeling.  Our trip had only started and my mom was already lost in what is one of the most complex subway systems in the world.  Dad and I started to make contingency plans in case Mom wasn’t there.  We were up and ready as the train pulled in, slowed down, and then the doors opened.  There was mom, safe and sound, smiling, holding her purse.  “Did you miss me?”  was all she asked.  We both hugged her tight and thanked whatever Gods or Goddesses in Japan had watched over us.  Not a great start, and I feared what was to come.  I promised myself I would not let that happen again.

What a trooper.

Next time:  Tokyo Station and the Marunouchi Area