Kirk
Off to Japan for Winter Break. We had been hoping to go for the whole year, but with Kali in university, we didn’t really know for sure if taking a trip would be okay. She joined a car racing team competition, and I was worried that she’d have commitments. Plus, the overall stress of exams, etc. Some people just want to turtle for two weeks. But, things worked out, so we’re on our way.
I’m writing this on the plane. It’s been just over 5 hours in the air at this very moment. Halfway. We got to YVR 3.5 hours early because we kept seeing news stories about the airport expecting a massive nightmare crush of travellers. But, it was pretty empty, at least in the international section. We are flying ANA, and their check-in booths were not yet open when we got there. I should have taken a picture. After setting up their desks, the staff all lined up infront of their booths and then bowed in unison while announcing a welcome to the customers to the start of their day.
The flight is going okay. The person is periodically kicking/pushing on my chair. At first, I thought he was just fiddling with the tray or TV, but now I think he resting his feet or knee against it. I want to say something like, “OMFG! Will you just stop fidgeting around?!?”. But, dealing with the awkwardness of confrontation after that for a 10 hour flight isn’t worth it. And, as if I'd ever really say anything anyway. Who am I kidding? Besides, I’m going to Japan where nobody there would ever say anything either. So…. I’m channeling that. And, it’s not super bad. I’m not trying to sleep anyway. I tell you, though, it’s cathartic to vent here. So, thanks for reading.
As I do with most of these travel journals, I’ll try to write each day. I want to transcribe the day while the feelings are still there instead of waiting until we’re back home and transcribing my “memories’ of the trip. And, it can be awkward, strange, or even cringey because I’m almost writing “in the heat of the moment”, but that’s the beauty of not filtering too much with days of edits, pondering, and self-reflection. As I’ve begged before, please extend some charity, expect rambling and a lot of jumping around.
So, why are we going back to Japan? Why are we so enamoured? I can’t speak for my family. But, for me, it is simply for the society. Most of my friends live outside of downtown Vancouver. But, we live close enough and are often walking through Chinatown, Gastown. And, we’re always taking the buses or Skytrain around too. And, honestly, it’s bad. Everything is dirty. There’s feces, needles. And, now it’s come to our neighbourhood too. Lots of homeless guys — yes, mostly harmless and very often very polite. But, mentally picture this… You are walking thru Pigeon Park in the heart of the DTES. There’s guys sitting around on benches, heating up their heroin tinfoil, and they haven’t washed their clothes in a year. Some are bare foot, no shirt. Greasy, scraggly hair. Open infections. You can smell how bad it is. Some guys go by with their garbage bags of cans. So, with that all in your mental picture, would you go over and sit next to them on the bench? If your answer is no, then you’re not ready for a bus ride thru the DTES. The bus is better than the park only because normal people still outnumber addicts… for now.
And, don’t come for me for implying unhoused people are not normal. You know what I mean.
But, anyway, for me, just spending a couple of weeks in the cleanliness of Japan is probably the equivalent of other people going to a vacation resort to relax. Maybe I should just vacation in West Vancouver and save on flights. I swear I have PTSD worrying about stepping in shit on the sidewalk. Probably take me a few days in Japan before I stop looking down while walking.
Of course, I want to go shopping. And, that’s a big thing for me. I don’t want to make excuses. But, I feel an insecurity and an anxious need to explain more. I think some people think of it as going to a mall and blowing cash to flex. But, I just simply like clothes and designers. I often will stay up late just watching runway shows and Bliss Foster, Threaducation. I used to watch Fashion TV back in 80s highschool, so it’s always been with me. But, I still feel a certain embarrassment and a need to apologize because there is an obvious atmosphere of consumerism. Fashion is like art, but they have to release new works every season. Some labels sell simple branding, but when you get into the deeper stuff it’s silhouettes, expressions, emotions, experiments. You can delve into it in a way that a lot of people just can’t comprehend. Maybe it’s similar to rare vinyl record or baseball card collectors geeking out over specific issues.. So, if you think people will judge you shallow because you listen to certain music or collect weird things, you have a friend in me.
This is sounding cringey, but I’ll try not to go back and edit it away.
One thing that I’ll miss in Japan is that I can’t talk with the salespeople. I like going into stores and chatting with the people there. Usually, I know at least enough info about certain designers to start a conversation. Going into a Yohji store and not being able to talk to anyone is going to sad. I can’t speak Japanese and (I think) it’s not customary for them to speak to customers anyway.
I’ve been reading articles about over-tourism. Everyone is doing post-pandemic revenge vacations, and Japan is on a lot of people’s lists. The government has put in measures to try and cut down on over-crowding. They’ve raised the price of train tickets and have capped foreigners from visiting Mount Fuji, etc. A lot of locals are getting fed up with the crowds. And, since the Japanese are the cleanest, quietest, most polite society in the world, every other country's tourists are a downgrade in etiquette. We’ll try to be on our best behaviour. And, I think as long as we’re not the worst tourists at any given place, then we’ll be okay.
I did have to snicker reading all the articles, though. There’s videos too. They describe the crowds and the loud foreigners who are rude and ignorant of the local etiquette and way of life. Well, Japan, imagine if all those tourists never went home. That’s what we have in Vancouver. LOL. Japan’s immigration rate is essentially zero.
1.5 hours left in the flight now. They fed us dinner about an hour in. 6 hours later we got a sandwich. My iPad is at 21%. I can’t recharge it because the seat has USB-A but I only have USB-C cables. I have power adapters, but my seat doesn’t have an outlet. I miss sitting in the higher class sections. The cost of Business class drops in half in a month, but we’re stuck having to abide by the school calendar. We paid $4k for Economy. My coworker flew last Spring for just $800.
It’s now a couple hours later. Lots of anxiety went down. First was all the stuff with Customs. Not really stress, just mild confusion. But fine. Dealing with our luggage, though. Ugh. I’m at 6% battery. Just got on the Shinkansen headed for Kyoto. I’ll keep writing until it dies.
We made it onto a Shinkansen headed for Kyoto. We were pretty worried. We couldn’t buy tickets ahead of time, and it’s busy season. And, we didn’t even know if we’d have enough time to catch the train, based on when our plane landed. Many anxious moments.
We made it to Kyoto. I'm writing from the hotel room.
I want to write down the process of getting here. After Customs, we immediately went to the baggage forwarding desk. If you have big luggage, Japan doesn't want you to carry those big bags on the subway nor the Shinkansen. Instead, you drop off your bags with places like Neko Kuro, who will deliver your bags to the hotel. Sounds great. But, the line at the desk was long. And, we didn't speak Japanese. So, the attendant was using Google translate to help us and ask stuff. We're staying in Kyoto for the first 3 nights. Then going to Osaka for 2. They couldn't guarantee that our bags would get to Kyoto in time. It's busy season, and the service is facing delays. Too many tourists. So, we're having our bags shipped to Osaka.
Of course, the problem with that is that we can only use backpacks and carry-ons and need to bring clothes for three days. That's all fine. But, it makes having the baggage service a bit of a hassle. The kids only have small backpacks, so we shoved a bunch of clothes in an Arc'teryx duffel bag. It's just not a easy-peasy. And, Elaine ended up forgetting her contact lenses in the luggage, so she'll have to wear glasses until we get our bags back.
Our non-existant Japanese language skills made the process go really slow, and we were worried that we'd miss the trains.
Elaine
Wow, what an adventure so far!
We finally decided to make our Christmas break holiday a trip to Japan, and booked our flight for the day after Kali’s last exam. We were so worried about the cold and tried to pack strategically. We had heard about the concern of overtourism and wanted to try minimize how much we annoyed the locals.
We planned to forward our luggage between stays and take trains or walk as much as possible and stay away from using local buses - this last bit doesn’t seem too bad as there are so many transit options!
We arrived at Haneda airport just after 18:00 local time. I thought, easy peasy - grab our luggage, forward our luggage, get IC cards (Suica or PASMO), buy Shinkansen tickets to Kyoto, travel to Kyoto and finally get to our hotel - that’s it, no problem.
The last Shinkansen from Shinagawa station was leaving at 21:31 - three hours seemed like plenty of time. Not so much.
Forwarding our baggage was our biggest hurdle. It was relatively late, the forms were not available in English and many people were forwarding their baggage. Thank goodness for Google Translate! The counter person was very patient and helped us fill in the electronic forms with our phones going back and forth with questions and answers. After watching all the YouTube and Instagram reels we thought baggage delivery would be one day and worse case two days so we packed our carry-ons for two days worth of clothes. Because they were extra busy and probably our late arrival they could not guarantee our luggage would arrive in time to meet us in Kyoto. So the forms had to be redone. We did not have time to repack our carry-ons so we would have to figure that out later.
IC cards next. Due to “a global shortage of semiconductors” Japan temporarily suspended sales of Suica and PASMO cards. Yikes! They still have 28 day limited visitor cards available at airports. We tried to set up the electronic cards on our phones before arriving but were unable to with our North American credit cards. Once we sent off our luggage we went in search of an IC card dispenser. After trying a few machines we went to a JR booth and were able to get all set up with PASMO cards. They are super cute with San Rio characters all over it! Awesome souvenir!!!
We could not buy our Shinkansen tickets at Haneda so off we went to Shinagawa station. When we were booking our Shinkansen tickets there were only two or three trains left for the day. Fortunately they weren’t full and we were able to book one of the last trains out. And here I thought three hours between arrival at the airport and departure to a Kyoto was more than enough time - boy was I wrong.
Kirk
We got on a subway that we thought was going to Shinagawa, where we catch the Shinkansen to Kyoto. We jumped in and sat down. Then the announcements started saying station stops, and it didnt sound right. Thankfully, we got off our butts and got back off to make absolutely sure. After looking around, we confirmed that we had been on the wrong subway. OMG.
The correct train came not long after.
We were running out of time to get to the Shinkansen and getting stressed. And, I'm dragging a carry-on, a shoulder bag, and the giant duffel bag. Everything is heavy and the big duffel is very awkward to carry with everything else. We had to keep asking for directions to find the Shinkansen ticket booth. Normally, not a big deal, but with the rush and all the stuff, it was not a fun time. But, we made it and got our tickets. And, we got the last train. 15 mins to spare. Cut it sooooo close. And, thankfully, the train wasn't full.
We got to Kyoto at midnight. Took a short subway ride from the Shinkansen to the hotel. As soon as we got onto street level, these bikers dressed as Santa Claus rode past and waved at us. Already feeling better.
We're staying in the Ace Hotel. Elaine and I immediately went to the bar. Finally decompressed. This hotel is amazing. I took a bunch of pics. I'm sure it'll look even better in daylight.
Our room is big, even for Western sizes. Four single beds. Big sitting area. Lots of floorspace.
The bar was great. Very chill. Perfect for what we needed.
Elaine
Ace Hotel, Kyoto is beautiful! We have stayed in the ones in Portland and a new York and Kyoto is just beautiful! By the time we arrived we had been enroute for almost 20 hours! Kirk and I dropped off the kids we headed to the hotel bar to just chill for a bit. Yay! Our vacation starts tomorrow!!!
Kirk
Hope to continue the write-up tomorrow.