Soul Searching

Okay, here we are at entry three and the fun has begun! Reality check #1, planning ahead is great but when you hit the ground is when things count. My wonderful plans to see Tokyo and Nikko were thoroughly trashed (as was the reputation of the Nikko hotel chain) when I arrived at the Narita airport outside of Tokyo. not only was the airport hotel dingy (not dirty per se…) but it takes four hours one way to get to Nikko, and two hours each way plus fifty dollars to get to Tokyo. so having arrived at 4:30 pm I thought I would head to Tokyo for a couple hours, look around and head back to the hotel.
I checked in, freshened up, and headed downstairs to the front desk at around 6 pm. the desk clerk informed me that it takes 2 hours to get to Tokyo and 2 more to get back. On top of that, the last train back was at 9 pm which would mean that I would travel for four hours so I could see Tokyo for an hour or so. I decided that was a no go and I would just try again in the morning. so I picked up the schedule for the train into Tokyo and made a new plan for the morning.
I got up all excited for the morning and went downstairs to catch the bus to the high speed train to Tokyo. I figured I’d drop off my bag and catch the first one. Then the clerk told me that the first two trains of the day were SOLD OUT (as they are every day)! That meant that if I took the next available one to Tokyo I’d be in the same situation as the night before. I couldn’t believe it! Instead I opted to go into the town of Narita. I had a hard time getting oriented and got lost almost immediately (which isn’t so bad or stressful for me) and made a bunch of sign language with some locals (they must have found it pretty amusing, one guy let me do my shtick twice before letting me know that he spoke English) but I finally figured out where I was, had an unremarkable sashimi box lunch and headed back to hotel. I arrived just in time to catch the next bus to the airport. All in all Japan was a total bust. Narita was not worth the trip, the hotel wasn’t all that nice, and there wasn’t enough time to really do anything. c’est la vie…