After our touchdown on Wednesday around 7:30am, it was time to navigate Narita airport. First thing we noticed: lots of people to orient passengers, check they have the mySOS app, that the screen on said app is Blue (or, if a different color, to send them to the appropriate line), checking the QR code, thus making sure, we answered the questionnaire, signed the pledge, uploaded our vaccine passes and, most important, uploaded our negative test results on the official Japanese form.
After passing all the formalities relatively smoothly, it is time to go down to the train station, buy tickets to the Sky-Liner train from Narita to Nippori (in 6 minutes we were on the train, with some stress, but the hostess had reassured us this was what to do). Then find out how to use our Suica cards to board the Yamamote line and get from Nippori to Shin-Okubo. Once in Shin-Okubo station, find-out exactly why the first elevator gets us up (and not down: because then we take a passage towards an elevator that gets us down 4 floors to the station exit). And find the building. Stupidly, I had forgotten to assure my self that the document with color pix of the building was offline on my phone, but with the three numbered address and Google Maps (offline, this I did make sure off) we made it, if a little wet, as it was raining.
Unload the suitcases: the place is not big, we need to be organized. Teeth-brushing, showers, and we are off to try to teach our bodies that it is 1pm. In fact, the kids and Samuel are hungry… but Noe doses off to a deep sleep, impossible to wake up. The result of a bad “night” in the plane (remember, our night started at 2pm French time and we touched-down at half past midnight, or 7:30am local time).
For the kids and I, it is a first in Japan, so the cultural shock is real, We walk around the streets, there are plenty of food places, many with photos, but we can’t read much. We enter a family mart to see the packed dishes, then walk some more and end-up at a place that promises corn-dogs… The woman arrives to our help as we are waving at a strange apparatus at the beginning of the line: it is an infrared thermometer. We present our foreheads (36.5, all good) only to realize later other customers present their wrists lol!
There are no more corn-dogs, but we can order cheese balls, and we do. While waiting, we notice this is a J-pop idealization place, with J-pop and K-pop boys bands (kids inform me now it was Seventeen that was on the screen at the time) blaring on the video, and women ordering coffee and receiving a “cup cache” with some singers printed. We finally get the cheese balls to go, and go back to eat at the apartment, brush teeth, and it is siesta time.
After 3 hours, time to wake up. And it is difficult, less so for Noe who has slept 3 hours more. We get ready, and we go for a tour of Waseda University, especially the Political Science and Economics building which is gorgeous: they destroyed the historical building but built a facsimile inside a very nice, full of glass, modern building. All looks great. The views from all sides are great. The offices are pleasant and big. Robert takes us to a Soba place for the meal, we then go buy some stuff for breakfast, and it is back home for the night.
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