Sunday, March 29, 2009

Baggage...Lots of Baggage

There's a reason everyone has their suitcases sent to and from the airport. Tokyo trains were built for quick, efficient transportation, not for slow tourists with overweight bags. So began our daily adventure. Moving day...

Travis, Val, Curtis, and I left our hotel: 6 suitcases, 4 people. From Shinagawa station, we navigated through the crowds and ticket machines. Escalators at some points were few and far between, so we ended up carrying our suitcases up and down stairs, which by the why were crowded with people who where dodging our slow caravan. Val and Curtis dropped us at the Shinjuku station and our helping hands were gone. The two of us, each with 4+ months of clothes packed into 4 suitcases.

The most ridiculous part of the day was transferring at Akihabara. We were crowding to get off the train with all our luggage. I got the two smallest suitcases off, and Travis came off with one of the larger ones. I thought he was right behind me, with the other two but there was still one in the train. He reached in to grab our last bag, but the door started closing on his arm! He tried to open the doors up with his free hand, but the suitcase fell over in the train and he lost his grip on it. The door attempted to close again with Travis' arm still in the door trying to grab the last suitcase. I was just looking on, in horror and uncertainty. I had no idea what to do or what would happen to the suitcase. Lucky for us, someone who got off the train with us was quicker and more savvy than me. He quickly stepped in, and held the door open, which allowed Travis to grab the bag and get it safely off. And on it's third attempt, the door finally closed and the train was off.

I didn't realize the gravity of the situation until just after the train left. If in fact the train had left with the bag, it would have been nearly impossible to recover it. Neither Travis nor I have contact info here in Japan. Trains run constantly (every 4 or so minutes) so we would have never been able to locate the exact one. And I'm sure the bag would have been confiscated for security purposes at the next stop. It was a close one to say the least. Thank goodness for our good samaritan.

Our touristy appearance didn't stop there. By the time we got to our stop, it was definitely outside Tokyo and away from locations popular with foreigners. It is like a suburb in that most of the area is filled with houses and small shops. English translations are far less common. And I would say its safe to bet that there are hardly any foreigners touring this city. I'm sure we looked ridiculous dragging the huge suitcases for blocks and blocks in the quiet residential area. We definitely stuck out to say the least. People riding their bikes and driving would momentarily stare at us. At points Travis would go ahead to look for the dorm. Haha I would be left at the corner with the four huge suitcases. I'm sure people were wondering what the heck I was doing. It was pretty funny. We asked a policeman for directions and after helping us he asked us if we were ok and we all kinda laughed!

We passed a street festival for sakura matsuri (cherry blossom festival) and finally asked a woman for directions. It was funny because right at the corner we asked her, she motioned to a sign right behind her that said "DK House Warabi" in English. We were like "oh, this is it" lol. We made it.

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