Reflections in the Mist

Chapter 2: ...But Home is Nowhere - How did I ever end up here?

Chapter 2:

...But Home is Nowhere – How did I ever end up here?

8th September 2008 (Japan)

So, we arrived in Narita airport, Japan after 38ish hours of travelling. I could also probably count the hour’s sleep I’ve had on one hand too. We both pretty much felt spaced out. This extraordinary lack of sleep had really caught up with us now!

We landed, went through customs and headed towards the train station. Along the way we both picked up a Pasmo card to help make travelling around the Tokyo underground that little bit easier.

We stood on the platform with our outrageously oversized travelling backpacks, drawing awed gazes from our fellow passengers. We had purchased the backpacks before we came over, mainly because they had a removable day bag attached to the back. The fact that they were massive and they were also half price convinced us as well. Inside them there was a plethora of band t-shirts, trousers, underwear, spare shoes, books, cleaning gear, and other travelling sundries and they were full. When on our backs and strapped around our chests with extra belts, they stuck out an extra half a meter from our bodies. We had literally turned into human tortoises!

I imagined the number of people usually commuting by trains in Japan and winced. Travel on the subway trains is going to be so much fun. I thought to myself, trying to adjust the shoulder straps.

That was another ‘bonus’ of the backpacks. They weighed about the same amount as an adult elephant. I found myself bent over when I walked to compensate for it. All the while making sure that I didn’t turn around suddenly, lest I send some poor Japanese guy flying!!

Jesus, three months of this!

Our first stop was in Akihabara, Tokyo where we were staying at a hostel called Khaosan Ninja. We asked a woman at the station what train to take and eventually we were sitting in a carriage on our way to a new adventure. How hard can it be?

It was about three in the afternoon when we got on the train. We sat there just staring out the windows, taking in the new environment. The journey took just over an hour and before we knew it, we were at our stop.

“Where do we go now?” I said after we had lugged our bags out of the train and onto the platform, while simultaneously trying not to kill any unsuspecting Japanese people.

“Dunno? Let me check the print-outs we took for our accommodation.” Roo unzipped his bag and took out a plastic wallet with the information about all the accommodation we were going to be using. Smart, eh? We may have been jetlagged but we were not stupid, we came prepared!

He squatted wearily on the floor and flicked through the printed sheets while people worked their way around him. “It’s not here,” he announced after a moment of increasingly frantic shuffling of papers.

“What do you mean ‘it’s not there’? I thought we printed it out before we left?”

“Yeah, but it isn’t here now. We must have left that one at home, all the others are here!”

Did I call us smart…

“Dude, we are so screwed….” I walked over to a bench by the platform and collapsed onto it in despair. “Suppose we can’t do much here, come on, let’s get out of the station. I need to find a payphone or something to call everyone back home, my mobile isn’t working for some reason.” The phone that I had brought with me from England could not get a signal. Great!

I lifted my hand up for assistance and Roo hoiked me out of the seat, put his bag on and followed me out. It took us a while to decide on what exit to leave by, there was about ten we could use, this was getting more and more difficult!