Here’s a stroke of fate for you. In the spring of 2006 I suddenly took a fancy to go back to visit the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to see the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival, and ended up becoming a member of the BBG. I’ve gone each spring since, but am now careful to arrive on a quieter weekday before the weekend festival, since it was so crowded that first year. But that first year there was also a display of brochures about Japan, and I took three, NEVER considering that East Asia would be a place I’d actually decide to visit. I looked at those brochures periodically when I went through my files. One was about hotels, and proved to be eminently discardable, since there are a lot better ways of finding hotels. But another told about the Shinkansen, and the third told about how to get a Japan Rail Pass, and I was hooked. And now I’m on my way.

Time Zones   Taiwan is in the same time zone as Western Australia, that is, UTC+8. Japan is one time zone closer to the US, and is UTC+9. To compare those with New York at the moment is a bit awkward, since one week after I leave, the US reverts to standard time, on November 1. Therefore, the first week of my trip has a different time ratio between East Asia and New York from the last three weeks.

New York is on Eastern Daylight Time as I leave, so Taiwan is twelve hours ahead. In other words, just “flip the dial”. If it’s 9 PM in New York it will be 9 AM in Taiwan—but the next day. Japan, then, is one hour “closer”, at only 10 AM.

But for the last three weeks of this trip, New York will be on Eastern Standard Time, with one hour’s less difference. Taiwan will be eleven hours ahead and Japan ten, so 9 PM in New York will be 10 AM in Taiwan and only 11 AM in Japan. But for quick calculation, just exchange AM and PM and give or take a bit.

Long Flights   I’m now doing enough long flights that it’s time, as I said earlier this year (2009/4), to stop counting those with intermediate stops and just keep track of nonstop flights. That removes from my calculations the 2006 flight from NY via Lima to Santiago, since the first, longer part was only seven hours, and the 2008 flight from NY via Dakar to Johannesburg--while the whole trip was 17h40, the stop in Dakar split that into two roughly equal halves.

That left two trips, to Seoul, my longest, and to Samoa. But now I note that the round trip to Japan will change that. Once this East Asia trip is over, this will be the sequence of my longest nonstop flights, in reverse order:

Perhaps I’ll only keep track only of those nonstop flights over ten hours. I also note that three of the four above fall in 2009.

International Dateline   We now need to combine the subjects of time zone and long flights for a curious result. I will neither gain nor lose a day crossing the International Dateline. This requires some discussion.

When crossing NEAR the dateline, days come and go, as when earlier this year I connected Fiji and New Zealand on the west side of the line and Samoa and Tahiti on the east. Even crossing the Pacific from Vancouver to Seoul (I was going around the world and didn’t recross the dateline) was close enough to lose a day--it was an overnight flight, but, losing (jumping?) a day, I arrived not the next morning but two mornings later.

But when crossing the dateline on a long flight between two widely-separated points, the length of the trip and the time zones can sort of cancel out each other. Let me show the flights in each direction.

My flight leaves New York at 1:40 PM on a Sunday. With the eleven-hour time difference, in Tokyo it’s 2:40 AM Monday. Add the 14h20 flying time to the Tokyo clock to see what time it will be there on arrival in this fashion: 20m brings 2:40 AM Monday up to 3:00 AM Monday; 12h more brings it up to 3:00 PM Monday; 2h more is 5:00 PM Monday, which is my scheduled arrival time. It’s an overnight flight, and I leave Sunday and do indeed arrive Monday—but not beyond that. The “magic” of this not losing an additional day is that I don’t arrive Monday morning, but late Monday afternoon, and all the lost time on the Tokyo clock falls WITHIN Monday. It’s a matter of traveling westward WITH Monday as it, too, moves westward around the world. Or put it this way—Monday caught up with me from behind during the flight.

Coming back, I’ll fly from Taipei to Tokyo first to change planes, but let’s not count that. I leave Tokyo at 3:05 PM on a Sunday, and with the ten-hour difference at that time of the year, as I leave Tokyo it will be 1:05 AM in New York. But Sunday will have only a few more hours to live. By the time I reach New York in 12h40, it will already be Monday in Tokyo, specifically 3:45 AM. Sunday will have crept around the world during all that time on the plane, and that 1:05 AM in New York will already be SUNDAY just reaching North America. Add the 12h40 flying time to the New York clock, and 1:05 AM Sunday moves up to 1:45 PM Sunday, which is my scheduled arrival time. This is an example of moving eastward AGAINST the day (in this case, Sunday) as it moves ever westward around the world.

You’ll see that I both leave Tokyo and arrive in New York on a Sunday. It’s just like all the flying time on the westbound trip falling into one day—the same thing happens here. But it’s odder still, since I leave Tokyo at 3:05 PM Sunday and arrive in New York at 1:45 PM Sunday, an hour and twenty minutes before I left! This is how the dateline affects long-distance flights as opposed to shorter ones.

Tōkyō   I understand that autumn, up into November, is one of the best times to visit Japan. It’s supposed to be slightly cool and the leaves should be changing colors. I will not experience the cherry blossoms in the spring, so I’ll have to be satisfied with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s display (also Washington’s). I’ll hope the autumn colors will be equally satisfying.

Greater Tōkyō is the world’s most populous metropolitan area, with 35.7 million people. In terms of built-up urban area it’s second only to New York City. It has been described, with London and New York, as one of three “command centers” for the world economy. It was ranked as the world’s most expensive city in 2009 (my luck) for expatriate employees, with Osaka second and New York eighth.

From 1603 until 1868 Tokyo was known as Edo (E as in café), which literally means bay-door, and refers to the estuary. Its new name since 1868 is based on Tō “eastern” and Kyō “capital”, since it lies to the east of the former capital, Kyoto.

Central Tokyo has a rather unique layout, and may be said to be a child of the railroads. It was designed in the early 20C to be centered around major train stations in a high-density fashion. In this regard, Tokyo has multiple city centers, more than most cities. It is these city centers or neighborhoods that one comes to visit, since there is in Tokyo no single outstanding monument such as the Colosseum, Brandenburg Gate, or Big Ben to come to visit. You will note these neighborhoods on this map of local Railway Lines of JR East.

Find on the right the stations for the two terminals at Narita Airport. Trace the blue line of the Narita Express until it reaches Tokyo Station on the eastern side in the central loop, where the train splits, and part goes to the second most important station, Shinjuku, which is the interesting neighborhood I’ve chosen to stay in. (The Narita Express in rōmaji is Narita ekusupuresu. It’s fascinating how many vowels have to be mated to the consonants to make it pronounceable in Japanese.)

The central loop, which has many other lines entering and exiting it, is known as the Yamanote Line, shown in light green. It runs in a vertical oval and has 29 stations, all but two of which have other rail connections, including to the subway. It connects the major neighborhoods and urban centers, including Tokyo, Shinagawa, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, Ueno. Tokyo Station is the busiest in Japan in terms of daily trains, over 3,000. Ikebukuro Station, with a daily passenger flow of about 2.75 million, is the second busiest railway station in the world in terms of passengers. The busiest railway station in the world is my Shinjuku Station (1885). It’s used by about 3.5 million passengers a day. Including an underground arcade, it has over 200 exits. Shinjuku Station is registered in the Guinness Book of Records.

Given the importance of Shinjuku Station in regard to Tokyo Station, there is a direct line running across the middle of the central loop between them, the Chuo Line, whose express service has only three intermediate stations. Therefore, it could be said that the central loop is in practice less an oval and really like the Greek letter theta (θ).

While we have this map handy, note the two Shinkansen lines cutting across this area. The blue-and-white dashed Tokaido Shinkansen comes in from Osaka/Kyoto on the lower left, stops at Shin-Yokohama, but not Yokohama, and enters the central loop to Tokyo Station, its last stop. But starting at Tokyo Station is the green-and-white dashed Shinkansen lines which then separate beyond Omiya station into the two directions noted. Also note on this map, branching off the Tohoku Shinkansen at Utsunomiya is the Nikko Line to Nikko, which will be my first stop after Tokyo. Back on the bottom of this map you can find where a red line will take me from Shinjuku to Kamakura on a day trip by rail, on which I’ll stop in Yokohama on the way back. Note also the Tokyo Monorail connecting to the domestic Haneda Airport.

I think a map like this shows the importance of the rail lines connecting the multiple city centers, to say nothing of the Shinkansen connecting most areas of the country.

To this, we have to add the metro. In many cities, the subway is the main rail service, with suburban trains offering little service within the city itself. In Berlin, that’s different, with suburban services (S-Bahn) offering just as much central city service as the subway (U-Bahn). Tokyo is just like that. The previous map essentially showed the Tokyo S-Bahn, while the next one shows the U-Bahn services, which interact heavily—just remember that most stations on the Yamanote Line have multiple connections to both systems.

But there are two problems with the Tokyo subway. One is that it’s two systems, the actual Tokyo Metro having nine lines and the competing Toei system having four. Although they interchange in many places, another fare is needed to change between systems. That was something the New York subway dropped in the early 1940’s, when its three competing systems were merged into one.

The second problem is that the subway map, more than with any other subway system I’m familiar with (and there are many I’ve used), looks like a bowl of spaghetti. Just try following the route of any one line on this map of the Tokyo Metro. First check the lines of the two systems at the lower right, and note how JR Rail, including the Yamanote Line, interact. Then note the typical Japanese-style saving grace for this complicated subway system. Every line is not only color-coded and lettered (in romaji), but each station on that line has a number. So to go from Tokyo Station to Rappongi, go from the red M17 to M15, change lines, and take the gray H6 to H4. In this case, these are both Tokyo Metro lines, so there is only one fare.

When I went to Seoul (2005/7), it was a quick thing. I had to change planes there from Vancouver on to Vladivostok, but with an overnight stay, so I expanded that two nights to include a one-day visit. I didn’t do too much research to learn about the city, but instead arranged for an agency to provide a guide to take me up to the nearby DMZ in the morning and tour Seoul in the afternoon, including a palace and a temple. It worked fine for me, given the time constraints. But one other thing concerned me about Seoul, which is equally true about Japan.

I’m good at showing myself around, but addresses in most East Asian cities are not what Westerners expect. There were no street names at all in Tokyo until occupation forces after WWII imposed them. House numbers on streets are not sequential, but are given to buildings as they are built, so 255 could be next door to 87. There’s a complex system of neighborhoods being broken down to smaller zones, and fortunately the postal workers can figure it out, but most people can’t. Asking shopkeepers what their address is so you can determine where you are will usually get confused looks. When inviting someone somewhere, I understand you usually provide a map, and hope for the best. Frommer’s book says you can expect to get lost, which is something I don’t like, since I guide myself quite well with maps I provide for myself. This remains a cause for concern in Tokyo and Japan, but I’m hoping for the best. At least on good maps, you can count the streets up to a point where you want to make a turn. But beyond that, relying on both rail systems should be a great help in getting around.

Day 1: Leaving New York   I rarely write travel updates in real time. The last one I recall doing that way was to Antarctica (2006/15), and I felt that went rather well, so I’m going to report on the Japan/Taiwan trip in a similar way, day-by-day. It seems to me that give the reader a chance to more fully partake in the trip as it occurs.

The flight was still considered a Northwest flight, although the plane already had Delta livery, so the merger will be completed in due course. I kept in mind that Beverly’s late brother, Phil Johnson, was a Northwest pilot, and often flew the Tokyo route, including out of New York. The flight was full, but not bad. The 14h20 go by fast when you read, nap, and eat (dinner, a snack, breakfast). Perhaps the majority of passengers were Asian, if not Japanese (or Japanese-American), and the announcements in two languages were a nice introduction to the destination. I knew we’d fly something similar to a polar route, and it’s so nice nowadays to follow the route map on the little TV screen on the back of the seat in front. We flew half over land, and half over water. We started northwest (appropriately!) out of New York, over Ontario and the Northwest Territories. We passed over Whitehorse in the Yukon, of recent memory (2005/13), and Anchorage.

Day 2: Arriving in Tokyo   We left Alaska and were then over the Pacific, although quite close to the mainland, including the Kamchatka Peninsula. We were then not far off Hokkaido for an arrival into Tokyo/Narita from the northeast. It did not seem as long a flight as it sounds, although now it’s my longest nonstop to date. I didn’t realize how many people were going even further until they announced the connecting flights people were planning on catching to Beijing, Bangkok, Singapore, and Taipei. This is travel à la puce / flea-style.

I had a bit of business to take care of before leaving the airport. At the JR East rail office I needed to do three things. I only had the voucher for the Railpass, which had to be exchanged for the pass itself. I needed to get my ticket on the Narita Express downtown, and wanted to get the bargain package including the Suica Card, which stores value electronically for subway rides, so that you only have to pass it over the reader to have the fare deducted. And I was desperate to get my overnight sleeper reservation for November 4, my only night to be spent on the train. Although I wanted to do it long in advance, such a reservation could only be made in Japan, and I wanted to do it on the spot. However, the single rooms were already gone on the train, but she could get me a berth in a cabin for four. Well, you sleep dressed and in the presence of other people on the plane, so it should be OK. But then there was a minor cultural thing that pleased me and was a good cultural introduction to Japan. There were two upper births and two lowers, and she assured me I had a lower, and the ticket she showed for the reserved berth, which was, like so many things, both in Japanese and English, said this: CAR 1 SEAT 13下. It was perfect. The symbol we had learned for “down” worked fine to prove I had a lower berth. While this was not exactly “one small step for 人, one giant leap for 人人”, this particular small step made this 人 quite happy. Reviewing the writing system and getting to recognize some two dozen of the easiest characters makes a lot of difference.

The Narita Express took about an hour and a half into town, which gave me a chance to review the items I’d just gotten and to relax. And it was a marvelous introduction to Japanese trains. Sleek, smooth, comfortable, with overhead lighted displays showing just where you were and what was happening, in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and English. Announcements were in Japanese and English. We pulled into Tokyo Station for a moment where the first six cars were uncoupled from the back six, which stayed there while the front of the train did ¾ of the Yamanote route, including stopping at Shinjuku, which I now know is stressed SHIN.ju.ku from hearing the announcements, and not the way I’d been saying it. (Actually, they were saying SHIN.jü.kü, with Ü as in über, but I won’t go there.)

The line runs in an open cut, and as I got off, I could look up and see the Hotel Century Southern Tower right above me. Since it was drizzling, I was glad the hotel was as close as it was, like a port in a storm—but then I’d planned it that way. There are so many tall buildings, and this one was called Southern Tower, with the hotel on the upper floors. I took the lift up to the 20th floor lobby and checked in. How sleek, how smooth, and not at all as pricey as you’d think. I asked for a high floor, which ended up getting me a larger room on the 27th floor than I’d reserved for the same price. I look out east, over central Tokyo, with a large park just beyond Shinjuku Station below. It’s nice watching from above as the trains pull through the station in both directions, and I hear little to no noise. It’s a bit like looking down on model trains at Christmas as a kid.

Japan is known for its big department stores, and I’ve been familiar with Takashimaya for decades. Years ago, long before Japanese cars and electronics became so common, I was impressed that Takashimaya opened a New York branch on Fifth Avenue (at 54th Street). I’d visit it, once in a while, not to buy, but to see a bit of Japan in New York. This summer, I visited it again after many years, just to make that connection again. Takashimaya is everywhere in Japan, but it has foreign outlets only in Taipei, Singapore, Paris and New York. Well, right between Shinjuku Station and the park is the large Takashimaya Store known as Takashimaya Times Square, and that’s the very sign I see out my window.

I noticed coming in that most signs (but not all) have the company names in romaji. I’ve also been told that there is ever less of the old in Tokyo, especially given WWII, and am advised to “enjoy the modern city”. With all the high rises, and that park across the way, it does look quite a bit like New York. And the TV in the room is a Mitsubishi, as at home. When in Honolulu last year (2008/24), I mentioned that the Japanese-run Waikiki Joy Hotel I stayed at had that bidet-toilet so popular in Japan. No surprise, I have one here, and now know it’s called a washlet.

It was nice to be in out of the drizzle and looking forward to my first full day. After the long trip, it was appropriate to quote Samuel Pepys again: And so to bed.