Leaving Tokyo

It’s sooooo hard to leave!
As my friend Schulhoff notes in his blog (See links on home page, lah!), leaving Tokyo is like leaving a good friend.
I’ll take it a step further by saying leaving Tokyo is like leaving a very good friend that you used to date once.
Tokyo is expensive and sometimes exasperating. But it is full of good moments and secrets that are aching to be discovered that you tend to forget the annoying aspects. Until something like this happens…
The Keisei line is the cheapest rail option to get to and from Narita. As I blogged earlier, there’s a tokkyu (limited express) and the Skyliner that stops at Narita City before reaching the airport. Tokkyu = many stops and 15 minutes longer than the Skyliner. Skyliner = less stops.
Since they run on the same track, it’s a matter of timing on which train you should get (as I learned).
I was running late (as usual) and was a bit stressed about getting to Narita. So, when I got off the JR and was lugging the 20 kilo (yup!) red monster, I got to the ticket window and muttered “Skyliner”. I made it with about 20 minutes to spare.
So good ending to entry, right? Nope.
When I got to the platform, a tokkyu showed up within 5 minutes. Then I had another 15 minutes to wait for the Skyliner.
There’s only one track, which means that the tokkyu will get to Narita before the Skyliner will. And the 15 minutes I waited on the platform would have equaled the difference in time between the two lines.
So the moral for the story is: When you get to the Ueno/Nippori Keisei ticket office, see which train is leaving first and jump on it.
If you’re good, you’ll get a tokkyu and an extra Y1000 in your pocket for omiyage!