{"id":527,"date":"2006-08-27T17:12:53","date_gmt":"2006-08-27T17:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/?p=527"},"modified":"2006-08-27T17:12:53","modified_gmt":"2006-08-27T17:12:53","slug":"narita_the_town_not_narita_the","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/narita_the_town_not_narita_the\/","title":{"rendered":"Narita (the town) not Narita (the airport)"},"content":{"rendered":"

One ironclad rule I’ve tried to live by when travelling is, “find a crash pad near the train station<\/strong>“. Repeat that five times really loud. “FINDACRASHPADNEARTHETRAINSTATION” X 5. OK, done.
\nAnd for the most part, I’ve been pretty good about that. There are several advantages to having a guesthouse\/hostel\/hotel near the train station. They include:
\nYou have an instant landmark (the train station)<\/strong>.
\nIf you find yourself iniebriated, you can simply tell the cab\/police car driver, “drop me off at the “blank” train station”<\/em>.
\n
\nConvenience<\/strong>.
\nWhen you arrive at your destination late in the evening, you don’t want to be scratching your head trying to figure out where your lodging is, especially since everywhere else is closed (because it’s late). Also, since most Japanese towns have the eki in the center of town, all the useful things, such as combini and late night food are close by. <\/em>
\nAs I wrote about in an earlier entry, my JR Pass<\/a> was due to expire this evening. If I spent the night in Tokyo and braved the commuter hell the next morning, I would be Y1150 and at least 2.5 hours poorer. Ever try to push your way onto the Yamanote with baggage during the commute? I have and it’s something I don’t want to do. EVER. AGAIN.
\nI had the brilliant idea of going out to Narita (the town) tonight, crashing in a hostel there and heading out the next morning to Narita (the airport). It sounds good on paper, right? Well, it didn’t turn out quite as painless as much as my Japan travel usually is.
\nIn order to maximize my time in Tokyo, I booked myself on the last N’Ex of the evening which left around 2000. I spent much of the afternoon wandering around Kabuki-Cho and the Golden Gai, two places in Shinjuku i’ve not been to yet.
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nThe last train outta town…or at least to NRT<\/em>
\nOne piece of advice for riding the N’Ex. When you acquire your ticket, you get a car and seat assignment. That assignment cooresponds with the signage on the platform floor. The N’Ex splits into two sublines upon arrival at Tokyo-eki from NRT. One part continues on to Shinjuku and the other continues on to Yokohama and points south. When you are taking the N’Ex back to NRT, the two parts arrive and combine to form one big train that leaves Tokyo-eki and arrives at NRT.
\nI watched some Amerika-jin chase the first part of our train to arrive down the platform before having to stagger back to where their seat assignments were when the second part of the train arrived a few minutes later. They did this even though there was a lot of signage saying “don’t do that”. Ha!
\nHey, I may have attended the San Francisco Public schools, but at least I can read lah! <\/strong>
\nAnyway, the ride to Narita (the town) was uneventful aside from meeting a couple from South Africa who came to Japan for their honeymoon. They spent a lot of time in Kyoto and Hakone, as a lot of honeymooners who come to Japan do (heh heh). When the train arrived at Narita (the town), I ran into a couple of other flashpackers who had the same evil plan I did so we decided to get lost together. After a few wrong turns and some confused directions, we found our way to the Azure Guesthouse<\/a>. It took us a grand total of 45 minutes to find the place, dragging baggage up and down hills. I developed ugly blisters the size of dollar coins (Eisenhower) on at least four parts of my feet. Pain!
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nThe lobby of the Azure Guesthouse at 0600. That be early! <\/em>
\nThe Azure Guesthouse is a bit of a way away from the eki and what passes for downtown Narita. You pass through downtown, pass a hospital and a Chrysler (!) dealership. You also pass a Matsumoto-Kiyoshi<\/a> (drug store), a used bookstore and a grocery\/liquor store before you get to Azure. Once we arrived, we found out that there were a total of five guests (including the three of us who just arrived) in the entire hostel. There was a couple of Koreans who were staying here and commuting into Tokyo each day to play tourist. That’s like staying in Simi Valley and driving into downtown LA each day. Not the smartest use of your limited vacation time.
\nThe hostel is on the small side, but was relatively new and whose interior designer subscribes to the “neo-japanese dark wood” design asthetic. It looks cool. There are three rooms with three bunk beds in each. One shower and one toilet for all. My brief stay here was tempered by some quirks that I normally would have expected in guesthouses in Bangkok. Or mainland China. But not Japan. First off, the guesthouse is on the second floor of the building. That really means the third floor, because here it’s “Ground” then “1st” then “2nd” floor. For much of the US, it’s “Ground” then “2nd” then “3rd”.
\nThat’s to cut off any sort of wise ass remarks that may come because I had to go up ONE flight of stairs…
\nThen the signage. Signs everywhere. “No shoes past this point”. “Drinks only in the common room”. “Clean up after yourself”. “Make your sheets like this”. The last sign annoyed me to no end. Seems that they want you to fold your sheet into a psuedo-sleeping bag, covering your pillow so that the only thing your gaijin body touches is the sheet. Very uncomfortable and when I tried to comply, it didn’t work. The next AM, I woke up (EARLY!) with the sheet on the floor and the blanket and pillow in some unholy communion under my head. Guess they’ll have to wash the pillowcase! And the sheets! Did I mention that I got charged Y300 for a towel? And Y300 for plugging my MacBook into their (throttled) “broadband ” connection? That’s gotta be the slowest broadband I’ve ever experienced in Japan. On the plus side, they sell beer (Yebisu!) and there’s a combini across the street that sells pretty good kara-age.
\nLike I said, it felt more like Bangkok or mainland China, except cleaner and with smarter design.
\nIt’s always easier to find your way back then to find your way somewhere. The next morning, I followed the directions posted to get back to the Keisei Narita-eki, which is next to the JR Narita-eki. I left the guesthouse at 0615. I arrived at 0635. And that was with me walking slowly, dragging my roller bag behind me. It’s definitely easier when you know where things are. And when it’s daylight.
\nThe best thing was that Keisei took my Passnet card<\/a>, which I thought was only good on the Tokyo Metro, because that’s where I bought it. The Passnet card is a stored value card (like a BART ticket or an Octopus\/EZ Link) that you can use on all the subway lines in the Tokyo area (EXCEPT JR lines). I purchased one for Y1000 becuase I needed to take the subway for a few trips and I hate having to purchase a ticket each time I go through the wicket. Best of all, if you have to transfer between the Eidan and the Toei, you don’t have to purchase two individual tickets. Using your Passnet card makes the transfer seamless.
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nThis is Keisei Narita-eki at 0646. If this were anywhere in Tokyo, I’d be drowning in commuters right now.<\/em>
\nHere ends your Japan travel advice for today…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One ironclad rule I’ve tried to live by when travelling is, “find a crash pad near the train station“. Repeat that five times really loud. “FINDACRASHPADNEARTHETRAINSTATION” X 5. OK, done. And for the most part, I’ve been pretty good about that. There are several advantages to having a guesthouse\/hostel\/hotel near the train station. They include: … <\/p>\n

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