{"id":157,"date":"2007-12-01T20:15:05","date_gmt":"2007-12-02T02:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bogott.net\/unspecified\/?p=157"},"modified":"2007-12-01T20:15:05","modified_gmt":"2007-12-02T02:15:05","slug":"one-more-mystery-on-the-road-to-narita","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bogott.net\/unspecified\/?p=157","title":{"rendered":"One more mystery on the road to Narita"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"narita1.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"narita2.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I had a very bad time immediately after taking the above photo.<\/p>\n

I was dragging my enormous roller-bag towards the subway station, and realized that I was in no mood to ka-bump, ka-bump, ka-bump, ka-bump it down 4 flights of stairs. \u00a0Every station has an elevator, but they\u2019re typically well hidden. \u00a0So I located a beat cop and asked him how I could get to the Asakusa line.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There was a bit of comedic half-understood conversation. \u00a0Where do you want to go? \u00a0Asakusa station. \u00a0But where are you going? \u00a0Narita. \u00a0Narita? \u00a0Narita. \u00a0To Narita? \u00a0Yes, Narita. \u00a0You want Narita, right? \u00a0Yes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At this point, the cop whipped out a collapsible pointers and smacked it against the map above his head. \u00a0(Do they all carry those? \u00a0I guess so.) \u00a0A bit of pointing and gesturing and broken english convinced me that I wanted the \u2018Express line to Narita\u2019 and that I had to go to \u2018Asakusa station\u2019 which was half-way across the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why did I listen? \u00a0I knew exactly what subway line to take, which train to get on, etc. \u00a0But he was so compelling with his uniform and map and pointer, and he kept saying Express! \u00a0Express! \u00a0and I though, I want express! \u00a0Express is good! \u00a0So, off I went, dragging my bag.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

20 minutes and one backache later I located the Asukusa express station (as promised, totally different from Asakusa metro station, and servicing a different train line entirely). \u00a0I stuck me head in the station and asked an attendant which train went to Narita.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Oh, she said, you want the Asukusa metro line. \u00a0And she pulled out a map, and started giving me directions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In retrospect, I know what happened: \u00a0She was giving me directions back to exactly where I\u2019d started. \u00a0But, her map had a reverse orientation from the last map I\u2019d looked at. \u00a0(North is not necessarily up on Japanese maps, they try instead to orient them the way you\u2019re facing, which works great if they\u2019re attached to a plaque but not so well for fold-up paper maps of which this was one.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So, that sent me another 20 minutes in the wrong direction… or would\u2019ve except I finally figured out what was happening 15 minutes later, resolved never again ask directions in Tokyo, and made a beeline back to the station which I had intended to use in the first place — and took the damn stairs. \u00a0Kabump, kabump, kabump.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The upshot of all this is that I arrived at Narita airport at 5:10 for an international flight that departed at 5:45. \u00a0Many thanks are owed to the staff of Narita airport whose heroic efforts got me on the plane anyway — with a row to myself, no less.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a very bad time immediately after taking the above photo. I was dragging my enormous roller-bag towards the subway station, and realized that I was in no mood to ka-bump, ka-bump, ka-bump, ka-bump it down 4 flights of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bogott.net\/unspecified\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bogott.net\/unspecified\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bogott.net\/unspecified\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bogott.net\/unspecified\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bogott.net\/unspecified\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bogott.net\/unspecified\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bogott.net\/unspecified\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bogott.net\/unspecified\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bogott.net\/unspecified\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}