Having made it through passport control and customs, we found ourselves actually in Narita Airport finally.  We followed the signs to the floor we thought we needed.  I approached the JR counter there, and tried in my best simple Japanese to say we needed our NEX/Suica passes.  It didn’t go so well.  I thought I said it correctly!

“Narita Express and Suica?”

“Ah, you need to go downstairs,” she said, pointing at yet another escalator/staircase.  *sigh*

Downstairs the simplicity of the previous floor disappeared.  Away to one side was a much larger JR office.  We went inside and after a short wait I simply asked the obviously harried girl there, “Narita Express and Suica?”  She asked for our passports, and handed us these handy little folders with our Suica cards, and then our Narita Express tickets.  We happily paid and then made our way down yet another escalator to the platform, when another preview of things to come reared its ugly head.

“Where are the restrooms?” the wife asked me.  A quick look around proved useless, until a little sign saying they were upstairs appeared to us.  Again, *sigh*

Back up the stairs to the restrooms, where I did the man-wait thing with our luggage.  Several minutes passed, and a cleaning lady exited the restroom with her gear.  Another several minutes passed, until finally she emerged.  “I had to wait on the only western-style unit in there!”

Yeah, the bathroom thing had already got us, and we were just barely underway.  Actually this problem is two-fold.  One is the relative lack of public toilets in Japan.  They’re there, just they’re usually few and far between.  Two, in public restrooms you’ll usually find the “otearai” versions, with maybe one or two “western-style” johns in the place….

The Platform opposite the NEX platform.

Anyway!  Back down to the platform, and we realize we need to figure out where to stand in order to get onto the car we need.  We noticed on the floor, just in front of the “kiirosen” (yellow line) there were marking that indicated where the cars would stop.  Excellent!  We found our stop and waited for the train to arrive, which it did.

The Narita Express is an excellent introduction to the Japanese rail system.  It’s quiet, uncrowded, with comfortable seats and a cart that will make one or two passes where you can buy drinks or a snack.

Did I say excellent introduction?  Well, maybe that’s a bit misleading.  If you’ll be riding the Tokyo Metro system after this, as we did, it turns out this will be the most comfortable ride you’ll have, probably.  Unless you’re getting on one of the shinkansen trains bound for elsewhere, or another “reserved seat” train like the Odakyu Romance Car….  this is as good as it gets.

Inside the Narita Express

The airport faded away to alternating scenes of rice fields and small suburban-style communities.  You could see a few temples here and there, and get a good, but short glimpse into what life must be like outside the city.

Then things start to change.  The smaller homes and apartments start giving way to larger apartment buildings, aka “mansions.”  More and more stores and industrial-type buildings appear, and they get taller, and taller.  More railway stations whiz by, and more “infrastructure” becomes apparent.

Our first stop, Tokyo station.  Although we couldn’t actually see anything since we were somewhere underground.  At this point the NEX splits into two sections.  One goes on to Shinjuku (our destination), the other towards Yokohama.

Back underway the scale of Tokyo and its density becomes apparent.  The mansions give way to office buildings and bigger mansions.  The streets get wider and narrower all at the same time, broken up by passing platforms full of waiting salarymen and school children, and by brief sections of tracks, tunnels, and large bridges, until finally the slightly British-intoned female voice announces we’ll be arriving at Shinjuku station shortly… which we do, and we get our first real taste of the city.

Related posts:

1. Arriving in Japan!