8.5 Hours in Tokyo - Nech does Japan

That's right. Already delayed one night in Detroit, I opted to delay myself even more by convincing NWA to allow me to stay the night in Tokyo.. Initially offered 9:45 or 11 AM flights the next morning, I was given a 7 AM flight instead without paid hotel. I figured this was ok - I could still spend the night in Tokyo and return to the airport in the morning. The girl waiting on line next to me was less certain. "You know", she said, "people in Japan don't speak English very much."
"Don't worry, I speak Mandarin."
"Putonghua??!!" [Mandarin]
"id'ar" [a little]
She grimaced.

I was wrong about about staying in Tokyo overnight. Tokyo was a 1.5 hour train ride from Narita, and the first train only arrived 6:30 AM; I needed to board at 6 AM. I decided to just sleep on a bench in the airport instead. And by the time I got my new ticket, some Yen, 3 maps, 2 train schedules, a tourist guide from the information booth, and arrived in Tokyo, it was already 2:30 and the last train back to Narita was 11 PM.

In those 8.5 hours in Tokyo, I got to see the imperial palace, meditate in Tokyo's oldest Buddhist Temple (I got a good fortune), take a boat down the central river, walk around a Japanese mall, enjoy a stroll over Rainbow Bridge, and ride up Tokyo's tallest tower.

As exciting as that was, the real adventure came only when I left Tokyo at 11 PM. Though I had been successfully albeit slowly navigating the metro until then, I missed one of the transfers on the way to Narita. Luckily, I realized this a mere two stops later. Unluckily, that was still five minutes too late and I was stuck for the night in the random Japanese city of Abiko. At least it was safe in the train station.

Then the station closed. After failing to convince security to allow me to stay, I found myself stranded on the street.

So that's how I found myself huddled up in a nook in front of a hair salon two stories up overlooking a little convenience store (open 24 hours) and a parking lot containing 3 cabs. Every once in a while some people would walk into the store. Sometimes they were drunk. Every time I heard footsteps I would jump a bit. Thankfully, nobody came up those stairs. I figured it was a bad idea to go to sleep, so I stayed up and read The Audacity of Hope.

At 5 AM the station opened and I got hot chocolate from a machine.
At 5:30 I boarded the first train to Narita, which only got in at 6:30. Uh oh (I had found this out the night before, but I had no real alternative).
At 6:30 I ran from the station to my best guess as to the departure area. Nobody was there. Fortunately, my guess was right, because I finally find one guy who asks as I'm approaching, "Hong Kong?", which apparently was the only flight leaving before 8 AM. He rushes me over somewhere, where I showed my ticket, put my bag through security, but then was told that I was too late.

Ten minutes later I was on the plane. Four hours later I was in Hong Kong, 60 hours after I had left New York. I was very ready for a change of clothes and some deoderant.

Then I noticed a paper stuck to an upside-down container on the luggage carousel.

"NECHEMYA ELIEZER KAGEDAN, please see NWA ground staff for baggage information."

I did eventually get my bag - another 30 hours later.

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