10 Cities on Standby Japan

   As soon as I arrive in the airport my first mission is to get all of my luggage. I exit the plane and go towards the baggage claim area. It still hasn't hit me that I am halfway across the world; airports have an air of international commonality to them. I arrive at the baggage pick up area and one of my bags is the first to arrive, "Excellent, everything is going as planned and I'm going to be the first to get out of here!" I thought excitedly to myself. Well I thought too soon. I end up the absolute last person waiting at the baggage pick up area with one less bag than I came in with. I'm in Japan and don't speak a lick of Japanese. Damn it! After all those years of watching anime you at least would think I could say a few words. Well the international commonality provided me with a few people that could speak passable English, enough for me to understand that my bag was transported on the flight to Taipei and would be waiting for me when I arrived at Taoyuan airport. I put a half check mark on my imaginary checklist and moved on.

I had written down the address of the Capsule Inn on a notebook in both English and Japanese (my Chinese character practice helped with that one) and requested assistance with directions from a few female employees. I showed them my notebook and wondered whether they were giggling at my chicken scratch Japanese or the fact this amazingly handsome white man could write Japanese, probably the former. They pointed me towards the information kiosk where I was handed the most convoluted, complicated, headache inducing railway system map in the world.

The information kiosk woman highlighted my route on the map and told me the stations to get off at. Simple enough, I have all the names in Japanese and English on this map and can count the number of stops it will take me to get to Kinshicho Station, my final destination. I buy my ticket, enter the station, and patiently wait for the train to arrive.

When the train arrives I board and prepare myself to intensively watch every single station that passes by. Immediately, the first station we arrive at is no where to be found on the map. I flip it over and try to read the Japanese, turned it upside down, folded it and reopened it in hopes the station would magically appear as if I was holding the Marauders Map. No luck. The first station and I'm already lost. I decide to wait it out for a few stops and finally I recognize one and it turns out I'm already heading in the wrong direction. I get off the train and reluctantly set my manhood aside and ask for directions. Turns out once I exit the international commonality area nobody speaks English, but body language is universal. I walk up to a few extremely helpful Japanese people and beginning pointing all over the map and stare blankly at them as they respond in Japanese. No hable japanese....bu shuo riwen....I don't speak japanese....Ya nye gavaru pa yaponski....point to ears, shake my head, and raise my hands. Body language goes a long way. I re-enter the train and make my way to what I think is the correct station, but again I find out I am going the wrong way. I repeat my strategy, re-enter the train and I am on my way again. As I'm seemingly aimlessly riding these trains back and forth I can't help but notice the amount of people within 1 inch of my proximity, cramming into each train, most of them business men in suits going home around 12:30pm.

I ask another person if he knows how I can get to Kinshicho Station and as best as he can he motions that he is going to that station. Perfect, I can finally escape my individual efforts to traverse this system of ant tunnels. I follow Kinshicho Man as he exits and boards trains, narrowly avoiding a vomit covered floor of a train, and lagging behind him as he speed walks from platform to platform all with my suitcase, backpack, and camera case. The usually questions never occurred to me as I was blindly following this person wherever he went, "Where is he taking me? Should I be following this complete stranger? What if he takes me to a back alley and steals all of my luggage? Is he part of the Yakuza? Am I about to be raped?" These questions finally dawned on me as we were rushing through some random station onto another train. I began to keep a bit of distance from the man as my paranoia began to set in, but my undying trust in people kept me believing in the purity of the man's actions. I read "Kinshicho Station" on the digital display in the train and I exhaled a giant sigh of relief, I finally made it. The man sends me off with a big smile and a handshake and I couldn't thank Kinshicho Man enough, I wanted to jump on him and give him a gigantic hug, but I restrained myself to  thanking him 3-4 times. I finally get out hell incarnated with my luggage and orifices intact.

As I exit the train station at 1:30am I see lit up buildings, arcades, and restaurants open, everything I imagined Japan to be like. Still unaware of where the Inn is located I ask a local construction worker who guides me to a map expecting me to recognize where Sumida-ku, Kinshicho 2-6-3, Tokyo, Japan is located on this completely unfamiliar map. I decided instead to walk around and end up coming upon a park with a small local shrine.

After I ask a few people they guide me towards a few alleyways where I ask another person where this Inn is located and show him the address, Sumid-ku, Kinshicho, 2-6-3 Tokyo, Japan. He plugs it into his google maps and follows that up with a call to his friend. "Oh god, not again, he's calling his buddies up so they can beat me to a pulp and steal all of my possessions." I cautiously walk with him and make small talk about the reason of my trip and I ask why so many people are working this late, but the language barrier prevented any conversation deeper than 5 word sentences. We come to another alley and he points me to a large blue sign and tells me this is the Inn and for me to get some rest because I must be very tired. Human benevolence prevails again! I enter the Inn present my reservation and am welcomed as if I was the most valued guest they ever accommodated. They give me slippers, show me around the Inn which contained public showers, free toothbrushes, shavers, shaving cream, lockers for clothes and luggage, a massage area, and a sauna which was so incredibly hot spending more than 5 minutes in there must be some sort of Guinness World Record. We pass a few capsules on the way to mine and I notice varied types of people staying here from old men snoring a few capsules away from me, a couple westerners, teenagers on their computers and playing PSP. I wondered what all these mix of people were doing here. I didn't bother to ask.  He shows me to my capsule and I unpack some of my belongings, use their amenities and at 3:04 attempt to go to sleep after watching anime without the subtitles (why would they need them here anyways?)