Asia Trip - April 14

 14 April 2025

Today was travel to Japan. We left the AirBNB at about 8 AM, grabbed a small breakfast, and then Marty found that there was a bus that would take us directly to the airport quite quickly. The Airport Limousine was a great way to get to the airport, with specific luggage storage and nice seats.

One particularly interesting thing happened in the Incheon airport. A group of people in traditional Korean clothing came marching through the airport. The lead two people were dressed in yellow, and on played a drum while the other blew his horn. Next was what seemed like the master of ceremonies dressed in Black. There were then guards in red carrying traditional pole swords, standard bearers in green, followed by what seemed like people meant to be dignitaries and their attendants. I have no other context for it but it was very interesting to see.

Travel days always seem long, and this one was no exception. The flight to Japan is pretty short, less than three hours, and soon we were at the Narita airport. From there we took the Skyliner train to Aoto, and quickly transfered to the Keikyu line limited express which should take us all the way to Miurakaigan station. Of course, nothing ever goes as smoothly.

First, we were able to easily buy tickets for the Skyliner, but they said we would have to buy other tickets with cash in order to transfer to the Keikyu line. They also said that our transfer would happen at the same platform. Not a big deal, so we hopped on the Skyliner and were off. After exiting the Skyliner at Aoto, the next train seemed to be there in moments. Without a lot of time to think things over, or find more details, we just hopped on.

The Skyliner was a nice reserved seat train, with specific luggage storage. The Keikyu line train was a regular commuter train, and was soon very very full with all kinds of commuting traffic. I was very nervous that I had chosen horribly. I worried about having selected the wrong transport. I even worried that the house that I had rented was simply too far away, and I had ruined the Japan leg of our journey.

As the train went on, some of my fears were realized, and I began to understand that the train we were on was a Haneda Airport limited express. This train followed the route that I wanted until one specific station, at which point it diverted and went to this other airport. Feeling like I had likely ruined things I told Marty, April, and Becky that we needed to get off at the next stop, the last stop before the paths diverged.

Now off the train, I needed to figure out how I had messed that up. On the platform we were now at, the signage said each of the trains that would come to that platform were the Haneda limited express. At the other side of the platform, another train pulled up, and Marty pointed out that it said Misakiguchi. I had seen that name somewhere, and know that it was at the southern end of the line, and so hurriedly told our friends to board.

This train was now completely full of commuter traffic, and we stood for most of the ride. As seats would open up one by one we would take them. I took the last seat to come open, in part because I felt responsible for every bump and hiccup along our journey, and needed to ensure the comfort of my travel companions. By this time it was 7 PM, and we were well into long day territory. I nervously checked the train route that I wanted to be on with each stop that we came to. After about 8 stops in a row that matched the route, I began to relax a little. Once I saw that Miurakaigan was one of the stops on the screen, I felt much better about the train, and just worried about the next phase, getting from from the train to the house.

In preparation for this I had downloaded the emailed travel instructions and house instructions to my phone so that I would have them offline when we arrived. I must say they were great, and we quickly found the house and were able to get settled. The house seemed really good, although the host must have had a traumatic experience at some point with noisy guests, because there was dozens and dozens of be quiet signs.

With it being after 8 PM, and having had a long day, we hit up the 7-11 to grab some food, and then settled into our home for the next week. Miura is the name of the city that we were staying in, which covers a peninsula at the west side of the entrance to Tokyo Bay. Kaigan we later learned means coast, and this was very true. Our house was only 25 meters from the beach, and we could hear the surf when we opened the windows.