Japan: En route - Day 0

It was the much awaited ANA flight out of Chicago ready to be taken on 25^th June. Abhishek helped me board my luggage in the Reindeer shuttle (the second baggage was free as the driver didn’t carefully check the ticket). It was a carefully calculated risk either to lose 15$ or to save 10$. The bus duration was 1.5-2 hours full of Spotify music. I arrived at the Terminal 2 around 12:30 PM Chicago time but the ANA boarding was not to open until 2:45 PM and I had to sit there for another 2 hours. While waiting there, I met a person from Lisbon, Portugal who had come to Chicago for a conference and was doing a job or postdoc in Lisbon. Finally, the counter opened after a torturous 2 hours and I got my boarding pass after which I got through the security and immigration within no time.

Chicago airport

Endless waiting at Chicago airport

The flight was at 5:15 PM and I had to wait at the gate for another one and a half hour. But eventually, when the flight came, it was a super cool Star Wars ANA flight which I later realized was not so common to board on. To sum up, in order to make sure not to miss the flight, I started the journey to the airport so early that I had to wait at least 1.5 at every major step.

Star Wars ANA flight

The flight experience was also amongst the best till now. It had the maximum leg space that I had till now, the air hostesses were the kindest (or it’s just the Japanese effect), it had good food (with a menu beforehand), live camera giving the feed of the path in front of the plane and most of all, it had good and some of the latest movies. That was the reason that made me watch 3 movies in a single flight of 11 hours, my personal best. Movies included Logan, Madaari and John Wick: Chapter 2. Incidentally, while the plane was flying over North Dakota while Wolverine was also in North Dakota in the movie.

Just over Chicago

Although the flight started at 5:15 PM, there was daylight throughout the flight except maybe for the last half an hour or one hour after which the flight ultimately landed at the Haneda, Tokyo. It was by far the smoothest flight with the best service experienced by me till now.

Landing at Tokyo Haneda

The immigration was quick at Tokyo and got my baggage within 10 minutes. After some effort, I got my phone connected to the internet at Haneda and made contact with Prakhar. He informed me about the route that I was supposed to take and told me that I should stay at Shibuya for some time and then go to the Komaba todai-mai station as he would be late running some errands. I bought the tickets with the help of a Japanese helper and boarded the train. Fortunately, the train also had wi-fi. I got off at Shibuya, took the Hachiko exit with the two bags. Eager to come out of the Shibuya station to see the Hachiko statue, I was so glad to see the crossing. It was busy, crowded fully as expected although the statue was not so impressive. I expected the statue to be a lot in the center, rather it was behind a pillar and was kind of hidden from the view. Waiting there for about 15 min, I started to search for the Keio Inokashira line which I was not able to find. Not so desperately but badly wanting to speak some Japanese, I asked one Japanese group of youths for the direction. Initially, they also didn’t know where the line was but asking the station-master people, they understood the location and as expected of Japanese, they accompanied me to the Keio line.

Shibuya crossing

Boarding the Keio line, I got off at Komaba todai-mai station. As soon as I exited the station, there was Prakhar standing there smiling with his bike and talking to my dad. After he forced me to touch his feet, we walked to his home. I was on the bike but its chain soon fell off while changing gears rapidly on the uphill. So, we both started walking and soon reached home after a lot of turns in the narrow lanes.

Home was a lot smaller than I expected from seeing the photos. Upon reaching, push up competition and while I cleaned the room, Prakhar cooked the food. After eating, talking (in low voice) and packing the new things, I went to sleep almost immediately. 

At home