Arriving in Tokyo

At 7:45 a.m., I boarded EVA Air flight BR192 at Taipei Songshan Airport and arrived at Tokyo Haneda Airport about two and a half hours later.

It had been six years since my last trip abroad, and this was one of the goals I had set when I returned to graduate school for my PhD. Maybe this would be the last time I traveled overseas this way?

It was my first time flying on the Hello Kitty plane. I was not exactly a Hello Kitty fan, but I still took a lot of photos. Would the return flight be on this too? On the plane, I watched Transformers: Age of Extinction. Since the flight was pretty short, I did not get to finish it, but the plot made absolutely no sense to me.

Compared with my trip to France, I was already pretty familiar with Tokyo’s trains. As soon as I entered Japan, I started looking around for where I could catch a train. There were two train options from Haneda Airport to central Tokyo. I chose the Keikyu Airport Line, then transferred at Shinagawa to the Yamanote Line for Shinjuku, because the Sakura House office was there.

My luggage this time included a 20-kilogram mountaineering backpack plus the backpack I usually carried, with my laptop, camera, and other electronics inside. Altogether it came to about 27 kilograms, so I could only stand the whole way, since taking the backpack off and putting it back on was too much trouble. Shinagawa is a major station, and I spent quite a while figuring out the transfer.

I was already pretty used to Tokyo’s trains, but I still almost could not find Sakura House. The day before, I had checked Google Maps in advance, but it was wrong! Fortunately, the SIM card Yu-Ju had given me let me get online in time to check the directions on the official website, and I finally made it.

The Sakura House staff kindly explained the rental rules and contract to me. Life in Japan has a lot more rules to follow than in Taiwan, such as how to handle trash and when to take it out. They explained everything in detail, and it took about two hours to complete the process.

After I received the keys, I slung on my 27-kilogram backpack once again and headed to the apartment. I lived near Toritsu-Daigaku Station on the Tokyu Toyoko Line. From the station, it was a five-minute walk to the northeast. The building was four stories tall, and my room was on the fourth floor. It was a small room, the smallest in the building, and naturally the cheapest as well.

This building, fourth floor

It was cheap, but it still came with most of the things I would need for daily life, including plates, bowls, and utensils. There was a bathroom, while the toilet was shared. In the evening I went to the supermarket near the station to buy daily necessities, and I felt a little shy at checkout because I could not speak Japanese.

That night I wrote in my diary and watched Avatar on TV before going to bed. I did not understand much of the English or Japanese, but I still chose English in the end, since it was at least better than Japanese.

Before sleeping, I found myself thinking about what I wanted to achieve on this trip. Was it simply a journey? Was it an internship at a Japanese software company? Was it to experience life in Japan? Or was it to strengthen my mind?

I am a sensitive and introverted person. Every time I go abroad, I force myself to open my closed inner world just a little. If I do not decide to change, there is no way I can grow much. I only have a little less than two months in Tokyo this time, even shorter than summer break. Before I know it, the days could slip away quietly. I have to make the most of my time and change something. I am thirty now.