Narita

Every April, Narita - the city, not the airport - hosts a spring drum festival that draws crowds to its narrow shopping streets and the beautiful grounds of the Buddhist temple Naritasan Shinsoji. It takes 10 minutes by train to get there from the airport and you can walk into the heart of the place from the station. We spent the afternoon there on Sunday, having just returned from 10 days in Vietnam. The town was thump-thump-thumping with a steady lineup of public taiko performances.

Here's a shot of Terry (in baseball cap) and Conor (to his right) following some other visitors up the temple hall steps. I love the sun visor on the lady leading the pack.

In a side courtyard, jizo statues. I've seen many in my time here but never with this many bibs.

Japanese parents mourning dead children are said to dress these statues and leaving food offerings (packaged snacks mainly) as a way of caring for them, in the hopes that the bodhisattva will protect their offspring's spirits in the underworld.

Rope sandals are another type of offering.

 

Wouldn't ya know, the Narita city mascot is an airplane. Or is it half-bird, half plane?

sage advice from savvy business traveler

Email from my husband to my brother who's coming to Tokyo next week from New York:

The [Narita express train from the airport] splits at Tokyo, with half of the cars bound for Yokohama (south) and half for Shinjuku (north), so you can take the N'EX 30 (or the 32 or the 34) and get off at Shibuya or Shinagawa.  Just go to the counter and tell them Shibuya and they'll give you a seat in a car going to Shibuya - just make sure you sit the designated one (it'll say on the ticket and the clerk will helpfully / painstakingly point it out).  You can pay with a credit card.


But really either station is fine - it's not that far to the Westin from Shinagawa, although it will be more than 1,000 yen.  It could be more from Shibuya as well, so you should take out money at the airport (if you forget you can use a credit card, by the way).  Just say "Card-o OK?" and look apologetic.  If they say bakka gaijin that means that they are welcoming you to their country with open arms and hoping to see you in their cab again soon.


But I do recommend you at least consider the bus.  I understand and agree with you about trains versus buses.  But you're not getting on a crusty Gray Line bus from JFK to the Port Authority, with some obese dude noisily eating a bag of Doritos in the corner.  You'll be boarding a gleaming Friendly Limousine Bus where a 75-pound girl will smilingly lug your bag from curb to cargo hold, and you'll be taken directly to your hotel.  No muss, no fuss.

practical magic

I stand by my previous recommendation that travelers take the train instead of the bus from Narita airport into the city of Tokyo, with one very important exception. That is, me, i.e. parent traveling solo with two "high-energy" boys and three very heavy suitcases. The Airport Limousine Bus may hit highway traffic and you might have to sit through multiple hotel stops before reaching your destination, but it's easy-peasy to find it and get on -- no trying to herd the cats while also lugging the big valises up and down escalators, through ticket gates, across platforms, and in and out of the trains during the 10 or 15 seconds the doors remain open. You just wheel that Smarte Carte out of customs and through the terminal front door and let the courteous and totally competent attendant/bus baggage handler take over. (This is Japan, after all, a country that seems to me to have set the gold standard for customer service. Returning from a two-week trip to New York this past weekend -- it was the boys' Easter break -- I nearly embraced the man who thus unburdened me.

I'm not exaggerating. It was a revelation. I always feel so alone on that Narita Express platform. Alone and annoyed, at my boys who don't stand back from the edge, and those train doors that only stay open a few moments while I shout "LIFT! ROLL! LEAVE IT AND GO FIND YOUR SEAT!" like a Crazymama. But on Saturday, I was practically serene. I never knew if we hit traffic or not. It didn't matter. I was dozing, the boys were DS-ing. And when we arrived at The Westin hotel in Ebisu, a 5-minute taxi ride away from home, I think the boys and I wheeled the three mammoth bags about 6 ft. before a nice man wearing a cap lifted them into our cab's trunk.

I used to pooh-pooh (or is it poo-poo?) the "limousine" coach because I so love love love the trains here, I really do (in terms of cost the difference in fares is negligible: 3,000 yen for the bus vs. 3,300 yen for the Narita express), but I have seen the light. If you don't have kids or much baggage with you, I still say N'EX all the way, but from now on I will be catching that coach.

Unless Terry is with me, because when he is, he does all the heavy lifting while I hand out the snacks.