Tokyo with a Baby

Yesterday we flew from Seattle to Narita with a four month old. We drove from Portland to Seattle in the morning and arrived at Sea-Tac around lunch time. Luckily we got there early enough to score an air-bassinet, which are first-come, first-served. They just attached the little crib to the wall of the bulkhead. It worked out wonderfully. The ten hour flight plus two hours’ worth of boarding, taxiing, and de-planing (Delta assures me this is a word) were brutal even for road warriors like us. By the end of it, I am pretty sure the baby was the most civil among us.

Throughout the course of the plane ride, I was studying my Tokyo travel guide to plan fun yet informative sightseeing days. I also discovered that taxis are prohibitively expensive for any distance, and of course the hotel happened to be quite a distance from Narita Airport. When we landed, I used my Japanese mobile to call the New Sanno Hotel. They told me a cab ride would cost between 25,000 and 30,000 yen (~$300 US) depending on traffic. So we started looking for a plan B.

The “Airport Limousine” counter was very helpful. They took pity on me and my bad Japanese and put us and all our 200 pounds of baggage on the #4 bus for a mere 6,000 yen. For almost two hours, we sat on the air conditioned (thank God) bus and rode through Tokyo traffic. About one hour into the ride, we realized we had not picked up the baby’s car seat base from the baggage claim area and that I’d left my iTouch on the plane. Since we had gone completely brain dead by that point, we really didn’t even get upset.

We finally got to the hotel and checked in with our military IDs. It is like being on an American base, except for everything is very nicely appointed. The bellhop brought all the bags up to the room and while tipping isn’t usually done in Japan, it is an American hotel and so we did. He accepted it, so we figured we made the right decision. We went down to a little restaurant right inside the hotel and had a light, late dinner. While the staff spoke very passable English, you were still very aware that you were in Japan because the service was fantastic.

We conked out in the small but comfy room early in anticipation of a full day ahead of us.