Monday, June 17th 2013 - Jetlag vs. Sightseeing

Monday we did not leap out of bed. When you are going to be in a place for a reasonable chunk of time, bolting upright at 6am to go sight-seeing will wear you out pretty quickly, especially when it's 85 degrees and a billion percent humidity. Plus, nothing in Japan really opens till 10am. We slept-in (which, when you are jet-lagged means waking up randomly and then repeatedly attempting to go back to sleep for a little while until you finally decide to give up) and made breakfast (another benefit of staying with friends - food in the house, no foraging first thing in the morning in a strange land!) and rearranged the contents of our suitcases.

*SuperNova Travel Tip - There is no cure for jet-lag. People will tell you that the secret is to stay up for 3 days straight or drink the juice of an disenchanted banana and your jet-lag will disappear, but the fact of the matter is that when your body thinks it's 2am but the sun is up and you are eating lunch, that's going to mess you up. My best advice is to start following the local schedule immediately (if you usually go to bed at 10pm and it's 10pm, go to bed and take something like Tylenol PM to help curb the waking up repeatedly) and then be prepared for jet-lag sneak attacks (this usually happens several days into your trip, when you think you are over jet-lag; you're going along merrily and then you are suddenly so tired you pass out wherever you are at 4 in the afternoon). Give in and take a nap. DO NOT go to sleep (i.e. any time longer than 2 hours)! Another benefit of staying with people is that you feel guilty if you sleep during your entire stay with them and you get yourself up, which is good because then you don't end up losing whole days to jet lag. DO NOT LET JET LAG WIN!

We eventually decided to head to Asakusa and only had to return to the aparto twice for forgotten items ("Do you have sunblock? What about the camera? . . . "). Before we headed into town, we decided to see what shopping was available near R's station and on the way stopped at Lawsons (a konbini, short for "convenience store") for some lunch. I encouraged Mc to try a curry pan (an unsweetened donut with curry inside instead of cream or jelly; it is way more awesome than it sounds), which left Mc addicted to curry pan and calculating the volume of our suitcase to see how many we can bring home (I can't find them in Oregon. I almost feel guilty addicting Mc to things I know I can't get again back home, but . . . 'tis better to have loved and lost . . .).

SuperNova Travel Tip: Convenience stores in Japan are AMAZING! One of the things I miss the most about Japan are the konbinis. Konbinis are safe, clean, and stocked with delicious, fresh food! If you cannot find a good restaurant or just want something quick, stop in at any one of a number of konbini in Japan (Lawsons, 7-11, Family Mart, Newdays, yes, most of the names are in English) and get an excellent meal of anything from sando (sandwich) to sushi to bento (lunch box) to mystery pan (pan = bread, although I call it mystery pan because a good deal of the individually wrapped bread in these stores has a filling, and since I don't read Japanese and they don't always have a picture, it's generally a wild surprise. Once, I got corn and mayonnaise filled. That was a rough lunch . . .). Definitely try the food in the warmer by the counter, croquettes and man (steamed bun with various fillings, my favorite is pizza man), you will not find any hot dogs rotating indefinitely here, unless you count oden (fish balls soaking for whoknowshowlong in uncovered tepid water), and I do. The people at the counter are very nice about you pointing to which thing you want in the warmer and grunting. They'll even offer you the appropriate eating utensil (yes, in Japan they consider a toothpick an eating utensil; there was a tiny holster for one in our Red Chicken box).

R had said something about being able to walk to Asakusa and since Mc and I both enjoy walking while traveling (you often see things you would otherwise miss) we figured we would walk towards the next train station towards Asakusa and see how we felt. First of all, turns out it is really far between stations. We walked for about 40min. before finally getting there. Secondly, the walk along train tracks is not very scenic or shady, so we were just this side of sweat-soaked when we finally arrived. Thirdly, we went the opposite direction of Asakusa. This, of course, was not how I wanted Mc's first day in Japan to go, but it's good to set the bar low. At Kita-Senju station we decided to use trains and subways (which are air-conditioned), going back and forth through Minami-Senju (R's stop) approximately 37 times before we got to Asakusa (not to be confused with Akasaka).

*SuperNova Travel Tip: Be careful when exiting a train/subway station. Most stations have several exits (very few have only one) and going out the west exit instead of the east exit can be the difference between a 2 min. walk to the site you wanted to see and finding yourself stepping out onto the moon. Once you pass through the ticket gate, look up. There will be lots of yellow signs, written in English complete with arrows, listing which exit is which direction. If you are at a station for a major site-seeing location, that place will usually also be on the sign also, letting you know which exit you actually want. I should say that the signage in Japan is a touch lacking at times and I have been betrayed by signs in the past, but at least you can say you made the effort.

Huge lantern in Kaminarimon, "Thunder Gate"

Asakusa is a good place to start sight-seeing in Japan because right outside the station there is a huge shopping street full of little stands selling all sorts of Japanese trinkets and foods and then at the end there is a huge red lantern (part of the Thunder Gate) and Senso-ji (Buddhist temple) to explore. It's a good dose of traditional/commercial Japan right out the gate, and there is plenty to see without it taking up your whole day. Mc wanted to do one of the fortunes at the temple and the ones here were in English. So, he put his 100¥ in the box, found the corresponding drawer, and pulled the worst fortune you can get. It said things like, "Your wishes will not come true. The lost thing will not be found. The person you are waiting for won't come . . ." FORTUNATELY, the Japanese have a handy little system for dealing with bad fortunes. You just neatly fold up the fortune into a long, thin rectangle and tie it to a fence designated for this purpose and the temple will deal with the badness while you walk away footloose and fancy-free.

Mc found a man making taiyaki at one of the many stalls and got his first real made-in-Japan taiyaki (fish-shaped cake filled with custard cream), which was fresh and hot and the highlight of his day. After you are through with the shrine area, make sure to go around to the other side of the station so you can see The Asahi Beer Hall, on top of which is the golden Asahi Flame. I believe that the Japanese had intended this to look like a flame blowing in the wind, but gaijin (foreigners) almost universally think it looks like a golden poo. A popular picture to take is to stand so it looks like the "flame" is coming out of your mouth.

Asahi "Flame" (the Tokyo Skytree is to the left)

After taking pictures, we went back to R's place to take a nap. By the time we woke up, R was home with little Now-chan and we spent the evening chatting and playing and R made us a delicious dinner. After dinner, Mc and I walked back to the shopping center because I had packed yoga pants for pajamas which was insane. I needed shorts and wanted to go to Uniqlo (cheap clothing store in Japan). On the way back, I wanted to take a shortcut and said, "Let's walk down that alley," and Mc looked at me and said, "That's not something you could usually say." Welcome to Japan.

Sleep, It Eludes Me . . .

Just to shake things up, I decided to make a huge miscalculation at the beginning of the trip this year. You see, the plan was to meet our friends in London (since that‘s where our flight ended, see previous log entry), have some fun in the UK for a few days, and then fly to Germany together. We only had 6 days before M had to be back in Germany for work, so we planned it out to make the most of our time there.  The first step was for me and Mc to go straight from the airport to Canterbury, hang out there for the afternoon, stay overnight, and then still have the morning before having to jet back to London to meet our friends at 4pm. Which sounded completely doable. We researched how to get from the airport to Canterbury (subway from Heathrow to Victoria Station and then train to Canterbury) and how to get to our hotel (walk). We were prepared. What I didn’t do was take into consideration the time change, a rookie mistake.

We left Thursday, 7/7 at 11:30am and arrived in London Friday, 7/8 at noon (an hour late). However, that was 3am PST. Neither of us had slept much on the plane (as per usual for me) and by planning on going straight to Canterbury we had essentially planned to do an all-nighter. “So?” I hear many of you asking, as you crush another Red Bull can on your 20-year-old forehead. Well, even if you are not the sort of adult who, when faced with the possibility of staying up all night and then going to work the next day seriously contemplates suicide, it is still not a good idea to skip sleeping when traveling.

*SuperNova Travel Tip: Plan for sleep.  It won't help with jet lag (nothing does), but it will help keep you from passing out on various trains, buses, strangers, etc.

It’s important to remember that simply traveling from your home to your destination is exhausting, despite the argument that all you are doing is sitting (which isn’t true, you are also running through airports, stressing about flights and connections, carrying luggage, harassing airport employees, loudly criticizing the in-flight movie selection, rethinking the benefits of having children; you are doing SO much more than sitting). And chances are, once you’ve arrived at your destination you hit the ground running, trying to make as much as you can of your hard-earned vacation. So it is a very good idea to plan at least half a day to crash when you first arrive anywhere that requires longer than a 6 hour flight. You also don’t know exactly how your vacation is going to go and if you end up missing some sleep later, you won’t be drawing from low reserves.  And I haven't even mentioned jet lag yet.  If you scoff at this and shout, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead!” as you sprint from sight to sight, then there’s a good chance you’ll end up like me; sitting in beautiful Germany with a nasty head cold. Because I got very little sleep in the UK, my immune system eventually got fed up, headed to a pub, and left me on my own. Of course, your crash will manifest itself in it’s own way, but I can guarantee that it will manifest itself. Of course, I knew all this, but there were a few occurrences beyond my control, but I’ll get to that later.

Jet Lag

I hate jet lag. I am sure that you are sitting there thinking, "Yes, well, who doesn't?" And of course you are right, there's no one out there staring off into space, dreaming of the delightful feeling of being unable to sleep at night and narcaleptic during the day. However, that in no way means I'm not going to complain about it right now. If you are of the "quit yer whining" mentality, feel free to skim through the next few paragraphs.

So let's time-line this out. I got into Dusseldorf, Germany at about 7pm on Tuesday. Nancy D picked me up at the airport and we drove back to my dear friend Puppy's adorable brick farm house out in the country. That night we just grilled steak and chatted and went to bed around 12:30am. Now, I had already been up for 2 days straight, minus the 2 hours I slept on the plane while they showed The Bounty Hunter with Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler (I think passing out right that movie was a defense mechanism), so it was only natural that I woke up at 5:00am the next morning. I did manage to fall back asleep, but knowing full-well that it was a mistake. Morning sleep is always hard sleep, riddled with messed up dreams, and I woke up at 10:30am groggy and feeling like I was made of lead. Which is always how one hopes to present oneself to their hosts.

That night we decided to go to Amsterdam the next day and stayed up till about 1:00am chatting and making plans. I went to bed, checked my email, snuggled under the covers, closed my eyes . . . and they sprang open. I was wide-flippin'-awake. We had to get up early to head out and no one likes hanging around a tired, grumpy traveler, so I tried everything to get to sleep. I read, I played hangman on my iPod, I got up for a few minutes and then tried again, I closed my eyes and counted in Japanese, I learned the alphabet song backwards, I got a drink, I went to the bathroom, I let my mind drift; and with each thing I tried, SPRING, my eyes popped open. I will admit that I did finally drift off at about 6:45am, which allowed me about an hour of solid rest before Puppy knocked on my door telling me it was time to get up.

I hate jet lag.

I have been asked how long it takes for me to get over jet lag. And the answer is, of course, that I have no idea. Nevermind the fact that I've flown overseas 7 times, I have absolutely no idea how long it takes for me to adjust. You only pay attention to it when it's making you miserable, you don't usually note the day you feel just normal. There are a lot of opinions out there about jet lag remedies and I have found them to generally be a mix of old wifeyness and youthful optimism. Here are a few theories I've heard, followed by some light scoffing:

• Some say that all you have to do is not go to sleep the first night; just stay up all night and then you're all set. This might work if you happen to be an energetic 20 year old who thinks nothing of all-nighters. However, the last time I stayed up all night and tried to go to work the next day, I thought I was going to die.
• Others say that you should get on a schedule as quickly as possible and stick to it. This is a great idea and if we could get airports, train stations, hotel clerks, and tourist attractions on board I think it could really work.
• People will corner you with lots of theories about drinking water and taking a variety of vitamin supplements. Which is never a bad idea, but not likely to actually prevent you from turning into a dragon lady.
• You could change your daily schedule at home before you leave. In fact, you already do, staying up late trying to get ready for your trip and lying awake at night worrying!
• There are a lot of expensive products on the market that claim to cure jet lag, and if you think that sounds like a promising option, then I have a magic wand you might be interested in . . .
• And my favorite; Just sleep on the plane. It's really quite simple, just pretend you are lying down and not sitting up, get over your qualms about lying your head on a stranger's shoulder, clear your mind of the screaming children and coughing passengers, develop the ability to immediately fall back asleep after the flight attendant wakes you up to make sure your super-effective seatbelt is fastened, become deaf to the pilot's completely unintelligable tidbits, and you're all set. And if you are one of those people who actually can just "sleep anywhere," then I hate you.

I actually did pretty well. I made it through the day in Amsterdam without being angry or hurtful, however, I'm not quite caught up yet either. We didn't get back till 3:00am this morning and I had to be up at 9:00am to visit Aachen. So, as far as traveling tips regarding jet lag, I really only have one:

*SuperNova Travel Tip: Do not kill the people you're traveling with/visiting.

Now, I'm going to take a nap.