Transitioning to Japan
April 17, 2022
Even after receiving my visa, I couldn’t get over the fear that my chance to travel to Japan would once again be yanked out from under my feet. In some ways this whole experience still feels unreal.
My trip to Japan was thankfully rather uneventful. I flew from Cincinnati (CVG) to Chicago (ORD), which only took 1.5 hours. After a 3 hour layover, however, the real challenge began. I then flew from Chicago straight to Tokyo (HND), which totaled just under 13 hours. Given the border restrictions, the plane was fairly vacant. I had an entire row of seats just to myself. The 13 hour flight was made at least a little easier by the fact that I was able to move and to recline without restriction.
After stepping off the plane, the other passengers and I were funneled across the airport to a COVID-19 testing location. The whole experience was a blur of paperwork. After receiving a negative result on my COVID-19 test, I was then able to proceed through immigration. I would say that the entire process from stepping off the plane to picking up my luggage took about 1.5 hours. I booked a taxi with Uber and then was whisked away to my housing.
I chose to live in a share house in the middle of Shinagawa, a special ward of Tokyo. “Share houses” are just rental places with individual rooms, but shared common amenities. In my case, there are 11 rooms in my sharehouse. Thankfully there’s never been more than 6 rooms occupied at the same time. The location is fantastic for my situation, it takes me 10 minutes to walk to work and there’s multiple convenience stores close-by.
Shinagawa isn’t overly flashy or lively, but so far it’s been a fantastic place to live. Shinagawa seems to be primarily filled with families and business people, so it’s quieter compared to wards like Shinjuku or Shibuya. It’s also quite easy to travel from Shinagawa to the rest of Tokyo and even Japan as a whole. My local station is Shimbamba, which is just 3 minutes by rail from Shinagawa station, a major station that even hosts bullet trains. It’s always nice to return to a peaceful and relatively quiet ward at the end of a night spent in the bustling areas of Tokyo.
I’d say that I’m pretty lucky with my current living situation. I attend a Japanese class hosted by the Shinagawa International Friendship Association twice a week and have made connections with a wide variety of people thanks to my roommates. With each passing day I feel like less and less of an outsider, and more of a member of the Shinagawa community.
~ JHE
