We are so happy to be going to Hong Kong where our adventure guide will take care of everything. Trying to figure out public transportation in a foreign country can be difficult.
We had an early flight this morning; so early that the airport limousine bus wasn’t running so we had to get to the airport a different way. I checked Uber, but is was going to be around USD$250! So, we decided to take the train...cue Mission Impossible music!
The train station is serviced by the Disneyland monorail, but the monorail doesn’t start running until 6:30am, and our train was at 6:22, so we had to walk. It wasn’t too bad, there is a clearly marked and paved pathway that the locals use in droves to get from the station to the park. It took us about 10 minutes even with all of our bags.
Then it got hard. The first ticket machine didn’t list Narita Airport as a possible destination. I knew there wasn’t a direct train, I had printed out the time table for the planned trip, but the station I thought we were supposed to connect at wasn’t listed either. I noticed there were 3 different types of ticket machines so I went to the 3rd one that looked more complicated. On that one I was able to type in a destination to buy the ticket! Great! But then my US based credit card wouldn’t work. It wanted a pin so I tried my debit card, it didn’t work either, and I didn’t have enough cash. No problem, I thought, there has to be an ATM machine here, and I spotted one on the other end of the turnstiles. But, it did not have that ever so handy “English” button! It didn’t matter though because there was a sign above that said it was only for Japanese issued cards anyway.
By the way, I haven’t needed cash at all so far. I got some at the ATM in the airport when we arrived but the limo bus and everywhere in Disneyland and the hotel has accepted my credit card.
So I went to what I thought was the ticket counter and asked if I could purchase a ticket from her, but she pointed us back to the machines. I tried to explain my problem and even though she didn’t fully understand me and I didn’t really understand her she pointed me towards an international ATM machine inside the turnstiles and gave me a pass to get through. It was out of order! Luckily there was another one near by that did work. I was able to get the cash, go back out and purchase the tickets.
The ticket that came out was all in Japanese so we had no idea what platform to go to or what time the train was, or what station we needed to get off to change trains, so I showed it to my new best friend at the ticket counter. All I could understand was “2 Tokyo Station.” We went to platform 2, got in the next train that showed up, and prayed for the best!
We got off at Tokyo Station, the line’s last stop. Tokyo Station is huge! Thank goodness it was early on a Sunday morning; I can’t imagine what the crowd would be like at rush hour! It took us at least 15 minutes to walk to the next train platform rolling our bags, but there was a sign for “Narita Express” every few yards so we didn’t get lost or have to backtrack once. We still had no idea what time our train was but as soon as we got to the platform a train pulled up that said “Narita” so we got on it.
The ticket machine hadn’t given us the option to reserve a seat so we just sat down. There was a sign that said if someone claims your seat then you should move to a open seat. We had to change seats twice but were still able to sit together, again probably because it was a Sunday at 7am at this point.
There was a place for luggage at the front of each car, so no issues with that either. We are traveling with one full size suitcase and one American-sized roll-aboard.
There was an attendant who came by and checked tickets for a few passengers, but not us. The train ride was about an hour long and comfortable. I only held my breath once more when we had to present our tickets to get out of the train station and into the airport, but all was fine!
Coral had pancakes at the McDonalds in the airport and felt so much better! I know the feeling; familiarity is so comforting.
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