The flight began with what Garuda calls a “chicken fajita”, though it was more like a savory pop tart. I had chosen the seafood dietary preference when I booked, so I asked if there was a fish or meatless option, and there was not. The chicken was in chunks I could pick out, so I ate the thing.

At 1:30 or so, it was sleepy time, complete with “stars” on the ceiling. Nice touch. I switched from my aisle seat to the center and laid down for awhile, as long as I could with the seat belt twisting me up in a strange position. Then I laid down in the other direction. Then I sat up and tried out my new travel pillow, which is supposed to keep your head from bobbing forward and did not do that for me. Then I laid down facing the seats.

Through all this, I thought I hadn’t slept at all, but I must have because suddenly the crew were bringing around the breakfast at 5:30. This time, I got a fish meal with rice and veggies, plus a dinner roll and a sweet roll and O.J.

We landed 35 minutes early at 8:15 (holy shit, I’m in Japan!), and it took about an hour to go through customs, retrieve my checked bag, and exchange my Japan Rail Pass voucher for the pass itself.

I noticed right away the infamous Japanese order and efficiency. There is a right way to do everything, which streamlines every process. This makes sense for a city of 13 million people.

The JR Pass covers 4 of the 6 shinkansen (bullet train) lines, the Narita Express (NEX) from the airport into Tokyo, and many of the lines in and around Tokyo.

I reserved a seat on the next train into Tokyo at 9:45. You don’t have to reserve a seat, but it is recommended. There is no additional charge and no penalty if you no-show. It has to be done at any station’s ticket office and cannot be done online.

When you use the pass for the first time, it needs to be stamped by an agent at the gate. From then on, you always show it to an agent to get through the gates since you don’t have a ticket to insert (they’re like BART or NYC subway gates).

I arrived at Shinjuku Station, the busiest in the world, around 11:15. In another one of my smart planning moves, I had arranged to visit the Tokyo office of Airbnb upon my arrival to take a breather and get oriented before my 15:00 listing check-in.

It’s an easy 5-minute walk to the office from Shinjuku Station if you know where you’re going, but unfortunately my GPS was bouncing all over the place, so I would walk a bit, stop to check my progress, find I was on the wrong block, try again, repeat, repeat. I was trying to save my back some grief, so I had my backpack stacked on my suitcase. The two together are about 45 pounds, and my hand got cramped the longer I dragged them around. Sigh.

It took 30 minutes, but I found the office. Wow, how nice it was to have a place to land, especially one with familiar surroundings and the typical office amenities. I parked my bags and drank some citrus-infused water as I got the tour (didn’t take long.. it’s a small space with about 40 people). There’s a mezzanine working area above the main entry, and I brought some Nespresso up there to do laptop things for a while (mmm… coffee… damn, why did I not drink coffee in Bali….).

I had last done Tokyo research before I left home, so among other things, I looked up to remind myself which local lines the JR Pass is good for. It covers the Yamanote loop around Tokyo, which includes all the major stops I knew of: Shibuya, Harajuku, Yoyogi, and Shinjuku — sweet! I figured I’d have to buy a metro pass at some point for the non-JR lines, but I could get to my listing near Ebisu Station to start (Daikanyama on a non-JR line is closer, about a 4-minute walk, but Ebisu is only about 8 minutes and I wasn’t ready to mess with said metro pass yet). I worked backward from 15:00 to figure out when to leave the office, and to allow for travel mishaps, that was at 14:10.

As I was leaving, I realized I’d forgotten to withdraw cash from an ATM at the airport! Crikey. I tried one at Shinjuku and then noticed the sign indicating no foreign cards were accepted.

I took the Yamanote line to Ebisu and arrived at the listing at exactly 15:00 (I was ready to get settled!). The host’s apartment is next door to the hair salon he owns, and as requested, I found him in the salon. He let me in to the apartment and somewhat begrudgingly showed me how to use the A/C, or maybe he was a bit eyerolly because I waffled on whether I wanted him to. I was warm from the walk with my bags from the station, but it kinda seemed like he didn’t want me to use it. If a host offers an amenity, a guest should feel welcome to use it.

I asked him which direction to walk to eat and see stuff. In his opinion, Daikanyama is the best neighborhood of Tokyo, and he told me about T-Site, a small shopping complex that is home to Tsutaya, a bookstore in three connected buildings, with floors that also sell movies and music.

On his way out, I asked him another thing. I had already seen several bows in the course of the day, and I was unsure whether I should bow back when one is directed to me. I tried to ask him whether I should bow, and he looked at me like I had just sprouted a second head. Crazy/stupid tourist question? Sure, but he hosts tourists. I was taken aback by his unwelcoming gestures.

I unpacked and got settled and did a bit more research before heading out. A key thing I found was a situational language handbook. I downloaded it and learned what would be a very helpful word. “Sumimasen” means “Excuse me” and is a polite way to get someone’s attention before asking for help.

I brought my laptop with me on the walk to T-Site. I had a look around, and the bookstore struck me as being the Powell’s of Daikanyama. Spread across three buildings instead of one city block, it’s a destination unto itself, not just a place to buy books.

I half-heartedly tried to find a geocache outside the second building, but there were way too many people around to make a serious effort.

I was hungry and not sure where to go. I tried Googling but the cellular signal was slow, and I decided to just go to the place right next to Tsutaya. I first asked if they accept credit cards since I hadn’t hunted down an ATM yet and if they have wifi, and the answer was ‘yes’ to both.

It was a Hawaiian-themed joint called Aloha Table whose menu is 3-4 pages of drinks and half a page of food. They have tables outside and the wifi is strong. People-watching and eating poke while writing.. perfect! I got out my purse hook and hung my bag on the table, only to see that a small basket sitting between two of the chairs at my table invited me to place my bag there instead. Cute.

I sat long enough to order a second dish. The sushi roll was surprisingly good. I suppose sushi is good here no matter where you have it. After a while, it got chilly out and my back started to hurt, so as a server passed by, I said, “Sumimasen” and she stopped in her tracks to help me. It works! I made the universal signature gesture to ask for the bill and paid with my card.

On my way back to the listing, I stopped at a 7-11, which are everywhere here, and bought a cheap (less than $5 USD) bottle of tempranillo to enjoy over my four-night stay.

From 20:00 to 22:15, I wrote some more about Bali, then geared up with eyemask and earplugs for an alarm-less slumber.