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Three nights of transit
As the world was closing down with the Coronavirus, we aborted our trip and headed home via Japan. We had to wait three days for our flight to Vancouver.
We arrived early in the morning from Sri Lanka. We were going to wait till Air Canada personnel were available (mid-afternoon) to inquire if we could leave sooner. However, we realized that Japan seemed to be functioning near normal and we decided not to pursue leaving early.
Day 1
Day 1
We enjoyed our first ramen at the airport.
We took a Keisei train (private line) to Narita City for ¥240.
We opted to stay at Welco Hotel which is about a block away from the train stations.
Part of the appeal were the relatively spacious rooms at the Welco ($52/night).
On our first day we walked along the main street (Nartisan Omote Sando ) and then walked over to an Aeon supermarket for some food supplies (including ready-made dinner). While much of the world had shut down, we were pleasantly surprised that Narita had a semblance of normality.
Our original thought had been to hunker down during our transit stay, but instead, we felt confident to wander public places.
Day 2
Day 2
We wandered the main street on the way to the Naritasan Temple complex. These people were waiting for the opening of a smoked eel restaurant.
These chaps were filleting eels to be smoked at one of Narita's eel restaurants.
Naritasan Temple complex entrance.
We admired this pagoda at the Naritasan Shinshoji Temple complex.
We also entered the Great Peace Pagoda.
Naritasan Park is adjacent to the temple complex.
We continued our walk to the Aeon mall and to this Soba restaurant.
We had come to enjoy cold soba on our 2019 Japanese bike trip. After wandering the mall, we went back to our room and watched Sumo wrestling on TV.
Day 3
Day 3
We purchased rail tickets from a vending machine and went to nearby Sakura.
I had read that we could rent bicycles for ¥500/day in Sakura.
It was a few kilometre ride out to the Sakura Dutch windmill (made in the Netherlands, assembled in Sakura).
We rode along a river towards the ancient Sakura castle.
Sakura means cherry blossoms in Japanese. The Sakura castle was destroyed in WWII; the grounds were used by the Japanese military. The museum was closed but there were plenty of people out for a stroll.
We continued our tour with a lunch stop at a convenience store and then onto the Samurai houses.
Apparently, Samurai were not especially wealthy and lived modestly.
We were impressed by the thatching.
Although it was a Saturday, the return train to Narita was not busy.
Day 4
Day 4
We had a morning to wander as our flight was in the evening, so we returned to the Narita temple complex.
That time, we were a little earlier and we were in time for the full fire ceremony at the main temple.
We wandered along the river and liked this cool pedestrian crossing.
We picked up a few things at the Aeon supermarket and then headed back to our room.
Once again, we took the Keisei electric train, to the airport. We had our last Japanese noodles. The airport itself was very quiet; we headed home on a full flight.
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