Back to Japan — Focus on the “Back”

Ouch! Paul hurt his back. In Tokyo. On the subway. Schlepping luggage. We know better!

Wednesday, March 27, 2024 — a date (of the injury) that, for us, will live in infamy!

We arrived Tokyo’s Haneda airport on a red-eye from LAX at 5:30 am all set to take the super convenient one hour bus to Shinjuku station and then into a cab for a quick ride to our hotel in the area. We’re traveling lighter and smarter than our recent South America stint. We thought we had it all figured out. [Spoiler alert: we didn’t!]

The first bus of the day from Haneda is not until 7:30 am. We didn’t want to wait. So we jumped on the subway with three roller bags. We did just fine all the way to Shinjuku station. The Japanese train system is sleek and fabulous and only a little challenging around the edges, but surmountable. We love a challenge!

Our heads were inexplicably hell-bent on continuing on the subway (by changing lines and finding a somewhat obscure platform), instead of taking the taxi the final leg as originally planned on the bus transfer. Big mistake.

Long story short, for the next two weeks Paul struggled with a gnarly, agonizing backache. But one chiropractor and two visits to a phyical therapist later — plus two weeks of grinning and bearing it — and (only then) his pain level fell below the tear-jerking stage.

We missed three days-worth of our tourist plans in Tokyo. So now we are talking about a make-up assignment and coming back next spring 2025 — for the Sakura cherry blossom season, of course — and taking an apartment in a more central Tokyo location (if we can find one to afford!) and trying again.

Big lesson: never do that again! Live and learn! Next time…take the taxi.

See our Japan 2024 page for more details.