A Time of Great Transition, part II: The Leaving

*you can read the play-by-play or skip to the bold where the story gets good.

Leaving Japan proved to be quite an ordeal; leaving with all (or most) of my stuff, that is. Around 11pm last Monday night I sent an email to my friends and family declaring that I had 12 hours left before departing from my home, and had some serious packing to do before then. To myself I declared that by 3am I would be finished with my 2 suitcases and 2-3 boxes. In the preceding days and hours a couple of friends had come over to help me out, and as a result I had 1 suitcase and 2 boxes waiting by the door. Dispensing with the amount of stuff that remained in my room seemed slightly daunting but I sincerely believed in my ability to git ‘er done. I had to believe, because I had a laundry list of things to do before leaving my house at 11am.
Around 6am I began to wonder if it might be more cost effective to spend the money to check a 3rd suitcase rather than to send boxes through surface mail. After more than a few moments of dazed hesitation I undid the work that my friends and I had labored through not such a long time ago and transferred the contents of 2 boxes into a suitcase. After the fact I realized that wasn’t going to help me deal with the things that remained in my room. I hit a wall, mentally and strategically. At 7:30 it was time for a nap. I woke up at 9 mildly refreshed but even more stressed. Looking around I started to doubt my chances of making the 11:30 airport bus out of Kichijoji. At that point I decided to take the extra suitcase on the plane and ship boxes home. I hadn’t yet seriously considered how I might get the boxes to the post office, or how I might get my bags to Mitaka and on the Chuo line for Kichijoji.

Lucky for me I have awesome friends including one (Yuu) who happens to be my neighbor. He and his girlfriend (Sunao) came over the morning ready to help. Before setting out I mentioned that my plan had been to be on the 11:30 airport bus from Kichijoji; they looked at me, then we all laughed. There were 3 of us and three boxes - together we carried them to the post office and with Yuu and Sunao translating the process went pretty quickly. They even helped me fill out the customs forms - I filled out the information on the first form, they copied the writing for the other two.

Back at my house they had coffee and chilled with my housemate Tony while I, ahem, finished some last minute packing and cleaning. A good friend of mine, Sean, my Meidaimae twin, was taking over my room and I had wanted to clear everything out for him, but as it stood I left empty boxes, about 8 pairs of shoes, a couple of bags, a stack of clothes, a piece of artwork that cost too much to transport, and my walking stick from Mt. Fuji. So I vacuumed. He came over to get the house keys from me and then it was really time to say good-bye. I hugged Tony, holding back tears. I’m sure everyone would have understood if I started crying but I didn’t want to start something that could become uncontrollable. Including my carry-on I had 4 suitcases so together Yuu, Sunao, Sean and I wheeled them out to the main road so we could hail a cab to Mitaka station. We were able to fit the largest and smallest bags in the trunk, one in the front seat, and the 4th sitting across our laps. Before giving myself over to the cab, to my last departure from my home in Tokyo, I hugged my British brother, one of my longest running friends in Tokyo, and said good-bye.

All morning I was awash with gratefulness toward my friends who were helping me; it would have been physically impossible for me to transport 4 suitcases from the taxi, up to the station, through the turnstiles, down to the tracks, onto the train, out of the train, down from the tracks, out of the turnstiles and to the bus. I made it to the bus with one suitcase at 12:27, three minutes before departure. The doors to the baggage storage area underneath tbe bus were open and they were still accepting passengers. I looked behind me but I didn’t see my friends! How did we get separated in less than 30 seconds? I left my bag at the bus to dash into the station and look for Yuu and Sunao but I couldn’t find them. I went back to the bus, it was 12:29 and the baggage storage doors were closed. Yuu called - not knowing that I could buy my ticket on the bus they had gone to the ticket kiosk around the corner. The bus attendant was adamant that the bus would leave on time - with or without me, or possibly with me but not all of my bags. I tried to explain the situation but all I could muster was ‘my tomodachi have my suitcases, they are coming! My tomodachi! My tomodachi!’ accompanied by lots of frantic gesturing.

I heard a voice - “can I help you?” - and I turned around to see a woman leaning her head outside of the bus window. I explained to her that my friends had the rest of my suitcases, and they had mistakenly gone to the ticket kiosk but that they were coming any second now. She communicated that to the bus attendant and then relayed to me that he was already one minute late and wasn’t going to wait any longer. Just at that moment I saw my friends round the corner with my bags, shouting and waving their free arms, and I breathed out a huge sigh that I hadn’t even realized I was holding in. The attendant asked my friends how many bags. Four, they said. How many people? One. One?! One?! One person - 4 bags?!?!?! The man was seriously about to have a heart attack. He stood like he was ready to pounce, clutching his claim tags, hovering over the suitcases, eyes darting back and forth, totally overwhelmed by this turn of events. Finally he chose one, tagged it, and moved down the line. These were my last moments. I hugged my friends, thanked them profusely, and boarded the bus. Making my way towards an empty seat I saw the woman who had translated for me and I thanked her as well. She replied that she was just happy I got on the bus. I chose a seat where I could see Yuu and Sunao from the window and as the bus pulled away we waved at each other until we lost the line of sight. Then I started crying.

Oh, but there’s more. On the bus I got to thinking about my suitcases. I had forgotten to do a final weigh-in at my house, but I was dead sure that at least one of them would be over the 23kg weight limit. Unfortunately I had taken all but ¥277 (less than $3) from my Japanese bank account and after sending 3 boxes to the United States (not cheap!) I was left with ¥20,000 and some change. Just enough to get my 3rd suitcase on the plane, but not enough in case something was overweight. I had a card linked to my American account but it was a brand-new replacement after my last one expired and I hadn’t been able to activate it using a phone card. So… aside from the cash in my wallet I didn’t have access to any other money. Remembering a friend who had recently been in a similar predicament vis-a-vis overweight baggage and missed her flight, I thought to myself - I might not have enough money to get my suitcases on the plane… it’s quite possible that I might not be able to get on the plane in time… and if that happens I won’t even have enough money to leave the airport. My heart sank a thousand depths and I began hope and pray for something serendipitous. Then I fell asleep.

Once at the airport I had to pick up my tickets from the travel agent’s counter before going to the check-in. As I was wheeling my suitcase loaded cart up to the counter I glimpsed Amber, the friend that I was flying with, and her boyfriend Jim. She was talking with an airline staffperson but I called her phone, waved, and he came over. I was so SO relieved to see them. After I got my tickets we convened and she told me that checking a third bag would cost ¥22,000. I was like - oh, it’s not ¥20,000? Nope, she said. Do you have enough? I hope so! …I have some change in here. Well, just let me know if you need any. Ok, I said. Thanks!

20 kg. 25kg. 32kg. The airline staff lady ’serviced’ the second suitcase (didn’t charge me for it), but there was no getting around 32kg. My total was ¥25,000. I gave her ¥20,000 and showed her my ATM receipt displaying ¥277 left in the account. I told her sorry, this is all I have… and I can’t access my American account. She asked if I came with anybody who could give me money and the conversation I had with my friend 5 minutes earlier popped into my head. Yes! I said. Chotto mate… (just a minute). Amber was busy canceling her phone but I managed to get Jim’s attention. I explained to him that I needed ¥2000 more to get the third bag on the plane and ¥3000 because the bag was overweight; but, I added, I could just take stuff out of the bag instead of paying more money for it. He gave me ¥5000 in a heartbeat. Without him I’m not sure what I would have done.

The three of us spent a little more time together, just a few minutes of chatting, then Amber and I had to go. It had been hard for me to do my own farewells, but it was a different kind of difficult to watch Amber and Jim say good-bye. Going through immigration the officer was puzzled by my passport. I had a 3 year extension on my visa but no re-entry permit. Are you finished with your work? he asked. Yes, I replied. Holding his stamp he looked at my passport, looked at my Gaijin card, then back at my passport. He took the card, stamped my passport and let me through. We reached the gate just as they started to call for the first class passengers to board the plane. We stopped and stood in line chatting as if this were any place, any time but when they called our section Amber and I continued on, taking our last steps out of Japan.