December 10, 2003

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Compare and Contrast

Trying to plough through all the emails now I've returned to civilisation i.e. Hong Kong. But a very brief example of some of the differences between Tokyo and HK is reflected in the airports.

Narita Airport (Tokyo) is in the middle of Tokyo. Tokyo is a huge city geographically. I think that's partly because until recently there weren't many tall buildings because the city is on a major fault line, so earthquakes are frequent. Hong Kong is small in comparison, especially because geography and history have conspired to make sure this is the case.

So the trip to Narita takes about an hour and ten minutes if there's no traffic. They could put a bullet train in but the bus service is run by the Yakuza. So the trains run at the same speed as the buses. The airport itself is nothing special, with plenty of security checks (because foreigners must be evil, right). I'll get into that more in a later post but my flight this morning was leaving at 9:30am. I left the hotel at 6am, arrived at the airport around 7:30am. Checked in and made my way to passport control. Except it was all blocked off. Because passport control doesn't open until 8am. And you cannot go back because you've gone through security already. So a whole bunch of people are stuck in literal no-mans (and womens, and childrens)-land. Finally it opens and as if by magic there's now 50 staff where previously there was no-one. Where had they come from? I know not. Why couldn't they be there 30 minutes earlier? I know not. Why does one of the world's busiest airports only run between 9:30am and 10:30pm. I know not.

Land in HK. Straight onto the shuttle to the main terminal. Through the passport control and SARS check AND baggage collected within 20 minutes of leaving the plane. Get the train ticket, on the train and back into the office. Sat down in my office chair exactly 55 minutes after the plane had touched down at HK. Take that, Tokyo.

There are many more differences between the two places. As well as similarities. They too are for another time, as the inbox calls. But the contrast was far greater than I ever expected.

posted by Simon on 12.10.03 at 04:59 PM in the




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Comments:

Interesting blog, but undermined by laissez faire attitude to common facts. For instance, Narita airport is not "in the middle of Tokyo". It is in fact in the middle of a bunch of rice fields. The major reason it is still so small and pokey, and has only one runway, is that many local farmers still object to its very existence and occasionally lob petrol bombs over the perimeter fence. I notice it even managed to move 550 kilometres since an earlier post. And that the bus miraculously became more interesting. But the point about essential Japanese public workers suddenly materialising at a randomly appointed hour is well made...!

posted by: Tokyo Pedant on 12.10.03 at 11:16 PM [permalink]

Yeah I read about the Local Farmer attacks in my Lonely Planet guide. I'd much rather live in Tokyo than in HK though, amazing place...although I felt the sushi was better in HK strangly enough!

posted by: Giles on 12.11.03 at 01:41 AM [permalink]

Hmmm, doesn't beat my 45 mins landing to bed!

There was another point to my comment, but, now, I've forgotten.

Welcome back.

posted by: shaky on 12.11.03 at 02:00 AM [permalink]

I meant to say Narita is the middle of nowhere. Thanks for clearing that up.

posted by: Simon on 12.11.03 at 09:16 AM [permalink]




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