The Japan Trip: Day One In Tokyo

Before we flew to Japan, Ardian said, "Parno may have all the problems in the world, but none is bringing him down!" And how it rang true when we landed in Tokyo in the evening of our day one in Japan. Parno had been so anxious since we left Manila because the screenshot of his document was incomplete, but all turned out to be fine. The airport officers simply redirected him to the fast track lane the moment they saw a blue coloured screenshot on his phone.

At Haneda Airport, after collecting our luggages. 

I stood next to the baggage carousel and from there, I could see Parno getting his passport stamped successfully. But I was wondering why he stayed behind the immigration counter and kept looking around, as if he was peeping on something. Surianto went over to ask and apparently Parno wanted to help Gunawan who got a problem with the arrival card (his blue Visit Japan form was filled up by Susan). Now that's Parno for you! A minute ago, he himself was in trouble, but now he was almost a hero!

By the way, we were at Haneda Airport and as we went through the process from arrival to claiming our luggages, I couldn't help thinking how smooth the whole thing is in Singapore. The blue form was difficult to fill in, the arrival card that came with it was easily gone unnoticed, claiming the luggage was quite a hassle and simply didn't work for most of my Indonesian friends that were still not holding e-passport. In Changi, you don't face all this!

Queuing for JR East Pass.

Anyway, I waited for them outside. While doing so, I tried out the one of the travel money cards I had. It worked like a charm on a vending machine! Then we queued for our JR East Pass for about an hour before we made our way to Asakusa via Keikyū Airport Line. The last time I went to Tokyo was in 2015, so it took some time to navigate through the confusing train map again, haha. And it was worse when we changed train halfway through the journey. We made a couple of wrong turns, going up and down the staircase while carrying luggages.

When we arrived at Super Hotel Asakusa, only one password to the room was working, so we left all our baggages in Muliady's room. As the rest who arrived earlier that day were making their way back to Asakusa, I suggested that we quickly grabbed our dinner at Yoshinoya before Eday came. The man was the advocate of splurging on meals, so for the sake of Parno, we better went for a cheap one while we had the chance, haha.

And then we met!

Then we met afterwards at Sensō-ji Temple. For the first time ever, all of us came together! It was quite surreal. Personally, it was like, could you believe this? We came from different places such as Pontianak, Pamulang, Karawang, Jakarta, Singapore and Hong Kong. We planned for this moment since June 2020. We really made it. We were in Tokyo now. Finally. 

Susan returned to hotel in order to sort out the issue of inaccessible rooms. While she was doing that, we walked around Asakusa. As we passed by Don Quijote, Eday couldn't help luring Parno to the shop and ditching him the right away when he was out our sight. With that happening, it felt like we were young again. That's what we did to Parno since God knows how long ago. We loved the man, but we loved playing pranks on him, too! It's just the way it is, the nature of our friendship, haha.

Having supper after we ditched Parno.

So we went for supper instead. They ordered some ramen and gyoza, I had a plate of yakisoba. Then we received a text from Surianto, asking why we left Parno alone. Based on what he understood from Parno, this must be Eday's plan (thus phrase was born, haha). While we were there, we had a discussion about the next morning's trip to Kawazu. The key takeaway was, gotta wake up early to catch the first train.

And yet we didn't sleep early. When we reached our hotel, we went one by one to Parno's room to hang out there. The last time I did this in Semarang, we talked about life. This round, we talked nonsense while watching JAV (Parno muttered in disdain when we suggested porn, but we didn't see him complaining when the movies started playing). Togetherness came in many forms, apparently! To be less serious was rejuvenating. We all had many roles to play in life, so once in a while, it was good to be just us: old friends.

The night we hung out together.

Liburan Ke Jepang: Hari Pertama Di Tokyo

Sebelum kita terbang ke Jepang, Ardian berkata, "Parno mungkin sering dirundung masalah, tapi dia selalu berhasil mengatasinya." Dan perkataannya itu terbukti ketika kita mendarat di Tokyo hari Minggu malam. Parno sebenarnya sudah risau dari sejak kita meninggalkan Manila karena foto dokumennya tidak mencakup nama, tapi siapa sangka prosesnya malah berjalan lancar. Petugas bandara hanya melambai dan mengarahkannya ke jalur cepat begitu mereka melihat foto dengan warna biru dominan di telepon genggamnya. 

Di Bandara Haneda, setelah mengambil bagasi.

Saya berdiri di samping ban berjalan tempat pengambilan bagasi dan dari sana, saya bisa melihat bahwa Parno berhasil mendapatkan cap di paspornya. Yang saya tidak paham itu, kenapa dia masih celingak-celinguk di belakang ruang kerja petugas imigrasi. Landak lantas menghampirinya dan bertanya, apa sesungguhnya yang sedang ia lakukan. Parno ternyata ingin membantu Gunawan yang sedang menghadapi masalah dengan kartu kedatangannya (formulir Visit Japan diisi oleh Susan sehingga Gunawan tidak memiliki datanya). Jadi memang demikianlah uniknya Parno. Sesaat yang lalu, dia sendiri juga tidak beres, namun sekarang dia malah berniat jadi pahlawan! 

Oh ya, saat itu kita berada di Bandara Haneda dan selagi kita melalui proses pengambilan bagasi, saya jadi berpikir bahwa proses di Singapura itu sangat mulus. Di Jepang, form biru ini cukup sulit untuk diisi. Kartu kedatangan yang sudah terdaftar lewat form biru ini pun bisa luput dari perhatian. Belum lagi pengambilan bagasi yang juga bertele-tele dan bermasalah bagi beberapa teman dari Indonesia yang masih tidak memegang e-paspor. Di Changi, tidak ada kesulitan seperti ini! 

Antri JR East Pass.

Karena sudah beres duluan, saya menunggu mereka di luar. Sempat pula saya coba dulu kartu debit yang saya bawa. Lancar jaya! Kemudian kita antri sekitar satu jam untuk mendapatkan kartu JR East Pass. Setelah itu barulah kita menuju ke Asakusa lewat jalur Keikyū Airport Line. Terakhir kali saya ke Tokyo adalah tahun 2015, jadi butuh waktu lagi untuk memahami peta rute kereta di ibukota Jepang yang rumit ini, haha. Sama halnya juga dengan saat berganti kereta di tengah perjalanan. Kita sempat salah jalan dan naik-turun tangga sambil mengangkat koper.

Tatkala kita tiba di Super Hotel Asakusa, hanya satu kata sandi yang bisa berfungsi, jadi kita semua menaruh tas di kamar Muliady. Sewaktu teman-teman lain yang tiba lebih awal di Tokyo kembali ke Asakusa, saya menyarankan agar kita bergegas makan di Yoshinoya sebelum Eday datang. Teman yang satu ini selalu menggagas ide makan sesuka hati, jadi demi Parno, kita sebaiknya makan yang murah selagi ada kesempatan, haha. 

Akhirnya bertemu!

Sesudah itu, kita berjumpa dengan yang lain di Kuil Sensō-ji. Untuk pertama kalinya semua peserta berkumpul! Rasanya seperti mimpi. Saya sendiri merasa sulit untuk percaya. Kita datang dari Pontianak, Pamulang, Karawang, Jakarta, Singapura dan Hong Kong. Kita merencanakan semua ini dari sejak bulan Juni 2020. Dan di malam itu kita akhirnya bertemu. Di Tokyo! Impian itu akhirnya menjadi terwujud. 

Susan kembali ke hotel untuk membereskan kamar-kamar yang tidak bisa diakses. Sambil menanti Susan kembali, kita berjalan-jalan di sekitar Asakusa. Saat melewati Don Quijote, Eday iseng memancing Parno ke toko dan meninggalkannya begitu dia menghilang dari pandangan. Rasanya seperti kembali muda saat melihat peristiwa iseng itu terjadi. Oh, kita sayang Parno, tapi kita juga suka mengerjainya. Ini sudah kita lakukan dari sejak kecil. Pelaku dan korban sudah maklum dengan peran masing-masing. Seakrab itulah persahabatan kita, haha. 

Makan malam setelah Parno ditelantarkan.

Kita berjalan kian menjauh dari Don Quijote dan akhirnya masuk ke tempat makan. Sementara yang lain memesan ramen dan gyoza, saya memilih yakisoba. Sewaktu bersantap, tiba-tiba muncul komentar landak di grup. Dia bertanya kenapa Parno ditinggalkan seorang diri. Parno langsung menuding, ini pasti rencana Eday (dan dari sini lahirlah istilah yang dipakai sepanjang liburan, haha). Selagi di tempat makan, kita juga berbincang tentang rencana besok pagi ke Kawazu. Intinya harus bangun pagi untuk menaiki kereta pertama.

Tapi bangun pagi tidak berarti tidur awal. Saat tiba di hotel, satu persatu spontan bermunculan di kamar Parno dan mengobrol di sana. Terakhir kali acara serupa digelar di Semarang, kita bertukar pikiran tentang kehidupan. Kali ini kita bercanda sambil menonton JAV (Parno sempat menggerutu ketika ide ini dicetuskan, tapi dia tidak protes ketika film mulai diputar). Kebersamaan ternyata bisa beraneka ragam wujudnya! Terkadang kita cukup membahas yang ringan dan tidak terlalu serius. Kita sudah memiliki cukup banyak peran dalam hidup ini, jadi ada baiknya sesekali menjadi diri kita sendiri: seorang teman yang sudah lama saling mengenal.

Kumpul di kamar Parno.