Tokyo: Typhoon Hagibis aftermath

This is the fifteenth recap for LOHOjapan, my 3 week trip to Japan with my boyfriend. After having a $200 omakase lunch, we hang out in our hotel and brace for Typhoon Hagibis. Later that night, we find out our flight is cancelled. We are unable to contact anyone from Japan Airlines (JAL). We also have no information on whether or not our flight will be automatically rescheduled or how many more days we need to stay in Japan. This is where our day begins.

Morning after Typhoon Hagibis

We wake up the next morning after a whole night of worrying (well, just me lol) and outside looks beautiful. It is sunny and the sky is clear. It’s not too hot. It is basically just an amazing day. You wouldn’t even have guessed a giant typhoon was here just the night before.

We are at a loss of what to do. After waiting on the line for hours last night to speak to someone from JAL, we no longer see it as a realistic solution. We consider 2 possibilities:

1. Go to the airport and try to talk to someone in person.
2. Go to a JAL office to talk to someone in person.

We opt for option 2 because transportation to the airport is quite expensive and if we need to stay for a few more days in Japan, we want to save our yen. We spend some time trying to find an address for a JAL office and it is insanely hard. Their website just doesn’t want you to come find them! Constantly, all we find are phone numbers, which have already been proven useless. We want to speak to someone in-person and get the situation fixed in front of our eyes.

Finally, we find an address near Ginza, which is not too far from our hotel so we head off with concern. On Google it says the office is closed so we go knowing it is a complete gamble whether or not we can speak to anyone.

Chiyoda

JAL Tokyo office

We arrive at the JAL office by noon and it is open! There is already a big crowd of people outside its doors, all visitors who are in the same situation as us – stuck in Japan with our flights cancelled.

A JAL worker gives us a ticket with a number on it. This is a waiting ticket and we are number #335. I glance at the window next to the door, which says they are serving numbers 120 something to 130. Wait, scratch that. It only means numbers 120-130 can enter the building. Once inside, you continue to wait. My heart sinks as I realize it’s gonna be a hella long wait.

We wait around the door for awhile and watch as more people come. By 12:30 pm, JAL workers stopped handing out waiting tickets.

One family came with their suitcases and arrived too late to receive a waiting ticket number. The JAL worker tells them that they are no longer handing out tickets, which infuriates the parents as they are unsure of what to do. I feel bad for them because they have all their luggage and a child, who is completely oblivious to the situation (he is having fun reading a comic book).

A new line starts to form. This line is for people to leave their phone numbers. Supposedly, JAL will call them back. If I leave my phone number, I need to give up my ticket. Since we want to speak to someone in person, we decide not to do this. We do not trust the phone lines to call us back as we expect them to be super busy today.

Lunch: Shake Shack

With our ticket, we decide to explore the area we are in and look for lunch. We are very close to Ginza but stroll aimlessly. After some walking, we end up in a big convention area. There are lineups to enter so there must be some kind of a conference or show happening. Anyways, we see Shake Shack here and just decide to eat lunch.

I’ve never actually eaten at Shake Shack before so it is kind of strange to go to Shake Shack in Japan. We order their standard Shake Shack burger for $8 and $4 for fries. We also add a matcha dessert that they call “concrete” (?) for $5.

There is not much to say except that it’s a yummy set of burgers and fries. I’m not sure if the portion sizes are smaller than American locations.

Back to JAL office…

We explore some nearby malls but we are worried about how much yen we have left so in the end, we head back to the JAL office.

There is still a lot of people loitering. The number written on the window is still in the 100’s. We sit on the steps and talk to the other miserable people and try to laugh about our situation. Is interesting to learn where each person is from and what they are doing in Japan.

Getting interviewed

As we are sitting here, 2 Japanese women approach us. They are interviewing and filming people, asking them about their experience with Typhoon Hagibis.

They end up asking us questions and I show them the video I have of what we saw outside our hotel lobby last night. She asks us what we did for preparation and food, so I tell her we went to 711 but it was empty. She then asks us what we ended up doing so I tell her the truth: we just bought what 711 had – alcohol and ice cream – and ate those.

In retrospect, I probably should have taken that interview more seriously (they were filming me as I answered question). I probably looked like some stupid tourist who thought the whole typhoon was a joke, when in reality there were like 70 people who died from it.

5 hours later

Yes, you read that right. 5 HOURS LATER. We sit outside the building for 5 hours until finally our number is called to wait inside.

By this time, we have befriended a family from Singapore and a business lady from Seattle. Even our local friend, Miyu, comes to find us and tries her best to talk to the JAL workers in Japanese to see what is going on and whether or not we can get helped faster (the answer was no lol). We have seen other people enter and leave the building looking super happy so we are hopeful, but thoroughly bored/tired.

1.5 hours later

We wait inside for another hour or so and finally get called up to the desk! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. I cry.

The JAL worker is, of course, so nice. She apologizes right when we come up and thanks us for waiting such a long time. It’s obviously not her fault. I already know the JAL office is working overtime. Their regular office hours are 5:30 pm, but they are estimated to go until 8 pm until all guests who have a ticket are served. With this information in mind, you have to treat the workers with some admiration.

The JAL worker speaks English very well and re-arranges a flight for us. Unfortunately, it is not an equivalent flight. Since we have a direct flight back to Vancouver, I am expecting the same but the best possible flight she can give us is one that has 3 layovers – one of these layovers is 6 hours long! If I do not choose this, I will have to wait 2 weeks for the next direct flight.

We finally leave the JAL office and it is dark out. Our whole day is spent waiting outside this building. Our friend, Miyu, also waited with us for 4 hours so we want to treat her to dinner. Unfortunately, Miyu tells us that she needs to go back to her office and do work (?!?), which makes us feel really bad because she stayed with us for so long. If this is just a Japan thing where she is trying to be polite and is actually just lying to us so she can go home, I would actually much prefer that. Anyways, I will believe what she tells us.

Dinner: Tofuro Ginza 1-chome

Miyu recommends a nearby izakaya (Japanese pub) with a cool interior space. Inside, there are mini bridges and Japanese structures.

It is a late dinner and we have to choose items that are within our insurance budget. We decide to go with a soba and tempura set and a chirashi bowl. Chirashi means “scattered” so it’s basically a big bowl of rice mixed with fish, vegetables, and additional ingredients. Ours has an assortment of sashimi and seafood.

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We cheers and eat our late dinner, exhausted from our day.

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Final thoughts on day fifteen

So today was basically terrible. The most important thing is that we figured out a way to get home. We will not have to pay for another flight home. After my trip to Thailand last year where I spent two 5 hour layovers sleeping on the cement floor of Bangkok’s airport at 3 am, I told myself I would only do direct flights. Unfortunately, now I don’t have a choice.

We did kind of waste our entire day waiting. I was too afraid of spending money in fear that we need it later on. We are only stranded an additional day in Japan and still have yen left. So along with the insurance coverage, we are feeling pretty confident that we won’t need to live on convenience store meals.

I want to give a special shout out to our friend Miyu, who spent a large portion of her day waiting with us. She felt like she didn’t really help us much, but we really appreciate her time and having her with us felt re-assuring to me.

It’s been a crazy day and a crazy end to our trip, but I suppose we have 1 more day to have some fun in Japan!

Stay tuned for my next post and follow along with the other recaps!
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Sincerely, Loewe