Arriving at Basel, Switzerland

English first / 日本語は英語の後

I declare to resume my blog upon moving my sabbatical research base from Japan to Switzerland.

At 1pm on January 5th, I left Japan for London with BA008. When the aircraft made a final approach to the airport after its 12-hour flight, it still had to make an additional 30-minute circular flight so as to wait for ice/snow to be removed from the runway. The flight from London to Basel was one hour delayed, too for removing ice from its wings. My arrival at Basel was 10:20pm, 17 hours after my departure from Japan. I had four meals in the flights. Surprisingly, Basel has passengers pick up their baggages before going through the immigration. I now got anxious about what an immigration officer would say to me as seeing me carrying two large/heavy suitcases. He certainly didn't think that I was a tourist, began to open each page of my passport, and finally asked me, "for business?" I replied "YES", which for some reason prompted him to stamp my passport. While it took more time than the passport control at Lisbon, it was actually simple.

When exiting from the terminal building, I saw snow falling heavily. No bus services at all. Even if they had been available, I couldn't have got on a bus with these heavy suitcases, and thus walked straight to a taxi stop. No passengers waiting. The meter started with 7SFR, (i.e., $7.00), which seemed like an appropriate initial fare as compared to the taxi service near by Keio University, Japan. However, the meter raised the fare really quickly as if it malfunctioned! The fare went up to 7.20SFR within 20 meters or 66 feet, further up through 7.40 to 7.60 while the taxi was still driving on the rotary. It already went up beyond 10SFR (= $10) when leaving this small airport and reached 34SFR in several minutes to the hotel. Although I heard that swiss taxis are the most expensive over the world, this fare was just more than my estimation.

The hotel was a 4-star hotel and cost 130SFR/night for a single. This is what a staff of the university guest house recommended. Although it was very clean, I just felt "that's it??" A tiny room. Furthermore, there was an ash tray on the table. Probably the hotel staff guessed that all Japanese like to smoke. The bath room prepared only all-in-one liquid of shampoo + shower gel. I was too tired and sleepy to go back to and give my complaint to the reception. Free breakfast was included, eggs were cooked upon each guest's request, and many choices of food were served, all of which I thought were a matter of course with 130SFR.

Now, it was time to move in the university guest house. I already got sick of such an expensive taxi. I walked, and even went up and down on stairways with these two heavy suitcases in the city for 10 minutes under the snowy weather. Of course, all pedestrians curiously looked at me. If I did the same thing in US, there might be someone who could ask me "do you need a help?". But it seems like Swiss are as unfriendly to strangers as Japanese are. As I arrived at the guest house at the appointment time, a staff was standing at the entrance and immediately guided me to my room. Probably Japan could give the same level of smooth services as Switzerland does, but this wouldn't happen in Portugal where a bunch of problems happen: the staff wouldn't show up as scheduled, the room wouldn't be ready yet, etc.. I giggled in my mind as guessing these troubles. The guest house room was spacier than expected, including a king bed, an immediate Internet connection, a cable TV, a phone, and a periodic room clean-up with linen replacement, all of which cost just 910SFR/month. What a big difference from the last night's 130SFR for the hotel room!

サバティカル中の研究拠点を日本から、スイスに移したので、これを期にブログを再開します。

１月５日、午後１時発の英国航空８便でロンドンに向かいました。12時間かけてロンドンに近づくも、ヒースロー空港の滑走路が凍結していて、上空で30分旋回。ロンドンからバーゼルに向かう飛行機も、翼の氷を解凍するのに１時間遅れました。バーゼルに到着したのは、夜10時20分、成田を出発してから、17時間後でした。その間、機内で４回飯を食いました。バーゼル空港では、入国審査の前に荷物を受け取ります。う～ん、でかいスーツケースを２つ持っている私を見て、審査官は何て言うだろうって不安が横切りました。案の定、パスポートを１ページずつめくり始めました。さすがに、観光じゃないだろうと思ったらしく、ビジネスかって聞いて来ましたが、「はい」と言ったら、直ぐさまスタンプを押して、審査終了です。リスボンより時間がかかりましたが、以外に簡単でた。

到着口を出ると、雪が津々とふっています。さすがに連絡バスなど見当たらないし、あっても、この重たいスーツケースを持ってバスに乗る事もできません。それで、タクシー乗り場に直行。客など誰もいません。料金は７フラン(700円程度）から始まりました。湘南台のタクシーと比べて妥当な相場と思いきや、20メートルも進まないうちに、カチと言って7.20になり、ロータリーを廻っているときも、7.40, 7.60と異常な速さでメータが上がって行きます。空港を出るときには、既に10フランは軽く超え、7, 8分しか乗っていないのに、ホテルまで34フランでした。スイスのタクシーは、世界一高いとは聞いていましたが、これ程だとは思っていませんでした。

ホテルは、大学のゲストハウスのおばさんが進めてくれたところで、４つ星で、一泊130フラン。部屋は清潔感はあるものの、130フランでこれだけ？　おまけに日本人はタバコ吸うだろうと思ったらしく、灰皿までテーブルに置いてあって、バスルームにはシャンプ＋シャワージェル兼用の液体があるだけ。思わず、引き返して文句言おうと思いましたが、既に夜11時過ぎ、疲れて寝ました。翌日の朝食は、卵をその場で調理してくれたり、種類も豊富でしたが、130フラン払ってるんだからね、当然かな。

さて、いよいよ、ゲストハウスに入居です。もうタクシーは懲り懲り。雪の降る中、スーツケース２つを転がしながら、市内を10分歩いて移動しました。歩行者は皆、変な目で見てましたね。多分、アメリカでは助けましょうかって言ってくる人が出てくるかもしれないけど、スイス人はそこまで親切ではない。日本人も同じ。予定の時間に到着すると、管理人が玄関で待ち構えていて、直ぐに部屋に案内してくれました。日本でも、これくらいスムーズだと思うけど、ポルトガルではきっと管理人がどこかに行っちゃったとか、部屋が準備できていない、とか問題発生するんだろうなって、内心おかしくなってしまいました。部屋は、想像以上に大きくて、ベッドはキングサイズ、インターネット完備、ケーブルテレビ、電話も即使えて、清掃とリネンの取り替えも定期的、これで月910フラン、昨夜の130フランのホテルは一体何だったんだってね。