The picture on the top right says IKFA, but it actually is IKEA. Yes, the company of Ingvar Kamprad Elmtarryd Agunnaryd (of the Elmtarryd farm in the town of Agunnaryd in Smaaland, Sweden) is invading Japan. Again; but this time, the President of IKEA hopes, it is older and wiser. The company apparently had opened before (1974-1986) but to a lesser success than it had hoped. Back then, it did not have "the needed support to adapt products and respond to requests from the Japanese side." But really, all those 12 years???
I thought I had graduated long ago from IKEA-land, but something was pulling me back. That something turned out to be an invitation that my partner and I got from a Japanese friend who had started working for the company a few months ago, in preparation for the public opening on Monday, April 24, 2006. The invitation-only "soft-opening" happened tonight, Thursday, April 20.
The trip from Tokyo to Minami-Funabashi in the Chiba prefecture was quite challenging. First of all, the Tokyo station was sooooo humongous that it had areas I never knew existed. Two plus years of living here but I was extremely ignorant of Tokyo's heart of all stations. Second, the Keiyo and Musashino lines shared the same four tracks, and the signs were rather confusing on where to stand. All four platforms said that they would host the trains going to the same direction; we were not sure until we found out that Tokyo station was the terminus. There were also different speeds (local, rapid, express), which was not news to us, but to exacerbate the situation, all trains were late this evening, and there were platform changes. This meant that the platform for the rapid train (mid-speed) became the one for the local train (the slowest), and so on. We had to run up and down the escalators to reach the platform across our original platform when we realized of the platform change (it did not help that we saw our train pulling in while we were in the wrong platform!!!). We made it and even got seats in that sardine-can of a car.
When we arrived, my partner was intent on doing one thing and one thing only: the IKEA Swedish meatballs. He missed that combination of mini meatballs smothered in gravy, accompanied by boiled potatoes and a dollop of lingonberry sauce. The spanking new cafeteria had 700 seats, the biggest IKEA café, according to the President. The layout reminded me of the one in Emeryville (near Berkeley, CA). Once that was satisfied, we breezed through the showrooms on the second floor (where the café was, too) and down to the Market Hall on the ground floor. We made it out rather quickly, carrying only a much needed floor lamp and inexpensive tea candles. Thank goodness that this was only a soft-opening. We would never have gone had this been a public grand opening, where there would probably be way too many visitors.
Going home, we the town idiots got on the train heading in the wrong direction. Somehow when we just got through the turnstile and saw a train on the platform, we ran inside and checked quickly if we were on the right one. Tonight, both of us were just too tired to do so and checked only after we had passed two stations. Two wrong stations. On the third one, we stepped out and waited for the train going the opposite direction. Fortunately the fair and cool weather was agreeable with us. We told each other that we had done this journey to support our friend who had found his much-sought employment, especially since he had been jobless for some time.
IKEA Funabashi
2-3-20 Hamacho
Funabashi-shi, Chiba-ken 273-0012
Japan
Tel: 047-436-1111
7 days a week: 10:00 - 20:00
Nearest station: Minami-Funabashi (Keiyo and Musashino lines)
