New Delhi, Sept. 11 -- At 6 am on Friday, my last morning in Japan, I woke up in my hotel room with the smug face of someone who had Planned. I had cleared my hotel bill the previous night so I could check out quickly. I knew which train would take me to Tokyo Station, from where I would board the Narita Express to the airport. I had bought a ticket two days earlier. I even had time for breakfast before heading to the station.

By 8 am, I was standing at the Narita Express platform at Tokyo Station, about 30 minutes before I was to board my airport-bound train. There was nowhere to sit, so I opened my email with the noble intention of reducing the unread count. That's when I saw an email that had arrived 3 hours earlier: "Notice of Suspen...