Finally...Tokyo!

After the flight from Hades, I didn't care where I ended up...it truly was the worst flight ever (i.e. when the captain says, "Flight Attendants, take your seats IMMEDIATELY!" and the plane starts to feel as if it is being tossed around in the air, you know it isn't going to be fun...that was somewhere around 2 hours into it). When we got to Tokyo, it was raining. I had hoped my first glimpse would be sunny and happy, but hey, if this is the only bad weather we have, life will be good!

We went through the Quarantine area, where I was fingerprinted and photographed. I am now officially in the books. From there, it was on to Customs to declare anything if we had it (I had nothing to declare other than the flight was horrible, but I didn't think that was the right time or venue to share that info). Then it was on to the busses! Truly, JFMF is amazing...I lost count of how many people were holding signs along the route, pointing us in the right direction. I felt loved, children, and more appreciated than ever in my life! I'm not kidding! On the bus, we had about a 1.5 hour drive into Tokyo. I took some pictures...most are on the webpage, but I am going to put a couple here for you to look at. I did see Tokyo Disney Resort, but a bus pulled up between the parks and me right as I was taking a picture, so it didn't turn out. But I did see it!!!

At the hotel, check-in was seamless...again, highly organized planning was evident. I didn't have a lot of time to get situated in my room, but I did shoot a video of what the room is like. Again, go check the webpage for that fun little jaunt around my little Castle Away From Home.

I then went DOWNSTAIRS (that's for you, lunch bunch) to meet up with a Fulbright scholar for dinner. He took four of us, including Debi who is going to Sanyo-Onoda with me (she's from Memphis, and she is awesome). The scholar's name was Eiji Tanaka. He studied at Western Michigan in 1965 as a Fulbright scholar. He studied Economics, and is now, believe it or not, a pet insurance salesman. Turns out that roughly 2% of the petowners in Japan take pet insurance out, and Eiji-san expects that number to grow significantly. Eiji-san took us on our first Metro ride to the Ginza district (I saw it, Dad!). We stopped at a traditional paper store, which was really cool. He then took us to a store that sold nothing but chopsticks and chopstick holders. Very cool, but oddly expensive.


Chopstick Store

We ate dinner at a yakitori restaurant. I have to be honest and say that I ate a lot of stuff and had no idea what it was. I only got truly disgusted once when I ate a chicken liver. That was just sick and wrong. I had various grilled meats and veggies (including one extremely hot pepper...it looked like a pea pod, so I put the whole thing in my mouth...huge mistake), FANTASTIC miso soup and pickled vegetables, and sticky rice with steamed bamboo shoots on top. I downed it with a nice cold Coca-Cola and a hot cup of green tea. It totally kicked that meatloaf from earlier, let me tell you!


Debi and I at dinner

Eiji-san then escorted us back to the hotel, telling us proudly that he had sold his car in 1995 and now relied solely on the public transportation system. I wish we had that!!! Corydon needs a Metro! I finally found my way back to my room (this place is huge, truly...it may be the size of Corydon, I'm not sure) and unpacked. I discovered that although my packing lists had been finalized for quite some time, and even though it had been included on such lists, I left my current adaptor and plugs at home. Luckily, US appliances can be plugged in here fine (I verified it with the front desk, thanks), so I am getting things charged...it just takes longer. I've been dozing off at the computer...I've been awake since 7:00 am Eastern time Monday, and right now it is almost 11:30pm Tokyo time Tuesday (about 10:30 am Tuesday Eastern time). I am beat, but trying to acclimate myself to a new schedule. I do have an early morning tomorrow, so I guess I better get on it. Talk to you all again soon!