Tokyo: Day 1

We made it to the airport a little late, but made it through security without hassle. Stopped at the Starbucks in Terminal D before heading to our gate. We bought some Yen at the currency exchange right across from our gate while the gate agents kept calling our name. The agent even scolded us for not getting there earlier because they were waiting on us to load our standby bags.

We had an uneventful flight in business class on an American Airlines 777. We got good food (Wasn't great, but it's on an airplane.) and watched some movies and TV shows on the on-board entertainment system. (Christy watched 3 movies, and I watched 1 movie and 6 episides of Heroes from season 1.) Slept for a while, but again it's on an airplane.

So, 13.5 hours later, we made it to the Narita airport outside Tokyo without interference from the volcano in Alaska. Once there we made it through immigration and customs very quickly. (Miami Airport, you need to figure this out!)

We bought tickets for the train to take us into Tokyo where our hotel is. On the way down the escalator toward the train platform, someone above us lost control of their metal suitcase which proceeded to clunk down the escalator right into Christy's leg. At the bottom we looked at her leg, which had already bruised, and the Japanese woman and her husband kept bowing to us with apology.

While we waited for the train, a police officer came up to us. He asked if we speak Japanese, which we don't, and then he asked for our passports. We gave them to him, and he wrote down our passport info. I'm sure they're just checking to make sure that we're in the country legally.

The train ride was uneventful, but the seats were way too small. (Or, as Christy said, we're probably just too big.) We got off the train station, and then the fun began. Now we had to navigate the streets of Tokyo.

It took a few minutes, but we finally got oriented to the direction we needed to go. So we started off, and based on the map that we had from the hotel's web site, it looked like we were there. But there was no hotel, just what looked like individual family houses. But we kept on walking, and finally found it.

The lobby of the hotel is very nice, and the ladies at the front desk were very polite. Our room is very small. It's about the size of our walk-in closet at home. The bathroom does have a "shower toilet", which has a built-in bidet. Christy wants to know how she can get one in her own bathroom at home.

Now to try to get some sleep on the rock-hard bed with the rock-hard pillows up against the rock-hard wall.

(Written with interjections from Christy.)

February 4-5, 2009