Last Full Day in Japan

We spent the day once again walking around a rainy city. We just went back and hit all the places we wanted to revisit and pick up stuff in Nakano and Shibuya.

Two interesting things I actually have pix of... One is the car turner outside of the parking garage. All of the cars are backed out of the garage onto this giant disk that turns the car around so they can pull straight out onto the street. The model of efficiency...



The other interesting item for the day is that, when it rains, all of the shops put out plastic bags to put your umbrella in whil you are in the store. This saves the floor from getting slick and keeps you from getting water all over their merchandise, but I bet it is really just to be nice and polite like everything else here. Some of them even have little contraptions that you just stick the umbrella into and it comes out wrapped...



Well, that's the last blog from the land of the rising sun. See you in the States if our plane doesn't decide to plummet into the coast of Alaska...

Travel Day (yesterday)

We took the Shinkansen from Osaka to Tokyo. I listened to my iPod most of the time, discovering that Laurie Anderson's "O Superman" goes surprisingly well with the rice paddies and electric towers that went whizzing by. I actually got to see Mt. Fuji as we passed it. I don't know how I missed it the first time. It looks like a stereotypical mountain that a 5th grader would paint in a picture. It was symmetrical, capped with snow and surrounded by clouds.

We walked around Shinjuku after checking into the Keio Plaza Hotel. I found some rare Neil Innes CD's at a used record store so it worked out well for me.

This is our last day here and then we pack to head home...

Osaka Last Day

We did the touristy thing and went to Universal Studios Japan. Much of it was basically a carbon copy of the Orlando one. It still took an hour and 45 minutes to get through the line for Spiderman. At this one, you can pay extra to get in the express lanes for the rides instead of the way they've done it in the States where you can grab a ticket early and head back later.

It does have a Snoopy area though. Bagley and I rode the Great Race Roller coaster which you can see as you stand in line underneath it. It was extremely short (we timed it at 35 seconds from start to finish). I thought it was more of a kids coaster ride, but it was all adults in line so we hit it. When we got the first car, Bagley and I being the fat Americans we are, we could barely fit inthe car together. It was really ridiculous and we couldn't stop laughing. It was too late to get out and get a separate car so we rode it stuffed in the tiny seat, laughing hysterically the whole time. I had planned on looking bored or in deep thought when we went by the camera that takes your picture, but I couldn't stop laughing. We knew the whole thing would be over in 35 seconds so it wasn't too dangerous.

We sat in on the Sesame Street 4D theater. I was really tickled that Ernie's Japanese voice has a thick Indian or Pakistani accent. It was one of those theaters that have other effects like bubbles that come down while the characters are underwater, the seats "thump" when Elmo runs into the trashcan, etc. In the middle of the movie, the projector stopped and the lights came on. Evidently, some little girl got her foot caught in the seat. In a matter of minutes, security showed up and then what I assumed were park engineers. They got her out and she seemed OK, but they had everyone leave the theater. The good part was that we got a free express pass for one ride so we hit Jurassic Park. By that time, it was getting cool out and we were both finally feeling the effects from running around in the rain on Friday, sneezing and sore throats for all. So, it was probably the wrong time to get on a ride that ends with a plummeting log floom that soaked us both.

We ate at the Hard Rock and headed back to the hotel to pack. This morning we check out and take the long train ride back to Tokyo.

Osaka Day 5

I hit he Tennoji Zoo today after taking just about every wrong way to get there that I could. I took the shuttle over to Osaka Station and got on the Osaka Loop to head towards Tennoji. Remember... I said "Loop". The entire time, I was seeing stops that I couldn't find on the map they have posted. Eventually, the train just stopped and I realized I was the only one in any car on the whole train. It had reached its end. I somehow found the one train on the "loop" that jumped out of the loop and ended outside of it. Once I got back on the right track (no pun intended) I got off at Tennoji Station and ended up walking around the streets looking for the zoo. None of the maps on the streets had any English or any indication of a park or a zoo. I eventually had to go back to the station and I found a map that had the zoo on it. Once I found the park, I had to walk around looking for the zoo for a while before I stumbled on it.

It was an OK zoo. Some of the habitats tried to appear natural, but some of the areas like the polar bear and sea turtle enclosures were definitely too small. At the same time, they had an enormous aviary for birds like ducks and herons. I got to see the koalas eating lunch. I think people love them so much because they have such human features. It was like watching Larry Fine eat a salad!



The zoo was deceptively large (11 hectares for you metric folks). The way it was layed out, I kept discovering areas I hadn't been to up until the time I left. There were some unusual things. I know that the Japanese have a very sordid history with mistreating the Koreans, but I thought this was just too much over at the primate house:



Also, this was just so many kinds of wrong, I can't add anything to it:



I ended up eating dinner at a little restaurant near the Osaka Station on my way back. I actually found a place that had the Gyoza (Chinese pork dumplings) that I had for lunch on day one at the sumo matches. I ended the evening hanging out at the harbor again as the sun set.

Osaka Day 4

We went to the Osaka Castle in Osakajo Park today. The weather was fantastic. It was in the upper 70's (maybe low 80's) but breezy the whole time so it was OK. The castle itself is a museum that houses a lot of armor, weapons and scrolls from the 1500's and 1600's. The castle is surrounded by two moats and giant stone walls. It was impressive.

The park surrounding the castle was very beautiful, including a plum grove and a baseball field. It has been nice to see the Japanese folks enjoying the public parks on the weekends. There was a stage set up with what sounded like mostly traditional music, but we didn't get to catch any of it up close. On the way out, I was taking pictures of a statue and evidently a wedding party came through. We had also seen at least two weddings going on in the hotel today as well. Must just be the day...



Oh, here's a very bizarre video game I saw yesterday but didn't have the pic ready. It evidently extolls the evil inherent in TYPING... mwah ha ha!

Osaka Day 3

We just wasted this day walking around a very rainy city.

Osaka Day 2

We ate the hotel buffet breakfast this morning (which was good but as I was warned... expensive). Bagley was panicked about getting in line for the last show so he headed out at 10:30AM to get in line. I headed out to the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. It was only two quick subway trips away and I had time to kill.

It was actually a very nice aquarium, situated right on the bay, and featured the aquatic life of the Pacific Rim.




It started at the top with the Japan Forest where the Asian Small Clawed Otters unfortunately were all huddled together asleep. The large sea otters from the Aleutian Islands were floating around in plain sight though.






The environments were much nicer than the cheesy ones in Shinagawa. This was a real aquarium. The central tank that represented the Pacific Ocean wasn't quite as big as the one in the Georgia Aquarium, but they did have a whale shark and an enormous manta ray that was almost as big as the whale shark.

After the aquarium, I checked out a few shops and tried to watch a street performer who kept indicating he was going to juggle swords, but ended up taking too long telling jokes and making animal balloons to keep me hanging around long enough to see it. I went over to the Suntory Museum and checked out their design exhibit with furniture from around the world. I ended up breezing through it in about 15 minutes because it wasn't as big as I thought. Unfortunately I had bought an IMAX ticket as well so I had to hang out and wait for almost an hour. I just stood outside on the dock for most of it. The movie was the Deep Sea 3-D film that Danny Elman scored so I was happy. The 3-D was great. The narration was in Japanese (because the English headphones they gave me didn't work... no Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet for me), but the visuals were the important part.

Osaka Day 1

We took the Shinkansen to Osaka this morning. That was the easy part. Once we got off the train, we couldn't make any sense of the JR rail map compared to our maps that had been printed out for the hotel. It must have been obvious, because after a few minutes of looking in vain at the map, a woman who spoke quite a bit of English asked if we needed help. I'm glad she offered to help us because it was very complicated and involved taking two subways just to get to the hotel. She actually led us to the JR Rail reps (leaving the platform where she was waiting for her train) and got them to explain to her how we needed to get to the Hyatt Regency. She wrote everything down for us and even led us to our first train. I had heard about this sort of hospitable nature, but never thought I would experience it to this degree. She said that people have helped her out in other countries. I guess that means I owe someone help back in the States too. She also said that she was studying English and Bagley and I both heaped praise on her for how well she spoke. I later joked that she was our spirit guide... the rabbit. She was wearing a yellow shirt with a rabbit on the front and, ironically, "USA" on the back.

We finally made it to our last stop and I was instantly hit with the smell of the ocean. We are actually on an island in the bay.

We checked in and this may be the best hotel yet. We were even startled about 30 minutes after we settled in the room when a bowl of bananas and strawberries was sent up as a welcome. The room is a decent size as well.



After a quick nap (we were dragging luggage all over the place for hours so we were exhausted), Bagley headed out for the NIN show. I actually took a quick shower and headed out to the Asian Trade Center and the Osaka World Trade Center which are both nearby. I also checked out the port that is adjacent to the ATC. In the distance, there are those giant cranes that unload the freight ships and way off in the distance it looked as if there were freighters just lazing on the horizon. They just sat there almost like great guardians.

I grabbed some dinner at a non-Western restaurant finally. It was called Bom Dia, which sounds Spanish to me, but it had all kinds of food. I didn't get the most "Japanese" meal. It was a skillet with a thin steak, fried potatoes and asparagus. But it did have a slice of some kind of yellow, starchy gourd and one of those crazy wagon-wheel looking vegetable slices (does anyone know what that is?).

I went back to the port as the sun was setting and just sat and took it all in. It was very relaxing with the sea breeze cooling everything down and the sound of the sea against the dock. I then noticed that the fish in the bay were taking turns jumping up out of the water. I have no idea why or what kind of fish they were. Perhaps they were grabbing flies like those scenes you see with the Great Whites jumping out of the water to grab seals...

Nagoya

The good news is that we're starting to add pix and Bagley even posted a cool video from the Sanja Matsuri festival. You have to go back to the old posts to see what we have. I've added some pix, but Bagley has the better shots so hopefully he"ll get a chance to update the blogs...

We checked out of the Shinagawa Prince this morning and took the train to Nagoya. It was about 1 hour 45 minutes on the Shinkansen (that could be spelled wrong, but most of you wouldn't know anyway). It was a high-speed train, but you couldn't really tell until we hit the tunnels and the air pressure was intense because the air had nowhere to go as the train plunged through the hills.

After a taxi ride from the station and a very overly friendly check-in that included a tour of the room that was so thorough that it actually got uncomfortable and seemed like it would never end. I think she was just practising English on us after the first few minutes.



We're only here for one day, which is probably enough. We got in around 1:30P and Bagley had to head out for his show soon, so I went out to see what I could see in Nagoya. More walking... I just headed out without a plan. I had seen a flyer in the room for a Salvador Dali exhibit at the Nagoya City Art Museum, and I actually stumbled across the museum while walking around aimlessly. I went in and checked out the exhibit. Hey, it was relatively cheap and I had time to kill. I'm familiar with a good deal of his more famous works (and of course the image of the crazy old man version of Sal) but this exhibit was called "Dali Multifaceted". It had early paintings, sketches, production photos of he and his crew putting together the "Dream of Venus" installation, samples of his writing, advertising he did for a pantyhose company and even furniture and dresses he had designed. It was pretty impressive. What really amazed me was the set of his earliest paintings from his first 20 years. He hopped artistic genres like mad. It was like seeing the works of 8 different painters. He must have just dabbled in whatever came his way ("Let me take a stab at this cubist thing..."). While I was there, I had a chance to check out their permanent collection as well. My favorite part though was this older Japanese gentleman who ws one painting ahead of me throughtout the permanent collection. He would look at the painting, read the card and in a normal voice (not a whisper) he would say the artist's name out loud, "Orozco... Fujitara... Pee-caso...". And he would say it every time, even if it was the same painter. It was a treat to wait in anticipation until he finished reading the card to hear him repeat the name as if it was helping him to burn it in his memory. I loved it.



After that, I walked around some more. There isn't much around here. It is really just a business center. I accidentally ended up walking through the garment district by happenstance. I guess if I wanted a suit made, this would be the place to be. I headed back towards the hotel to find something to eat. Everyone talks about Mos Burger so I thought I would check it out (even though I'm trying to eat in safe mode again). I walked by it, but it looked pretty sketchy. There were four pictures of hamburgers that were each layered with sauces and eggs and who knows what else. I figured that until I learn enough Japanese to say "give me one without salmon roe all over it" I would have to skip the Mos Burger.

So what did I do? I'm almost ashamed to type it... I ate at the Hard Rock Cafe across the street from the hotel. I know... they have shitty food too. But, I got teriyaki chicken there so it is almost like Japanese food. Actually, it seemed pretty authentic, complete with a seaweed wrapped rice ball. I ate the rice, but skipped the seaweed (remember... safe mode).

After eating, I hit the Club Sega right next door. I hit it big with a slot machine and made enough to keep me playing this weird Monopoly coin game for the next two hours. I of course left without money, but I spent less than $20 and killed some time. I actually even won a prize in one of those grabby machines (but I still find them suspect).

Nakano and Ikebukuro

We spent the day walking a LOT around Nakano and Ikebukuro yesterday. Our feet were killing us. Most of the time was spent checking out anime and record stores. I`m not a huge fan of the anime so everything started looking the same to me after a while. Even the record stores all have the same stuff so there was nothing too stimulating there.

We ate lunch in Ikebukuro. I was feeling a little better so I decided to actually eat lunch (which I had skipped the previous two days). This was our most confusing food ordering episode yet. In fact, they were actually out of what I pointed to like a mute simpleton and I had to order again. I got the old `hamburg` steak as it is called everywhere over here. They started out by giving us each a whole stewed tomato on a plate. I had a bite or two, but I`m not really a tomato fan. If you were into tomatoes, I`m sure it was a killer appetizer. I also got a plate of some kind of clear mash that I was assuming was radish (`cause I thought I saw that on the menu). It didn`t really taste like anything.

I did get to encounter my first super-packed train ride that morning though. I was really amazed that people just kept getting on and we were all packed tight for much of the trip. We had hit the rush hour so there were a lot of people heading to work. It is a situation that seems very incongruous... the people here are so polite and do anything to avoid embarrassment, but all bets are off when you are riding the train.

I`ve gotten a few internal chuckles seeing all ofthe kids running around with english phrases on their clothing. I`m not sure they always know what it says. I saw a guy with a cap yesterday that said `Nonth Carolina` and I figured it was probably the same way for Americans who wear clothing with Japanese writing. The best so far was a teenager wearing a black T-shirt emblazened with `Backroom Bitch` in bright pink letters. He wasn`t so punk that I could assume he understood the irony of it.

We ate at the Chinese buffet in the hotel last night, which not only proved to be extremely expensive, but it also proved that I need to stop eating adventurously for a little while longer.

Anyway, this is our last morning in the Shinagawa Prince hotel. We check out and take the train to Nagoya. I don`t know if we will have internet access there, but we are only there for one day and then it is on to Osaka. We hopefully have wi-fi access there so Bagley can finally upload some photos.

Influence

All I`m saying is that the Panda enclosure is close to the Gorilla enclosure and he was problably taunted into this:

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/05/18/rotterdam.gorilla.ap/index.html

Shibuya!

We hit Shibuya today. This area wasn`t as crowded as I thought it would be. The weather was fantastic! Sunny all day. Not like the rain storm we got caught in yesterday, causing me to go on a quick search to find an umbrella before we got going. I liked the fact that you can cross the street diagonally in Shibuya, but it leads two perpendicular streams of pedestrian traffic on a collision course. Somehow, everyone works it out and gets to the other side without stepping on anyone or bloodying any noses.　I wonder if that could ever happen in America...

We hit the usual nerdy places like HMV, some other used record store and Mandarake. I even hit Tower Records (well, c`mon... I can`t do that at home anymore since it closed). On the way to Yoyogi Park, there was some kind of reggae festival. I never really saw anyone perform on the stage they had there, but there was a lot of music and tents set up with people selling things.

What I liked a lot better were the street performers. A bunch of folks set up their little amplifiers and mic stands and played for the passers-by. It went anywhere from singers with acoustic guitars to people lip syching to songs to dancers doing routines. As we got closer to the actual park, there were full band set-ups with much J-rock to be had as well as country music, one group that actually had an upright electric piano they dragged out there and a bunch of dancers with 50`s-themed clothes and pompadours doing a dance routine. What was a little more odd were the girls dressed up to look like goth girls in black leather and shocking red hair (or wigs?) who were just there having a bunch of people take pictures of them as they posed. Some were dressed in what looked to me like bright pink stewardess or maid uniforms. The coolest one of all was one guy who was just showing his air-guitar prowess with a fervent intensity as the rock an roll blasted out of his CD player. There were girls surrounding him taking his picture like he was a star (which undoubtedly he was for that brief moment).



I got to walk through Snoopy Town. That sounds cooler than it really was. It is basically a Snoopy store.

Bagley and I actually split up while in Shibuya and I headed back through the park and through the city. I checked out Tower Records(as mentioned previously) and I actually found a new CD that I wanted that didn`t cost $40! New CD`s and DVD`s are ridiculously expensive over here. I`ve heard that is the reason so many releases have bonus tracks on them here so you will be enticed to buy them instead of the much cheaper imports. I checked out a music store, but realized I didn`t have the money or the ability to carry a guitar around Japan and the subsequent flight home, so no instruments for me. I then walked around trying to find the train station for a while and eventually stumbled upon it and headed back to the hotel.

I never mentioned that I ate at Outback steakhouse last night, did I? Well, I`m trying to get my digestion back in order so I had a good ole` steak. I wanted one more `safe` night so I hit the T.G.I. Friday`s tonight. I know... you can all stone me when I get back for wasting my Tokyo time at a bad American franchise, but the Jack Daniels Chicken was awesome! Just what I needed.

Sanja Matsuri

We hit the Sanja Matsuri festival yesterday in Akasuka. Here`s a link to a description of the festival: http://www.whatsonwhen.com/events/~35916.jml

It was the most `Japanese` thing we`ve done yet (though the sumo was pretty Japanese). The ornate shrines that are carried through the streets were beautiful. They are carried on the shoulders of dozens of people because they are so heavy. Actually, `carried` may not be the right word because they bounce this huge shrine up and down the entire time as they shout and chant. You could see that many were straining under the weight but were having a great time anyway. There are also smaller versions of the shrines that are carried by children (which were adorable to see of course).

Bagley and I were taking many pictures with the camera raised above our heads in an attempt to see over the crowds. The whole area around the main temple (which was the final destination for the shrines) had tents set up with all kinds of food. I am unfortunately dealing with the consequences of my adventurous eating on day one so I didn`t get a chance to sample anything. Bagley was pissed because he bought food ahead of time thinking that there wouldn`t be much available based on the last time he was here. He did still manage to get a hot dog on a stick (but noted it wasn`t as big as the one he had last time).

After the festival, we headed back to the hotel for a quick nap. Then, as Bagley went to the NIN show, I checked out the Aqua Stadium that is a part of the Shinagawa Prince hotel. It was a pretty nice setup, but a little basic. I`ve been spoiled by Sea World and the Chattanooga and Georgia Aquariums though. The standard aquarium fare were presented in tanks that didn`t really go out of the way to make it seem like a natural environment (hence the plastic circus animals that were placed in some of the small tanks and the big clear plastic pen with nothing else around the sunfish).



The big stadium with the dolphin show was nice. I , of course, was at a loss as to what the performers were getting everyone to yell out loud. They had three different kinds of dolphin (two sets of which were a very bizarre black and white dolphin with a sharp nose... these were impressive animals). I loved the fact that whenever the dolphins splashed anyone in the seats adjacent to the tank, an attendant would run down with a stack of neatly folded white towels and offer them to the spectators. Politeness reigns supreme in Tokyo!



There was also a sea lion show that was pretty straightforward, with a lot of nose-balancing and catching tricks. The dolphin and sea lion shows were only about 20 minutes each. There were a lot of kids and it was interesting to watch them enjoy everything. I had heard that children in this country were kind of coddled and spoiled in order to provide them with the happiest childhood possible, which is highly valued over here. I expected to see them running amock (or is it amuck?) but it was the few western children that were really running around and being crazy. Imagine that...

Well, hoping to hit Shibuya today. It looks like good weather for us this time...

WILL

*edit*

Here's a video

Day two and a half...

Hit the Tokyo tower yesterday. Even at 250 meters above the city you can`t see the edges of it in any direction. That`s how big this city is!



Went to the first NIN show that night after many wrong train episodes. It was extremely not fun for me and I have decided to forego the rest of the shows. That`s all I`ll say about that.

We are planning to hit a festival today, but it looks like it is going to pour so I don`t know how successful we`ll be with that.

Bagley couldn`t get the Wi-Fi working in the Yahoo Cafe so we may not be able to upload photos until Osaka in the middle of next week.

-WILL

I.M. Lazy

Golly. I'm neglecting this little slice of digital real estate. Anyhow, I'll post some of my inane thoughts once I get my PowerBook all Wi-Fi'd up and stuff.

SUMO!

The official day one (we can`t count the travel day, can we?) was well-spent at the sumo matches for the whole day. It was an incredibly interesting event.

We started out picking up food at the train station. Now, I`m not the most adventurous eater, so you can imagine that picking out something to eat from the non-descript piles of plastic containers full of exotic and odd-looking morsels was a bit of a challenge. I did manage to try a few things that I had never had. I actually bought a safe backup, the `Healthy Salad`, that I never actually ended up eating. I was surprised to find that the dumplings I picked up (filled with chicken or pork or soylent green... who knows?) were awesome. I picked up a noodle dish as well that was pretty good.



But back to the sumo...

We showed up a little after 10:30 in the morning. The matches had already started, but it was the lower ranking matches of the un-salaried combatants. So, of course the place was nearly empty with just a few groups I assumed were the family members of the wrestlers and the tourists who didn`t know that you didn`t need to get there that early. It was still a good way to catch up with the process and figure out what was going on. The arena was fairly small but sound carried really well to the entire room.

I never really knew much about sumo. I thought it was just fat guys in diapers slamming into each other. I`ve certainly only been fed the American stereotypes of the sport. These guys have incredible skill though. The rituals preceding each challenge were interesting (sorry to over-use that word). There is a prayer that it sung to each of the wrestlers. Then there is a rote series of movements that they go through before each match begins. This is where you see the slapping and stomping you are all familiar with. What became apparent right away is that the bigger guy doesn't always win. In fact it was nearly the opposite with 8 or 9 out of 10 of the bigger guys losing. You start to realize that the weight can just as easily be used against them as the other wrestler counters their moves.



Around 12:30, we were going to eat and walk around Ryogoku before coming back for the higher ranking matches, but it was pouring out so we stayed at the arena. We broke out the food we picked up and sat on a bench watching highlights from old matches courtesy of NHK on a screen in the lobby.

The afternoon started with the Junior sumo wrestlers (who actually get paid) and then the senior ones to finish out the night around 6P. These upper levels really took it up a notch and the rituals before each match got longer and longer, incorporating the sipping of water to purify the body, the throwing of salt to purify the ring and the ceremonial washing with a damp cloth. The matches were more intense, with a lot of hand-work and many big guys ending up on the floor outside the ring. We even saw some injuries including one guy who looked like he broke a toe. Each level was preceded with a ceremonial entrance of the East and West wrestlers all decked out in their special aprons. At the end of the night, we were expecting the bow dance to be much more than it was, but all in all, this was a great way to spend the first day acclimating to the timezone and Japan in general.

We hit Akihabara and walked around for a while before heading back to the hotel. `Electric Town` was full of arcades and electronics stores that are all housed in these very narrow buildings that had 5 to 8 floors in them. The arcades were cacophonous rows of video games and a ton of those things I can only call grabby machines, where you try to pick up a prize in the big chamber with two tongs that barely stay together (hence making the operators lots of money with little risk).

We headed back and ate something quick. I managed to stay up until 10PM this time so maybe I`m getting there on the new schedule. Today is up in the air on what we will do, but tonight is the first Nine Inch Nails show. Hopefully Bagley will bring his laptop down to the cafe and upload some pics at some point.

-WILL

The Journey...

Well, after a long trip that started with our taxi never showing up to pick us up (that`s now a $150 parking cost at the airport we weren`t expecting), we made it to Narita airport yesterday. I barely slept at all on the plane for some reason, so I was dead tired when we got here, having been up for about 25 hours straight. We forced ourselves to stay up since it was about 4PM local time when we checked in. We chilled in our tiny room for a bit, checking out the sumo match that was on NHK, and then strolled around looking for somewhere to eat. We hit a Royal Host and I had a Japanese version of pot roast that was good. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was all I could do to stay awake until 8P so I crashed. I got up at 6A this morning and am hopefully adjusted to the time change. The plan is to hit the sumo matches if we can get tix today.

THE FLIGHT:

It wasn`t really the ordeal that I dreaded. They feed you constantly and I spent most of the time watching movies and playing the little touch screen games on the monitor that is imbedded in the seat in front of you. Though I regret seeing it on a tiny screen instead of in its full glory, Pan`s Labyrinth was awesome. Hollywoodland was OK. We lucked out because someone had actually taken the seat between Bagley and myself (which we were hoping would be unfilled tio give us more room), but the stewardess moved him somewhere else to make us all more comfortable. Let`s see if we`re that lucky on the way back.

THE TRAIN:

Even Customs and getting our baggage wasn`t much of an ordeal once we arrived. I withdrew some yen from the ATM to have cash on-hand. You need to take a train from the airport (which is outside of Tokyo). After a little confusion and apprehension with the scary Japanese ticket machine (and some help from a woman working for JR that spoke English) we took the trip to Shinagawa which was a little over an hour. Between fighting to stay awake and feeling run down, I managed to gaze out the window as we made our way. If not for the rice paddies that surround the tracks most of the way and the more ornate Japanese tile roofs on the houses, I was struck by how familiar it actually looked. I could have been looking at Atlanta or Philadelphia for most of the way. The tightly packed apartment buildings, each one with a line of laundry decorating its balcony, reminded me of Jersey shore towns.

THE HOTEL:

The Shinagawa Prince is a beautiful hotel. It has a movie theater and some kind of aquarium stadium show (which we need to check out at some point). The room is small, but I understand that is typical. You have no choice but to stow your luggage under that bed in order to conserve precious space. We`ll post pix at some point. The bathroom has a super-toilet that is heated and has a built in bidet (certainly an interesting experience for the unititiated).

That`s the rather bloated but quick update for day one from me. Pix are to follow.
-Will

picture test

This is a photo test from my first trip back in 2004.

Settin' this one up for Japan...

...and yes, I know Pandas are from China. You can't trust them in any country.