Japan
Tim and I are in Japan right now!!!!! This is the absolute best way to ride out a hurricane. Just kidding we planned to come here in July. Anyways jet-lag is horrible. Be prepared to wake up at 4am ready to go with no where to go. Also nothing opens until 10am so it just sucks.
Yeah for Fab for coming to Japan in October!!!! I am so excited for you!!!!! Cool things about Japan -
Toilets are interesting in Japan, they can be really nice or not. In our apartment we have a warmed toilet seat (very nice) and it is a bedet (haven't tried it yet) but some are not as nice or not available in many shops. Starbucks has restrooms and touristy places like Tokyo Tower have them. It is also a good idea to always have toilet paper with you because restrooms might not have it.
The bath, we have a tradtional Japanese bath where you shower before you soak in the tub and the tub overflows into the drain on the floor. After you get out of the bath you have to shut the door and dry the room.
Other cool things - cute things are everywhere. there is a channel devoted to anime only in Japanese. Manga and anime overflow bookstores!!!!!! Hello Kitty is everywhere!!!! I got a hello kitty don't drink and drive sign at the 100 yen store and it made me so happy! I am surrounded around Japanese people all the time and it makes me happy!!! except that I am freakishly tall comparitivly.
We are staying in Shinjuku, Tokyo in an apartment complex. We are right down the street from the JR train line which is probably the cheapest way to travel across Tokyo besides walking. We have gone to Shibuya, Harajuku, and we have visited Tokyo Tower. Jet-lag has been killer so our trip to Shibuya was short cause we wimped out after a few hours. Also I woke up at 4am ready to go but nothing opens until 10am. Harajuku is amazing, there is so much to see and do. There is a store called Book Off that sells used books, cds, and dvds that has tons of manga. We also visited a 5 story 100 yen store that was really cool. 100 yen stores are they way to go as far as buying stuff either for yourself or others because they have everything and more. Also Tokyo hands is a cool place to shop. They have 7 stories of everything you could ever want. Also we bought melon bread at a stop and shop place and it was everything I thought it would be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love seeing all the kids in school uniforms, it makes me so happy. And when we went to the Meji Shrine the temple workers had on white shirts with red pants!! Japanese tv is so strange and awesome too. We found the anime hit channel! Even though it is in Japanese, it still makes me happy. Especially when we saw two back to back DragonBall Z episodes. The commercials are funny and the news commentary on the US presidential race was amusing even though I didn’t understand what they were saying they had felt board diagrams of the race. I Love Japan!!!!!