In Japan!
We have arrived in the land of the rising sun! Our flight was long but not unbearable; we had a very nice seatmate named Yukari with whom Dori chatted (in Japanese) quite a bit, and the flight attendants were friendly and very helpful. Dori made friends with all of them, as she is wont to do, and she even ended up using her teacherly powers to make bathroom signs for them, a favor for which they later gave her a big bottle of champagne in thanks. (!)
We took the Keisei-sen (京成線) train from Narita airport (after getting an excellent tutorial on how the Japan Railway trains and SUICA cards work from a helpful employee), and we met two very nice older women who provided us with intriguing conversation (and Japanese practice for Dori!) the entire length of our journey.
We transferred at Nippori (日暮里) to take the Keihin-Touhoku (京浜東北) to Yokohama station, where we got horribly lost looking for the subway, which we eventually found and took to the area near Igor's house. It ended up being about 1500 yen each, which was inexpensive enough to make up for the 3 hours+ trip we ended up having to take. :o)
Last night we went to a soba/udon place for dinner. Dori had chikara udon (hot udon in a dashi broth with toasted mochi) and I had tanuki soba (hot soba with bits of deep-fried tempura batter in a soy broth). We are staying in Igor Sushko's house, located very near a large store called "Liquor Donkey." It's pretty awesome.
Today, we will go to Tokyo and do awesome stuff.
We took the Keisei-sen (京成線) train from Narita airport (after getting an excellent tutorial on how the Japan Railway trains and SUICA cards work from a helpful employee), and we met two very nice older women who provided us with intriguing conversation (and Japanese practice for Dori!) the entire length of our journey.
We transferred at Nippori (日暮里) to take the Keihin-Touhoku (京浜東北) to Yokohama station, where we got horribly lost looking for the subway, which we eventually found and took to the area near Igor's house. It ended up being about 1500 yen each, which was inexpensive enough to make up for the 3 hours+ trip we ended up having to take. :o)
Last night we went to a soba/udon place for dinner. Dori had chikara udon (hot udon in a dashi broth with toasted mochi) and I had tanuki soba (hot soba with bits of deep-fried tempura batter in a soy broth). We are staying in Igor Sushko's house, located very near a large store called "Liquor Donkey." It's pretty awesome.
Today, we will go to Tokyo and do awesome stuff.