Hold the wasabi
So, the plane ride across the Pacific was pretty painless. My boss got pretty upset when the ticket counter argued we couldn't have seats next to each other, and then the business lounge he wanted to sit in was small and crowded, the plane was delayed, the people on the plane beside each of us would not switch, and then he spilled his diet Coke all over himself - so he was a bit cranky. Other than that I listened to 3 lessons of Japanese, read half of Stranger in a Strange Land (seemed fitting somehow), watched "Mr. & Mrs. Smith", and ate some average Japanese meals. Really it went quicker than I expected. I loved seeing the Japanese landscape - even their land management is efficient, clusters of development and then acres and acres of farmland, with little oases of forests dotting it.
We got to Narita, breezed through customs which was a pleasant surprise, and snagged a cab to the hotel. Now while the plane didn't bug me, the cab ride essentially drained the last of my life, and I fell asleep. Even then it seemed to take forever, but we made it and met up with the other guy from our company, Dave, for dinner. I ate but was on the edge of delerium and crashed right after food. I was so out of it I needed Dave to help unlock my room door. My room is amazing. I'm on the 50th floor of the Shinjuku Park Hyatt Tokyo, and I look right out on Mount Fuji. The city sprawl is crazy right in Tokyo... you can't see the edge even from way up here it's just endless buildings in all directions.
Commuting is fascinating for now, but will get very old quickly I think. There are so many people trying to get to work it's like a flood of humanity pouring through the streets and the train stations. Everything is streamlined though, there are escalators everywhere in the subway and it's so clean. Tokyo is very bilingual, at least in its signage - though the cab drivers are another story. We had a CRAZY man drive us back from the station today... literally... Adam finally couldn't stand it and we got out early and walked. He insisted on trying to get us to understand his Japanese though I told him I don't understand Japanese (unless the audio lessons I'm taking lied to me) and nearly ran over a pretty hot girl and turned around looking at us and said something dirty (I have no idea what, but no doubt it WAS dirty) and started laughing and babbling to himself. Then Adam started toying with him and kept telling Dave and I to give him a kiss (until the craziness freaked Adam out enough to get out of the cab) and each time he'd say it the man would laugh and babble more.
Anyway, had my first glut of sushi for dinner, we went to an all you can eat sushi bar. It wasn't bad, the first 10 pieces or so were fine, though the ones with wasabi pained me greatly. After that my stomach started reminding me I'm not so used to eating raw fish and the wasabi started to really get to me. Adam kept ordering more and more so I ended up eating about 20 pieces before I just couldn't do any more. It's still kinda heavy in my stomach.
Jet lag has not been bad so far, though I start feeling it around 6PM (4AM EST) and am really spacey at the moment so I'm done for now. More to come. If I'm feeling really ambitious when I get enough cool pictures I'll post an album.
We got to Narita, breezed through customs which was a pleasant surprise, and snagged a cab to the hotel. Now while the plane didn't bug me, the cab ride essentially drained the last of my life, and I fell asleep. Even then it seemed to take forever, but we made it and met up with the other guy from our company, Dave, for dinner. I ate but was on the edge of delerium and crashed right after food. I was so out of it I needed Dave to help unlock my room door. My room is amazing. I'm on the 50th floor of the Shinjuku Park Hyatt Tokyo, and I look right out on Mount Fuji. The city sprawl is crazy right in Tokyo... you can't see the edge even from way up here it's just endless buildings in all directions.
Commuting is fascinating for now, but will get very old quickly I think. There are so many people trying to get to work it's like a flood of humanity pouring through the streets and the train stations. Everything is streamlined though, there are escalators everywhere in the subway and it's so clean. Tokyo is very bilingual, at least in its signage - though the cab drivers are another story. We had a CRAZY man drive us back from the station today... literally... Adam finally couldn't stand it and we got out early and walked. He insisted on trying to get us to understand his Japanese though I told him I don't understand Japanese (unless the audio lessons I'm taking lied to me) and nearly ran over a pretty hot girl and turned around looking at us and said something dirty (I have no idea what, but no doubt it WAS dirty) and started laughing and babbling to himself. Then Adam started toying with him and kept telling Dave and I to give him a kiss (until the craziness freaked Adam out enough to get out of the cab) and each time he'd say it the man would laugh and babble more.
Anyway, had my first glut of sushi for dinner, we went to an all you can eat sushi bar. It wasn't bad, the first 10 pieces or so were fine, though the ones with wasabi pained me greatly. After that my stomach started reminding me I'm not so used to eating raw fish and the wasabi started to really get to me. Adam kept ordering more and more so I ended up eating about 20 pieces before I just couldn't do any more. It's still kinda heavy in my stomach.
Jet lag has not been bad so far, though I start feeling it around 6PM (4AM EST) and am really spacey at the moment so I'm done for now. More to come. If I'm feeling really ambitious when I get enough cool pictures I'll post an album.