Rain, rain

So I thought I brought an adapter for my laptop's power supply, but I was mistaken apparently. The power supply has three prongs and every outlet in Japan has two. So, this will most likely be a quick update.

It rained for a majority of the day yesterday. We were lucky enough to get through the East Garden of the Imperial Palace in the morning before it started raining too much. We also toured the Museum of Modern Art and the Craft Gallery. All of which were fascinating. Unfortunately, as with most museums, photography is strictly forbidden. We've been taking the subway, which has been surprisingly easy to navigate. The travel guides that Becky brought all seemed to indicate that transferring between lines was difficult or confusing, but we haven't had any trouble whatsoever.

Today looks like more rain so we're going to try finding a department store in Shibuya that's connected to the largest cultural center in Japan. This should be interesting. Hopefully I'll be able to find an adapter for the power supply so I can write more and post some of the photos I've taken so far.

A Quick Walk Around The Block

From last night, yes Nathan, they do have 7-11's in Tokyo. It's really interesting to see the American chains that have been imported to Japan. McDonald's is of course everywhere, the biggest difference being that they're open 24-hours a day.

Hotel Villa Fontaine Roppongi Annex

Okay, we just got to our hotel in Roppongi, the Villa Fontaine Roppongi Annex. It's pretty nice and seems to be in a good location. The train stop is about a block away. It's a little odd that when I do a Google search my browser is redirected to google.co.jp. I would have thought I would still be able to access the english version of the site, but apparently not without some work on my part.

Once we got off the bus from Narita it didn't take us more than five minutes before a gentleman and his family approached us asking where we were from and wishing us a wonderful experience in Japan. You couldn't have scripted the encounter more perfectly.

For those of you involved in the discussion of just how long the flight is from Chicago to Narita, it's exactly twelve hours in the air. We actually arrived a little earlier than projected. The weather is nice and mild, in fact it doesn't feel like the projected 80 degrees and 90% humidity. Customs and immigration were a breeze. The food on the airplane wasn't too bad, but it's definitely too much once you've eaten it three times in one flight.

I was going to start shooting pictures at Narita, but I felt too tired and didn't want to fall into the stupid tourist role right away. I think the biggest difference between Japan (or at least Metro Tokyo) and South Korea is that there seems to be a higher ratio of English to non-English signage. It almost makes it feel even weirder.

Anyway, I'm going to get cleaned up and I think we're going to go out and find a ramen shop or something. I don't think we're going to get too far today, it's after 6pm and Becky and I are both pretty beat from the trip. More later!

Tropical Storm Sinlaku

I just double checked our departure and arrival times for tomorrow and discovered that Tokyo will be getting hit by tropical storm Sinlaku when we arrive at 1:45 am! It just goes to figure. I can't imagine why I have visions of the city being destroyed as I arrive. Maybe I've watched too many anime and Gojira movies.

Update: Apparently I am unable to tell the difference between AM and PM as we landed just before 2PM local time.

T-minus Ten Hours Thirty Minutes

So I'm leaving for Tokyo in less than eleven hours! I'm planning on keeping a log of my trip here so check back in the next couple of days for stories and pictures. It's been a dream of mine to travel to Japan since I was very young. I grew up watching Hong Kong kung fu and Japanese monster movies with my father. This was a great source of inspiration for me and one of my fondest memories. My father would comment about martial arts demonstrations he'd seen in his travels in the Navy. Stories of 90 year old men disabling ten attackers and breaking cinderblocks with the tips of their fingers. You can imagine what an impression this would have made on me!

Enough of the trip down memory lane. It's time for new memories to be made!