Shinjuku, Tokyo

Well...it's official...Tokyo is AWESOME. The first thing I noticed is that although we flew 14 hours to get here, everything is in Japanese, and there's a lot of fluffy animals and dried snacks everywhere, I still feel very much at home (except for that everything is much cleaner and more efficient than NYC). I know you're thinking "oh, well...any developed country is going to feel like home"...NO WAY...Western Europe's got nothing on Tokyo!

Even though I've only been here for a day, there are already a few things I've learned about the highly nuanced culture of Japan. I learned that I shouldn't blow much nose in public - sniffle before blowing - I learned that I should never pour my own beer (if a waiter doesn't pour it for me, someone else needs to), I learned never to take food with the front end of my chop sticks (always use the back end), and thanks to Bobak, I learned that I should not bring any embarrassing socks with holes or similarly unpleasant marks since I'll be taking my shoes off a lot. Some other things I've noticed are that they have really flat umbrellas - I'm talking about like as thin as a notebook, the younger women like to wear short skirts, panty hose, and their version of funky heels (my fav was blue suede thigh-high boots with indented heels), the toilets very smart and make noise when you sit down (still haven't quite figured out why the noise right when you sit) and I think they can also make noise to cover up various...unpleasantries, and the trains move so smoothly that you don't even feel that you're on a train.

We met Bobak and Holly at around 6pm last night (tokyo is 14 hours ahead of NYC) and jumped on the train to get to the hotel . The neighborhood that we're staying in is called Shinjuku, which is kind of like the happening bussiness-y area in tokyo. We went to this bar-type restaurant (smokers included) on one of those quintessential (or what i see as quintessential in my head) Japanese side streets with lots of flashing lights and small shops, and had various fried/grilled foods (fried tofu, fried mashed potatoes, chicken skewers, frien soba noodles, etc)...very delicius!

Anyway, today we're hopping on a train to go to Takayama, which is a small town five hours outside of tokyo. They're famous for their 'lacquered crafts'. We're going to be staying at a Ryokan, which is a traditional Japanese house (where I need to make sure that I don't embarrass bobak with my hole-y socks).

So, I'll let you know how that goes. BTW - we have cell phones...I'll be sending out the number today, but let me know if you want one and don't get it.