The Adventure Begins...

Hi all! Just a quick post to say that I arrived safe and sound at my Asakusa Weekly Mansion in Tokyo, Japan. It is a little after 10 PM here. The good news is that I succeeded in staying up relatively late so as to counteract some of the effects of jetlag. The bad news is that my brain is literally mush.

Aside from some lukewarm coffee being spilled on my pants by an apologetic flight attendant, my trip from Seattle went without a hitch. They have a new machine at Narita Airport now that fingerprints you and takes your picture for immigration and counter-terrorist purposes if you are a non-citizen. The best part is that when it takes your picture it superimposes it over what looked to be a psychedelic colored Hello-Kitty background, so it effectively kills all the seriousness of the anti-terrorism measure.

Was I getting my mug shot taken or posing for one of those picture sets you’re asked to buy after finishing Splash Mountain?

My customs officer was super nice. He nearly waved me thru on my two year old expired VISA since he wasn’t really paying attention. After he stared at the thing for about two minutes he realized it was no good and mumbled some inaudible comments before giving me the high sign.

Rode the train to my apartment complex, which was definitely economical but also slow as snails. From the minute I stepped off the plane until now, I’ve pretty much been in a sort of fog. I think it’s because my internal clock is out of wack and I spent like 12 hours in transport today. I have just sort of been on autopilot.

I ran some errands tonight and ate some cheap soba, since they fed us three meals on the plane plus snacks. It finally became clear how tired I was as I found myself totally blanking out in front of a row of shampoos in the Japanese dollar store. I couldn’t tell them apart; my brain was so tired that it didn’t even want to process Japanese.

I’m going to get some rest.

Tomorrow is cell phone hunting.

More to come soon.

You can bet on that!

B.E.W.