Touchdown in Tokyo

It's 11PM on Saturday here... I think that means it's about 8AM Saturday in Calgary, so I should be just waking up, but instead I'm getting ready for bed. This is the first time I've crossed the international date line and it's doing a real number on my sense of time. I haven't had any issues sleeping though... after waking up at the crack of dawn this morning and having breakfast, I figured I'd take a quick nap... which ended up lasting till 2PM. So much for getting here a day early to explore Tokyo on my own! :)

I did get out after that though. Road the train from Shinagawa Station (across from my hotel) to Shibuya, walked to Omotosande then to Harajuku, then up through the Meiji Gardens, then on to Shinjuku. Then headed back on the train to my hotel to meet my group for dinner. Seems like a good bunch of people. Lots from England, a couple of us Canadians, and a sprinkling of Aussies, South Africans and Americans.

Anyway, they charge 100yen for 10 minutes of Internet here so I'll switch to trusty point form and give a quick update of my experience thus far. Sorry, no pics as I haven't managed to get my phone online yet:

- flight was surprising tolerable and I still felt good when I got here. Air Canada has come along way and I think I can officially say I no longer hate them. It was also the first time I've been served an airline flight with chop sticks.

- Since landing here, I've had that same stupid grin on my face that I first got when arriving in Moscow last year... the 'I can't believe I'm here' grin. Confusing train signs, rice fields, people bowing, strange foods... yup, I'm not in Kansas anymore

- on the train yesterday, as the rice fields gave way to buildings which got noticeably larger every few minutes, I started wondering why after all these years of thinking about going to London, it never occurred to me to come here when the flight is about the same? And why we fly East to get to Western Europe, and West to get to the Far East? And whether all my thoughts where that profound, or just when I'm tired enough to fall asleep with my eyes wide open?

- Japanese people are extremely courteous and friendly. About half the signs of at least a word or 2 of English on them. Train stations are fairly easy to figure out, albeit crazy busy. Shinjuku Station is supposedly the busiest in the entire world, and after going through it today, I would believe it. All in all though, Tokyo is very accessible to this Western Ignoramus, equipped with all of 4 Japanese words, and I can't imagine anyone having any trouble touring this place on their own, especially given how willing, even eager, Japanese people are to help. If anything, Tokyo is more modern and Westernized than the West, and I'm hoping we get into a little away from that on this trip.

- The food isn't Westernized though, and although you could eat like a Canadian here if you wanted to, I've already had at least 4 experiences of putting something in my mouth without knowing what it was. 3 of them were delicious. Chicken hearts by the way are fantastic. Chicken Gizzards I could do without.

- I'm staying at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel. Look it up. It's insane. 4 Towers, over 3000 rooms, bowling lanes, shopping, even an aquarium. And I don't think that includes the Grand Prince and the New Prince either. My room was equipped was a bidet as well which I've never tried before, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I hit the stop button right after it started and will never do that again. I feel so violated.

Anyway, I'm almost out of time so I'll sign off for now. On to Hakone and Mt. Fuji tomorrow.