Days 1 & 2: Tokyo

Dear readers,

Konichiwa from Japan!

Dick and I are on our third day here in Japan and, like a good episode of Family Feud, much has happened. Allow me to fill you in...

Our 15 hour flight to Japan started at the crack of dawn at 7am on Monday. When we landed in Tokyo, the clock read 2pm Tuesday -- it was already the next day. By using science, Dick and I had watched 31 hours elapse in just 15 hours, a feat of high-efficiency that one would expect of this duo. 

An hour on the train and short walk in the sweltering summer humidity would find us at our hostel in the neighborhood called Nakano. We checked in and followed the Japanese tradition of taking off your shoes as you enter the building and tossing them into a festering heap of other strangers' shoes. Taking a page out of Hochberg's book, we took it easy that first night after a grueling day of travel and hit the sack after exploring the neighborhood. 

TIPS AND OBSERVATIONS FROM DAY 1:

- Tons of locals wear doctors masks when roaming about. Unsure if its because they're sick or they're afraid of getting sick. Will report back. 

- People are short here.

- Cars do NOT drive on the right side of the road like in the States. 

- Waiters do not accept tips. 

- About one in four people speak English. 

Day 2: Tokyo

By the time Dick convinced me to get up at 4:30 am, he had been up for 3 hours. He said he couldn't sleep partly due to jet lag and partly due to the snoring monster in the adjacent bunk. When we saw later that the monster was a girl, we laughed hee-lariously and congratulated her on a well executed fake-snoring prank, since any girl snoring that loudly for real would surely be in a hospital by now. 

As we were walking about at 5am, the funny signs, mysterious doctor masks, and men stuck in their childhood (see below) kept making us lol!

Why were they playing Pokemon on the TVs on the train? How come people had such funny hairdos? We vowed to become more assimilated and to take in the local culture during our time here, a promise we would make good on in the coming days. 

On this day though, after a fresh sushi breakfast, we accidentally visited the Tokyo Tower. Dickie, who was leading the way, had made the classic blunder of mistaking the Tokyo Tower (below) for the Sony building we wanted to visit. 

(Copyright: Sony Electronics)

The Tokyo Tower was as boring as it was tall so, no sooner than we had arrived, we were on our way to the real Sony building in Ginza to demo some of their latest products. Mostly, though, we ended up snoozing in their theater room for a good while -- me getting some shut eye in the Lazy Boy while Dick passed out next to me, drooling on every couch Sony owns. 

Later, we visited the Imperial Palace,

walking the grounds and picking grapefruits from the forbidden trees of one of the gardens. 

On the way home, we caught a Yokohama Baystars baseball game.

It was unreal. The fans were absolutely bonkers, whooping and hollering different songs the entire 9 innings. The mascots, which were two power rangers and a giant kitty, kept us hyped the whole game, while the announcer/DJ bumped all of the hits. 

 By the time we got back to the hostel we were absolutely wiped (see: Shelman's backside) and went to bed early. We needed sleep like Dickie needs a haircut, and sleep we got. The Tsukiji fish market opened at 5am the next day after all, and we didn't wanna miss the tuna auction!

TIPS AND OBSERVATIONS FROM DAY 2:

- Not a single person drinks coffee on the commute to work, even at 6am

- Sardine sushi, even in Japan, well... it ain't great. 

- The second piece of sardine sushi... it ain't any better. 

- Definitely check out a baseball game if ever in Japan.