The first 24 hours (or so)

Hi Everyone,

Chris has already posted the details of our flight, customs experience, hotel, etc. This is going to be a short one from me because I'm pretty exhausted - woke up at 3:30am today! I'm going to nap a bit so that we can stay up later and get ourselves on more of a schedule.

Here are a few pictures we took so far today. The first one is from my first episode of culture-shock. We were literally 50 feet off the plane, and I stopped in the ladies' room. The first thing I noticed were the ceiling to floor stall doors. But when I got into one, I thought I had opened the wrong door. There was no toilet. Only a porcelain trench built directly into the floor. All I can say is, Japanese women must be super flexible if that's what the typical toilet is like.

The car picture above might seem normal, but the name of the car is a "NOAH" - so, I had to post it for my big brother Noah.

We had a pretty good breakfast this morning at our hotel - it was a buffet featuring Japanese breakfast and Western breakfast options. The Western stuff included omelets to order, bacon, french toast, cereal, etc, while the Japanese spread included rice, cold noodles, miso soup, tofu, and various unknown meats and vegetables. Asian breakfast foods are apparently much closer to what they eat the rest of the day, rather than saving certain foods for only evening or morning.

Then we took a longish walk through the area around the hotel. It was only 6:45am or so (and a Sunday) so hardly anything was open and no one was out. But we did see interesting signs - one read "Yankee's Crew Lounge", another was apparently an American Old-West themed store/coffee shop called "Big Country" (see above). We went into a convenience store where I bought some tweezers and lotion (for your face I think, but I'm not 100% sure) - the clerks didn't speak any English and the screen that lists your purchases had so many characters and anime characters all over it that I couldn't even figure out how much I owed. But hey - we're here to learn!

Later we caught the hotel shuttle into the Narita city mall. We had wanted to see a nearby temple, too, but were so tired that we agreed we would see temples in other towns during our year in Japan. The stores were a bit overwhelming - one had like 10 rows of small anime books. I'm not used to seeing stacks and stacks of books without one word or letter that I recognize! One store was called Mother Garden - it was full of cutesy kids' toys, clothes and stuffed animals. Mainly cartoony-looking stuffed white seals wearing a variety of funny hats and clothing. One kind even sang "You Are My Sunshine" when you pressed its flipper;) I'm going to have so much fun shopping for my three nieces and my nephew!

Today at the mall, I was happy to find a "regular" toilet, although it wasn't without its own oddities. When you sit down on the seat, the sound of water running is played out of a speaker (so no one can hear your own noises, I think?). Then there were various buttons that I didn't understand, probably for bidet functions... Things are certainly interesting here!

We walked out of the mall only to see our hotel shuttle bus pulling out of the parking lot - and the next one didn't come for another 1.5 hours. So we passed the time playing cards on a bench, and I think I counted about ten different little kids who stopped to stare and/or point at us. I hadn't really gotten any strange looks until today - I'm relieved to see that kids are kids regardless of country or nationality.

Now we're lounging around in the hotel room, and will probably take a nap soon.

Over and out,

Tessa