We Are in Japan

We left Sea-Tac at about 1:10 pm in a small DHC-8 twin-prop plane bound for Vancouver, BC. One quick flight later, we were in Vancouver and ready to leave North America; which we did, at about 3:15 pm in a Boeing 747-400. It was easily the largest airplane I've ever flown in, with two floors of passenger seating. It was about a 9.5 hour flight, which of course was long, but the plane was fairly comfortable. We were seated on the right hand side of the plane on the window and the seat next to it. Thankfully there were video screens in the back of the seats in front of us that had a variety of computer games, crappy movies (Madagascar 2, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Sweet November, etc.) and other things to help keep us entertained.

After we finally touched down at Narita airport we went through immigration, got our bags, went through customs, then changed some of our US cash into yen. We then waited for a shuttle to take us to the Hotel Radisson. Driving through Narita, I was surprised at how many American companies had a stronghold in the city. We passed by two 7-11s, a Mobil gas station, ads for McDonalds and Coke. A lot of things were in Japanese and English too. I don't expect that to be the norm everywhere in the country, but it will help ease us into the culture, I think. Driving on the left side of the street in a right-hand drive car might take a while to get used to, if we ever get the opportunity though. Just being in the bus and watching us drive through the city was hard enough!

We arrived at our Hotel at about 7:00 pm Japan time/3:00 am Seattle time. We were quite tired, as I'm sure you can imagine, and fell asleep by about 8:30 pm, waking up this morning at 4:00 am Japan time. The hotel is nice, and it seems most of the workers here are bi-lingual, which makes sense given the amout of tourism they must get here. There is also an "American Sports Bar" and "California Restaurant" here too. Interesting note, like in the US, the hotel here had a copy of the bible in it, but also a copy of the teachings of Buddha.

Japanese money is interesting. So far what I have seen is 1, 10, 50, 100 yen coins and some paper yen notes that don't look too different from some of the newest US dollars. The 50 yen coins have a hole in the middle. My first Japanese purchase was a bottle of apple juice from a vending machine.

Tessa will post soon too, hopefully.