Tokyo Arrival

Ok, now its real. I got on the plane. The chaos of the last few days has transformed into the nervousness of going somewhere new. You know the kind. Where you find yourself in a place where you have less education than a first grader. Questions like, why are there no towells in the bathroom to dry my hands and what is that squishy food I am eating, just keep coming up.

I was expecting culture shock and it hit me harder than the wave of heat and humidity that hit the second I got off the plane. It was a bit stressful after being on a plane for 15 hours to find the correct train into Tokyo and then transfer to the correct Metro to get to the correct neighborhood. A couple of wrong turns and wrong trains but it all works out in the end...

The manager of the guesthouse Chika walked to the train station and picked me up. Good thing, I would have been wandering around the back streets of Ikebukuro for hours looking for the guesthouse. Its full of seasoned travelers, an Irish lass going RTW, a Dutch lady, a Isreali guy working in Japan, and a Japanese guy working a temp job for the summer. We already got into a great discussion about places to go in Japan, world politics, okonomiyaki... It reminded me of college, the way those random conversations would start in a dorm room and last till 2 am.

Anyways, off to bed and Ueno park tomorrow.