Day two in Tokyo

Being the professional journalist of the family, I know it's rather odd I haven't written anything here until now, but I suppose I'm like the plumber who fixes everybody's pipes but his own. The journalist in me quakes at the prospect of writing in first person, and Katie has done such a good job creating this record of our adoption. But here are a few observations about Tokyo at the close of our first full day here.

Everything is backwards here -- everything. There are the obvious things like the flow of traffic: drive on the left, walk on the left, stand on the escalators on the left. It all makes trying not to bump into people a real challenge. Then there are the less obvious things: put the money into the fare machine with the "head side" down, open the sliding glass door with the handle on the left side and turn the key in the door the other way. Even the placement of the up and down escalators is swapped.

Everything here is extremely clean and well designed. That goes for the trains, the streets, the landscaping, etc. I'm writing this in our room and it feels almost like I'm in a doll house, not just because everything is smaller, but because it is pristine. Even most of the people here look like they've walked right out of a magazine or window display.

Speaking of the trains and everything being backwards, I managed to stick our fare cards into the machine, and inadvertently took all the money off of them instead of putting more money on them. Thankfully, Katie knows some Japanese and has proven gifted at navigating the train system.

The trains are efficient and go everywhere; they are also confusing. There are upwards of four different intersecting train systems. Going from one to another is nearly seamless, but it still sometimes feels like trying to go from a PC to a Mac.

People are extremely friendly and always willing to help a lost tourist (see previous observation). Us Americans could learn a lot about customer service here. The people are also extremely orderly. For example, at metro stations, people line up in two lines exactly where the train doors will open after the train arrives. When the train arrives, everybody steps forward and to the left and right of the door. The passengers get off the train, passing in between the two lines, then the passengers board the train. If you have OCD, your cure may be to move here.

I have finally found a country where they make clothes that actually fit my body type. Thanks Katie for helping me pick out the most awesome yellow linen sport coat.

The food... It's very good, but it requires getting used to odd tastes and textures. I'm not quite there yet.

The high-rise department stores are overwhelming. It was as fun looking at the prices as it was the designer merchandise. $100 for a no-frills polo shirt?! I couldn't even afford the underwear sold in the store (I'm not joking).

With that, I turn things over to Katie.

We had fun today first going to the Ghibli museum. :) The design of the museum was fun in itself with little doorways you had to crouch to go through and a neat spiral staircase than went from the first floor directly to the fourth in the main entrance hall. There was a huge plush cat bus from the movie Totoro for kids to sit in and climb around on. There were some neat exhibits on animation and film projection and a short animation that is only shown there. :) They don't allow pictures inside the museum, but we got a few outside.

After we spent the morning at the museum, we went to Ginza and toured some of the huge department stores. It is amazing how big these stores are and fun just to look around. Walking outside was neat too. It was a little like Times Square, but not quite as crowded.

We found a good ramen place for dinner and then headed back to the hotel. I also got some pictures from the balcony of our room.

This is how the room looks before we mess it up. :) Today I felt pretty good despite arriving yesterday, but I definitely will not be staying up late tonight!