S and I got into Tokyo this afternoon at 3PM. We had a 13 hour flight that left out of Newark. The flight was quite pleasant and, as we had not slept much before the flight, we slept through most of it. I had been slightly nervous about our ability to get around once we got into Tokyo because of the Japanese characters but it did not pose a problem at all. All signs at the airport were also written in English and the same seems to be true so far while walking around the city. Outside of every subway stop, there is a map that directs you to the post office, local banks, tourist attractions, public bathrooms and lets you know where you are. So, everything seems a lot less daunting.
People here so far seem to be really friendly. On the train ride from the airport to the city, a group of young teenage girls kept smiling at us and waved. They seemed to get a kick out of us for no particular reason besides the fact that we were not Asian. They offered us some Pocky sticks, an Asian snack. As S and I were trying to find our hotel this afternoon, we were stopped twice and asked in English if we needed help. In the evening, we were stopped by a smiling Japanese woman who kept talking to us in Japanese. It clearly made absolutely no sense to us.
Other noticings: Most main roads have a bike path and there are a surprising number of bikers around. The driver's seat is on the right side of the car so cars drive on the left side of the road. That also means that when you are walking on the street, you walk on the left side of the sidewalk. When you are on an escalator, you pass on the right, as opposed to your left. On sidewalks on major streets and on the floor of subway platforms and stairs, there is a thick yellow or other brightly colored line indicating how much space you can take up on that given street. What's more interesting is that the location of the line changes depending on foot traffic and where you are on the block.
Tonight we are staying in the neighborhood Asakusa. It is an older town and, when it was built, many of the smaller streets were not given names. A group of twenty of so blocks is given a section name and each block in the section has a number. Addresses are listed as the section name, the block number, then the house number on the block. It was pretty confusing for S and me to find our way around. We still haven't figured out how they determine which blocks receive which numbers. At this point it seems kind of arbitrary.
First meal in Tokyo was a beef rice bowl with onions. No forks, spoons or knives so need to get better with chopsticks fast.
That's all for now.
People here so far seem to be really friendly. On the train ride from the airport to the city, a group of young teenage girls kept smiling at us and waved. They seemed to get a kick out of us for no particular reason besides the fact that we were not Asian. They offered us some Pocky sticks, an Asian snack. As S and I were trying to find our hotel this afternoon, we were stopped twice and asked in English if we needed help. In the evening, we were stopped by a smiling Japanese woman who kept talking to us in Japanese. It clearly made absolutely no sense to us.
Other noticings: Most main roads have a bike path and there are a surprising number of bikers around. The driver's seat is on the right side of the car so cars drive on the left side of the road. That also means that when you are walking on the street, you walk on the left side of the sidewalk. When you are on an escalator, you pass on the right, as opposed to your left. On sidewalks on major streets and on the floor of subway platforms and stairs, there is a thick yellow or other brightly colored line indicating how much space you can take up on that given street. What's more interesting is that the location of the line changes depending on foot traffic and where you are on the block.
Tonight we are staying in the neighborhood Asakusa. It is an older town and, when it was built, many of the smaller streets were not given names. A group of twenty of so blocks is given a section name and each block in the section has a number. Addresses are listed as the section name, the block number, then the house number on the block. It was pretty confusing for S and me to find our way around. We still haven't figured out how they determine which blocks receive which numbers. At this point it seems kind of arbitrary.
First meal in Tokyo was a beef rice bowl with onions. No forks, spoons or knives so need to get better with chopsticks fast.
That's all for now.
3 comments:
Vickie you are adorable. Good luck and have fun. By the way, if you get a chance, you should try and eat a fruit called mangosteen. My sister was telling me it is the world's most exotic, delicious and most sought-after fruit and you can only really get it in SE Asia.
Steve did you eat beef that fast? we miss you
Steve looks like shit in that photo.
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