Greetings from Japan!

Hello Everyone! I have officially survived one night in Japan! I was waaaaay to tired to make a post last night, so I'll recap yesterday for you.

I got up yesterday and my parents informed me that my flight was being delayed until tomorrow, which was NOT going to work. Me and my girlfriend Jen arrived and the Eastern Iowa airport to my parents fervently working on a solution. By way of my mom's super negotiating powers, they got me on another flight :) (thanks you guys, couldn't have done it without you!) Going thru security they took my toothpaste away, so I'm going to have to procure some here...

The hardest part of leaving was saying goodbye to my girlfriend Jennifer. I didn't want to have to leave her, and was considering taking her as my carry on ;) (Thanks so much you guys for seeing me off) My flight to Chicago was uneventful, but I got my own two seats! Had a couple hour layover in O'Hare, had some horrible/expensive food. Finally got to board, and my seat was in between two others, and had no leg room :( However, my luck increased from that morning and a nice guy switched me his exit seat, with 4+ feet of legroom, so he could sit with his wife! The flight was long and boring to say the least. Since when does inflight movie equal chickflick marathon??? Anyways I slept a little, read a little, played a little PSP, which my girlfriend was so nice give me for my b-day :) After 12 excruciatingly long boring hours, we FINALLY made it to Japan!

It was weird looking out the window at Japan. If I was told it was midwest U.S. I might have believed you. I got off the plane and was instantly hit by Japanese signs, Japanese airport intercom chat, but no Japanese people :( I made it to where I was supposed to meet my group, after a little aimless wandering thru customs etc. After a little waiting, we took a train (very cool, dad would be jealous) and made it to downtown Narita. It was so cool to see all the Japanese people on the train, just going about their daily lives, I was instantly mesmerized.

We got to our Ryoukan, a Japanese style inn, after a trip that was "walking distance" (ya right) It was amazing to walk thru town; there were shops everywhere, SMALL cars, small streets, and Japanese people giving our group curious looks. We got to the Inn, and got to check into our rooms, Japanese style rooms of course.

It was a small room with tatami (straw) mats, and a short Japanese style table where you sit on the floor. Our bathroom had a bidet, or toilette that "blasts you clean" with water. The sink for the toilet was AWESOME. The sink sat directly on top of the toilette, and when you flushed, the sink would turn on, and the water that drained from the sink filled up the toilet bowl! Science!

Anyways we had some time before our traditional Japanese supper to explore, so our group checked out the Shinshoji temple complex across the street. It was absolutely beautiful! and when I say temple complex, I mean it went on FOREVER. It was huge, a giant forest in the middle of Tokyo. There were giant temples:











































and monuments everywhere:









































I was just so amazed by its beauty, there's nothing like it in America.

After we got back we had a traditional Japanese dinner. We came in and sat down at long short tables indian style (which kills my legs :'( ) There were all sorts of strange dishes, like REAL sushi (which was just raw salmon), whole baby squid (actually not bad), and all sorts of other food I couldn't even identify. Also, we had grilled eel, which was actually incredibly good. It was very cool, and I'm glad I was adventurous and tried everything!

After supper, me and a couple of my roommates decided to try out a Japanese vending machine (I'll have to get a pic later). I got a drink called "Pocari Sweat" which tastes a little like watered down lemonade, but was really good. We decided to walk around and check out the city a little. It was very cool, at night a lot of things were closed, except for a few bars and convenience stores. People were walking around, cars were whizzing by us, and I even saw a Nissan Silvia (woot!). We finally came back, and hung out in the room for a bit.

Now, after sitting on a plane for 12 hours, and walking around for a couple hours, I was feeling pretty sweaty (not Pocari Sweaty however). The only problem was that our room had no bath/shower. The Ryoukan did however offer free access to their public bath/onsen. For those who don't know, public baths are pretty common in Japan. You go, get naked of course, sit on a little stood and wash yourself off with a shower head thing, and then after you're all clean, THEN you get in the onsen (hotspring) and soak. The thought of bathing with a bunch of naked dudes was a little strange to me, but hey, I'm here for the whole experience. I went late to take a shower, so there was nobody else there but me. It was actually really cool, and the onsen, was AMAZING. After getting all clean I decided to hit the sack, or in this case futon on the floor.

I slept all right, as well as you can on the floor with 5 other guys, and got up and had a Japanese breakfast, which consisted of more raw fish, smoked fish, and what I think was baby eels...they had eyes, so it was a little weird. All in all it was pretty good. So now I'm about to check out of my hotel and have some orientation, so stay tuned!