Tokyo, Japan
The trip started with fins that were too big. That is to say, the bag I was trying to pack my scuba gear in was too small to fit my fins and wetsuit so I had to put them in the internal frame backpack. If it weren't for the scuba gear I packed remarkably light, considering I'm going to be in Asia until December 19th.
The buses into Tokyo from the Narita airport are an amazing diplay of efficiency, though locating an ATM in the airport is somewhat less straightforward. I then managed to type in too many zeros and withdrew several hundreds of dollars by mistake, but I'll just change the Yen to Baht when I arrive in Bangkok.
Tokyo is a HUGE city. 33 million people, and not nearly as bilingual as we in the West imagine it to be. It's clean and modern though, with little police boxes on every corner.
A few observations from my first hours in the trenches:
1) The Japanese all wear suits. Even the cab drivers.
2) They have an obsession with their toilets. They all have control panels and some are even remote control. If you push the wrong button looking for flush, you'll get sprayed with warm water (bidet).
3)Have you ever seen an icefish? It's looks like a three inch long, white eel. They were on my spaghetti (I wasn't feeling adventurous yet. It was 6am my time).
More to come, without a doubt.
