Arrival in Tokyo!

Our flight from Portland to Tokyo was mostly uneventful. It was actually not as bad as we thought it would be for a 10 hour flight! We met our adoption travel group mates, Joanna and Ama, at the airport and got to spend some time with them before boarding. The plane was really nice - each seat had its own personal video screen, where you could play any movie from a variety of films, play games, listen to music, or watch a real-time map of your flight. We got some different foods that we never had before, too - ice cream bars for one, and fried rice for another (although that wasn't too good). Best of all, we had exit row seats, which on this plane meant no seats in front of us at all! We had a lot of room in front of us, so it was nice to stretch out! However, at the end of the flight, we hit some turbulence that knocked both of us for a loop; enough to make us both feel pretty ill. This lasted well into the next day.

We smoothly made it through customs in Tokyo, then traded in some US $ for yen. We rode a train from Narita airport to Tokyo, then took a cab to our hotel (ryokan). The cab driver thought that Wendy was Japanese! He said her face looked Japanese, and he was talking to her in Japanese. When Wendy explained that she was Chinese-American, and that her parents were born in Los Angeles, he said, "Uh, Yankees - no, Dodgers!" He was very helpful. We didn't know that they drive on the opposite side of the street here, so that was interesting. It was raining very hard when we arrived.

By the way, it is very clear to us that we packed WAY too much! We thought we hadn't, but trying to get all of our things on a train while others are trying to board, then wheeling them around the station to find the taxis, was quite the exercise. We don't know how we're going to manage this once we get Sydney!

Our ryokan is amazing! It is all wooden inside our room. When entering your room, you are to take off your shoes. When walking around the hotel, such as to go to the public baths on the top floor, you are to wear some slippers they give you. They are too big for Wendy and too small for Brian. Oh well. They also give you some yukata to wear (robes). Here are Brian and Wendy modeling their yukatas:





Brian went up to the sixth floor to try out the Japanese bath. It was very warm, a lot like a hot tub. It was dark in there, and there is a view of the Senso-ji temple that is very nice. Brian was the only one up there at the time (at least in the male side of the baths; they are separated by gender). It was quite relaxing!

The futons are quite comfortable. For a cover sheet, they use a duvet covered by a sheet turned upside-down. It really feels nice! We slept until 4:00AM the next day. This actually worked out well for the activity we planned to start the day.