Actually, aside from wandering around an airport in broad daylight when it was way past our bedtime back in California, yesterday went more smoothly than we thought humanly possible, given the circumstances. Airplane service was excellent. Two (count 'em) warm meals, choice of in-flight movies, plentiful drinks and accessories. (Tyler: For the record, watching Bruce Willis and Justin Long saving America in an edited version of Die Hard is an even more ridiculous experience).
We fell in love with Japan the moment we got off the plane. Customs was so efficient, it brought tears to our eyes. They also had our suitcases waiting for us before we had even we had gotten over to the baggage claim.
No sooner than we had begun to look for the correct bus line, we had our first random encounter with the Tokyo Police. As intimidating as 3 Japanese men in armored vests may seem, it turned out to be pretty funny. We figured out eventually that the senior member was training two rookie cops. However, with their broken English, their introductions were limited to requesting to see our passport and asking us multiple times if we speak English or Japanese. When we answered English a little Japanese, they responded with, "So a little of bit of English then?" It was quite amusing.
One thing that should be known about Japan, is that things run on time. Our shuttle bus departed at 4:00 and arrived at the hotel at 4:15 sharp. It's not that hard to do, America. Just saying.
Driving is reversed in Japan! Yeah, it's not that big of a deal, but it threw us for a loop. Turning left on a red? Mind boggling. Cars are a lot more square than they are in America. Must make it easier when they're squeezing them into those tiny parking garages, 'cause we saw one and couldn't tell you how they can get the car doors open.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Narita and it was very Americanized. Guess it should be since most people who stay here are probably not Japanese. Or the name Holiday Inn attracts a lot of White people since it's one the few hotel names in English. What was most surprising was that people were staring at us. Ok, clarification, all the White people were mainly doing it. We don't mind the Japanese people staring, because we are a little different of course. But the White people... come on now, seriously! It may because they want to be the only "different" ones in Tokyo and we're stealing their limelight, but it's Tokyo, there are so many foreigners here.
So if you didn't know, there is a huge time difference in Japan. Plus 16 hours, actually. So right now it's 10:30 a.m. 9/7 here, and in California it should be 5:30 p.m. 9/6. Weird! The jet lag wasn't actually that terrible. Besides completely missing out on Sunday night, we are functioning normally.
Ok, we just can't get enough of how nice everyone is. Even if it's a facade, it's really pleasing to be apart of. In America, there are countless workers who look disgusted to help us... really if you don't like your job, do something else please! Anyway, yes, the workers here are ridiculously nice! The doorman even opened the AUTOMATIC door for us and then bowed... oh, that's another thing; we are still unsure of the bowing etiquette, I guess we'll figure it out over time.
That's all we have for now. We have to go catch another couple of buses to get to our campus. From here on, most of our posts will be separate so we aren't one of those attached-at-the-hip couples and so you know who is writing what.
Love ya!
Tyler
or was it Summer?
or both??
dun dun dun...
