We Are Here!

After a full day of airports and planes, we arrived in Japan's Narita airport at 3pm Tokyo time on January 4th. Being 14 hours ahead of our (U.S.) East Coast internal clocks, we caught some much needed zzzz's on the 90 minute bus ride into the big city, to be dropped at a hotel on the bus route. From there, we caught a cab to our new apartment just a few minutes away. Let's call it miscommunication, or to look on the positive side of things, comical - but unfortunately, no one was there to meet us. With our trusty little phrase book (thanks Kelly!) we were able to flag another cab and request to be taken to the closest hotel - not cheap, but nothing too fancy either. Mr. Taxi-Cab driver took us to the beautiful Prince hotel in Shinagawa - that's our view above. Holy Big City Living!!!

As we rose this morning expecting to move over to our new apartment, a bit of disappointment set in when Jody received an email saying that the land owner had taken a holiday today so we would have to hotel it one more night. A bit frustrating for us, but I appreciate that someone is taking a day off in the middle of the week - no shame or blame in that.

After a brief and brisk walk around a few blocks of Shinagawa and a lovely hotel breakfast (with about 50 teen-aged Japanese Volleyball players), Jody was off to work. After a bit of an "Oh my goodness, this is really happening..." moment and a nap, I am feeling less jetlagged by the minute and learning more by the minute as well. I just managed to tell housekeeping not to worry about changing the sheets with hand signals and also to say "Goshinsetsu o makoto ni arigato," or "Thank you very much for your kindness."

Now I am off to discover a few more blocks of this beautiful city on my own...