Woke up early, at 3am, after going to bed at 10pm.
The plane trip yesterday was not bad. From SAN to SFO I sat next to my dad, and we mostly chatted along the way. From SFO to NRT, I sat next to someone who was on their way to Hong Kong, who was sitting next to their acquaintance who was also travelling to Hong Kong, so I didn't talk to them much. I suspect my neighbour couldn't speak very good English, which was fine, because he seemed to understand the notions of my wanting to get up and walk around, which is really the important part.
10 hours is a long time in a plane.
It's also very strange that I took off on Thursday, landed on Friday, and never saw the sun set.
Customs was blissfully simple. I told them I'd be in the country for three weeks, and they stapled something into my passport. I got my bag, told them I wasn't carrying anything illegal, and they let me through. The tourist office was also very helpful, and was nice enough to even correct my pronounciation of "Ueno" ("Ue-no", not "U-eno". Oh well.) The train to Ueno was JPY1000, which was not bad at all. The drawback was that it took an hour and ten minutes, during which I got the chance to notice that my dad and I were the only gaijin using the train. I have a feeling this will be happening a lot in the days to come.
Once we got to the station, we had to find our hotel. This wasn't too difficult, especially since we had a map, and a reasonable idea of where the streets were located. After check-in, we went to a noodle shop down the road. Fortunately (and probably not coincidentally), the shop had a menu with pictures, allowing us to point to the dish we wanted to order it. That worked well, and I ended up with a cheesy beef dish on rice, and a bottle of green iced tea. Score!
Japanese TV is as silly as I've been led to believe. Though I'm sure it's bolstered by the fact that I don't understand what's going on. I didn't see much, as I was rather tired at the time. More writing to come later, after I've had a chance to explore the city.
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