Tuesday in Tokyo

Well we had a long flight and with some turbulence and the descent took it's toll on me. I took some gravel for the second flight to settle my stomach. As you can see I don't enjoy flying, I just don't know when to stop :). We arrived in Narita airport around 3:30pm local time and by the time we got through customs, got our baggage and took the limobus to our hotel it was 7:30. We all went straight to bed and slept like the dead.

We had our free breakfast at our hotel, it was interesting. Some common things, such as corn flakes and orange juice, and then there were some different things. I have not had salad for breakfast before, nor have I had rice.

One of the employees from the office met me at the hotel and took me to the office. You know grandpa's youngest sister, man she was the Japanese version. Sure enough as soon as I reached the office, the bowing started. Didn't seem like it stopped all day. Seemed like they have a loose hinge at their waist and neck. I'm not sure if I should bow, nor do I really know how, so I don't. Kind of afraid of my hip hinge going on me too. The business card was as expected. The two hand hand-over. I'm glad I was forewarned and received the cards with both hands. Hopefully I didn't offend anyone. Funny enough, one of the employees told me that I was very polite, but for some reason they had thought I was going to be quite different and very hyper and energetic. Boy, I must have confused them somehow.

I conducted training from 10:00 to 12:00 and then from 2:00 to 4:00. It was quite painful as everything had to be translated. By the time 4:00 rolled around, training and jet lag hit me big time. Tonight, I'm trying to stay up later to switch over more quickly.

We had lost our camera on the limobus, but luckily enough it was returned and they were able to get hold of us here, and we were able to fetch it. Phew!

Eating is quite different. If there's ever a place to lose weight it is here. Meal sizes are a fraction of the typical north american size. I have not yet ventured to try sushi again, but there's quite a few days left to get my courage up.

I'll be venturing out tomorrow on my own, taking the train the one stop to the office. It's true they have "pushers" to push the people on the train to ensure the doors will close. It's about a three minute train ride to the office or a fifteen minute walk. I will eventually do the walk as they say it's nice going along the water. The weather is great, around 15C to 20C during the day.

Well that's about it for the first full day in Tokyo.