Day 1: Arrived in Japan

We arrived at Narita Airport in Tokyo yesterday evening. Had a nice flight in on Japan Airlines (JAL) - good food, personal video screens, friendly service, and unlimited free drinks. Ai-chan and her dad picked us up at the airport along with some of their other friends who arrived at the same time. Ai-chan's dad was kind enough to take all of our luggage in his brand new (giant!) Land Cruiser so we could take the train from the airport without dragging our bags with us.

After AJ's flight arrived, we all met for dinner at a nearby izakaya. When you sit down, they bring out a little plate with some starters and then they brought out a wooden boat filled with samples of the day's seafood.





We ordered a bunch of different little plates, almost all seafood. Sashimi (raw) shrimp, yellowtail, scallops, and shellfish, deep fried octopus, broiled mackerel, and some grilled fish that you eat whole. We also ordered some tofu that the izakaya makes by hand that was really good.



After the izakaya, we headed to our hotel and crashed. By this point, we'd been up for over 24 hours. The hotel room is really small, but quite comfortable. The bathrooms here are sweet. The toilet seats are warmed and so are the mirrors to prevent them from fogging when you get a shower. Awesome.