First day in Japan

So after leaving home at 10:00 am EST yesterday morning, I've arrived in Tokyo and have finally sat down in the hotel at 8:30 pm JST Thursday. I lost about 13 hours, since it's only 7:30 am for everyone else.

The flights were pretty good. No one sat next to me on my flight to Detroit. I discovered that the Detroit airport has an indoor monorail, as you can see here.


My flight to Tokyo went pretty well. It felt like it took forever. I was fortunate enough to get to see Fool's Gold and Run, Fatboy, Run. So I only had to entertain myself for 9 hours instead of 11 or so. The flight actually got in an hour early which was nice.

In Narita airport while waiting for the bus to our hotel, I had my first sampling of Japanese vending machine offerings. I had a drink called Pocari Sweat, which I only bought because of the name. This could very well have been the sweat of sumo wrestlers and I wouldn't have known. If it was, then sumo wrestlers drink a lot of Gatorade, because that's basically all the drink was. My first bottle actually came in an aluminum container.

Once on the bus, I ended up sitting next to some Japanese dude with an iPod. It turns out he was listening to The Roots. So 10,000 miles from Philadelphia, I sit next to a kid listening to The Roots. So I put on some Loved Ones and enjoyed the view and the irony.

My hotel also apparently has a Kneipe (that's the German word for pub) that sells wurst and German beer. So needless to say, the rest of my night will involve me drinking beer and wasting more time on the Internet.