Not Exciting First Day

So here I am, halfway ’round the world in a country filled with people who speak a language I am okay at.

The first day wasn’t too exciting. Nothing much got done, but I did do some figuring stuff out.

The first really noticable thing as I was riding from Narita to downtown Tokyo was the architecture. The vast majority ofit was similar to what you’d see in the US, but with some minor differences. And then the occasional very, very Eastern style building mixed in made for a weird look.

The buildings over her are skinny. Skinny-skinny. Skinny buildings are skinny. I swear I saw a house that could not have been more than eight feet wide. And almost are at least two stories. People just don’t have single story houses. But then, the only way to get more space around here is to build up. Unlike a US city, there is no room to expand a house or other building over more ground space. You ever see a jam-pcked section of a city? Imagine that, but more cramped and covering the entire city.

The roads and sidewalks are puny. Most roads look like sidewalks. I don’t see how those could possibly handle cars, bikes, and pedestrians in going in a single directions, let alone two.

The JR train system is easy to use. Even if you don’t know Japanese. Everything is labeled in Japanese and English. All announcements are in Japanese and English. Trains go by every few minutes. They stop at stations every few minutes. Just get your ticket or pass, go through the gates into the station proper, ride the rails to your destination, get off, and then leave the station.

Security for trains and airports in exceedingly lax compared to the US. I’ll probably have a harder time reentering the US than I did entering Japan.

However, Japan is exceedingly careful in keeping track of where you are. As I’ve never been a foreigner in the US, I can’t say what they do, but when you enter Japan you have to tell the immigration officer when you will be staying, and then, as you leave each place you stay at, you are to tell the current place of residence where your next place of residence will be. The weird part is you don’t need proof of where you are going, you just tell them. You could just give bogus info. I suppose if that happens and they decide to track you down you’ll get in trouble.

I didn’t get many pictures today. First I was busy thinking about getting to my hotel and my heavy baggage, so I didn’t take think to take pictures often. My second trip out into the wild first involved me stopping by Tora no Ana to see what they had, noticing they had Nagasarete Airantou (Cast Away on Airan Island) volume 9, which I have not been able to find in the States, and buying it. This caused me to fail to take pictures and go straight back to my hotel room. Why? Because they packaged it in a plain, brown, paper bag. I felt like I was carrying around porn, even though I was not. Hence, I was too embarrassed to do anything but return straight away. And by then it was 20:30. Kinda late.

All pictures are thumbnailed. Click to enlarge.

I got me some yens.

The first short door I encountered. It was probably around 5′10″ high. There are many very short doors in this country.

Sweat is delicious.

And here’s the HUEG witch touching poster.