Ryan-San in the Land of the Rising Sun

So after the longest plane ride of my life, we landed in Tokyo. I had left at 1 pm on Thursday and yet I arrived at 4 pm on Friday. What I found weird was that when I boarded the plane around 1 in DC, it had been day time for a good seven hours. Then, it was daylight the entire plane ride, (it never became dark, even for a moment) for a good 14 hours, and then would remain daylight for another 5 hours or so in Tokyo. That's over a full day's worth of daylight. Strange.

Getting through the airport was interesting because the people in charge of customs didn't speak very good English, and so I spent an uncomfortable amount of time explaining to the customs agent that I wasn't trafficking cocaine or other illegal substances. I tried not to mention the bottle of water I had in my possession, because I didn't want him to think I was a terrorist.

Eventually, I met up with my friend Sarah. She just happened to be at the airport when I was arriving. What a crazy coincidence.



We then journeyed to Tokyo. It's neat to discover items and signage that at first glance appear like they could be found in the US, but in reality, are not, (at least, I've never seen them). For example, in the Tokyo train station, they have these weird poles set up for leaning, where all the businessman talk on their cell phones. I felt the need to try them out.



In Tokyo they have crazy vending machines everywhere. Here is one such vending machine in a dark Tokyo alley. I had trouble deciding what I wanted, (considering I couldn't read any of the labels).



Apparently, you can smoke in all Japanese restaurants, (including the one where we dined that evening). But, you cannot smoke and walk at the same time, which I found amusing, (they have the sign below painted all over the sidewalks).

We met up with two of Sarah's friends, Dana and her brother Scott, for dinner and drinks. Here, we are enjoying grapefruit Chu-Hi's, which are like fruit flavored vodka drinks. Can you tell which of the three mysterious arms in the picture is mine?

Here we are being silly on the subway:








And that concludes Day 1 activities. Who knows what's in store for tomorrow?!