Doilies and Disney

After sailing through customs, triumphantly still in possession of our wild mushrooms for our hosts, we were greeted by the trusty Mr. Suzuki, our guide through the wilds of the Japanese freeway system. We waited on the curb, still slightly dazed at how fast we had arrived (We're really in Japan?!), while Mr. Suzuki scrambled to retrieve his swanky, black beast. He zoomed up and we abandoned our luggage and our independent traveler responsibilities. We allowed ourselves to be swallowed up into the lace netherworld that is a Japanese taxi's interior. The entire upholstery is sheathed in white, frilly doilies. We surrendered to the chintz and settled in, flipping through the conveniently provided manga and marveling at Japan's greenery. As we approached the outskirts of Tokyo (an amazing 90 km across!), the landscape faded to a traditionally urban pink and gray. We had remarkably little traffic due to our mid-day arrival time, although the freeway is often referred to as Japan's living room since people spend so much time sitting in traffic there. We passed Tokyo Disney Resort, the first Disney to be constructed outside of the U.S., and passed it, and passed it, it takes up an insane amount of real estate in a town where the Imperial Gardens' plot used to be valued at roughly the same price as the state of California. Soon we were deep in small town Tokyo. Once off the freeways, it feels much more like a collection of small, albeit pavement skinned, hamlets.

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