We got to the hotel okay. Took an hour and a half from the airport to the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka. We had an awesome room complete with yukata, wet bar and bidet. We stashed our stuff and hit the streets for some dinner. We wandered for several blocks and found a ramen place. There was a super great "obaasan" who helped us figure out what to order, how to order and where to sit. We were a little high-maitenance yesterday. :) The food was awesome & I felt a little like Naruto (since that's the image of ramen shops in my head!) eating w/his sensei. Anyways, here's a pic of using the outside, automated ordering system. It really is handy. If only the stupid Americans could figure out how it works!! Back to the hotel ... read more

Wee! I made it to Japan. Crazily, I left Seattle at 1:30 pm on Friday, traveled for a straight 10 hours and landed at Narita at 3:30 pm on Saturday. Not once during our travels did it get dark outside. The plane ride was awesome! It's the first time I've had real food on a plane since 1999! We got two hot meals plus snacks and tons of drinks. Lots of movie choices (I could be as ADD as I wanted!) so I watched parts of Indy 4, Narnia 2, Leatherheads, Miss Pettigrew, and the Jet Li/Jackie Chan flick. Good times. We could also track our progress, so I watched that a lot! The lady next to me was great...a Japanese native who has lived in Alaska for years. We chatted like crazy ( to the ... read more