First Impressions

Well what can I say – the flight was pretty good, cool plane, ate a Japanese/Italian meal on the plane with chopsticks!?! and had a fry-up when we woke which I also ate with chopsticks. Drank Japanese beer which was nice too.

Got off the plane and was immediately hit with warm, wet heat. Not as bad as I had prepared myself for though surprisingly. It was 32 degrees centigrade and 70% humidity – it’s really sunny and nice but you do sweat a lot with just doing everyday tasks like walking. The toilets are both weird and cool, in the airport there were urinals, a normal toilet, a cubicle with a hole in the ground and a toilet with crazy controls!

Got a bus from the airport to Shinjinku district – a very posh boutique business type area with loads of skyscrapers which took us about 1 ½ to 2 hours to get there but luckily there was an Irish guy called Dave who was chatting to us all the way letting us know what to expect on the Orientation. Were staying in the Keio Plaza, a 5 star hotel for 3 days so were pretty chuffed! Made friends with a group of 5 or 6 people, one guy in particular called Joe from Rochdale (basically next door to Bury where I was born) turns out he’s my roomie too so were currently just chilling in our room on the 18^th floor listening to music and checking out the view of Tokyo while I write this and he experiments with the bum washer on the electric toilet! He seems pleased with the results.

The one thing I must mention is how organised and calm the Japanese are. Everything just runs so smoothly and everyone is so polite and charming. Also I didn’t see one bit of graffiti on the way here – it’s so clean. I asked Dave the Irish guy why it was so clean and he said that at 3.30 or 4pm everyday all the kids at school clean their whole school from top to bottom and they are taught from an early age to look after their environment.

Anyway can’t spend too much time on this laptop. Were off to meet the posse on the 48^th floor (roof with a pool) for a swim and a few beers. Nothing on tonight so off out to eat in Tokyo after. Tomorrow is up early, lectures and workshops all day and a night out with our Embassy in Tokyo. (Apparently only the British Embassy do this). Next day is much of the same but ending with a Karaoke night out (all you can drink for 2 or 3 hours for €25) with all the peeps from my Prefecture.

So far Japan rules! :o)