Tokyo At Last! October 3, 2006

We arrived at Narita Airport Right on schedule. We first had to go through passport control to get our passports stamped. Then we picked up our suitcases and headed out through Japanese customs. After 10 hours in the air it felt wonderful to see people from the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund holding up signs welcoming us.


We rode from Narita Airport into the city of Tokyo on very pretty tour buses. Our English-speaking guide pointed out the highlights of the countryside as we passed through it. The scenery started out agricultural and gradually became more industrial as we moved toward Tokyo. The last stop before you enter Tokyo is Disneyland, and then across the river and into the city.

On the way to the hotel we passed a lot of interesting architecture and even saw one of Japans famous high-speed bullet trains.

We arrived ahead of our luggage and so headed off to our first Tokyo excursion in our airplane clothes. They divided us into groups to go out to dinner with a local volunteer. I went with Mr. Tanaka. He had been a Fulbright scholar in economics in the 1960s. The Japanese hosts were supposed to take us to a restaurant near the hotel, but he wanted to show us a little more of Tokyo.

We took the subway to the Ginza. We bought our tickets for 160 yen from this machine. It is a good thing that Mr. Tanaka was with us, because everything was written in Japanese. We would not have known which ticket to buy or how to use the machine.


Ginza is a very famous area of the city known for its bright lights and beautiful shops. It is similar to Times Square in New York City. Ginza was so exciting and interesting that we quickly forgot how tired we were. We visited a few interesting shops including the most beautiful paper store imaginable and a store selling fancy chopsticks. Some of them cost more that $50.00 a pair! We didn't buy any chopsticks.

We went into a little alleyway and down a set of stairs to a Japanese “Barbecue” Restaurant. We ate interesting food on skewers including chicken, chicken livers, quail eggs, peppers, and some sort of bean (like a very large soybean) that I didn't recognize. The rice came in metal pots with wooden covers. On top of one dish of rice there was shrimp, another chicken, and the third had crab meat. It was some of the most delicious rice I have ever tasted. It was delicious!


We took the subway back to our hotel and fell asleep exhausted. Even though it was only 10:00 at night in Tokyo, it was 8:00 in the morning at Fernwood. My body is so confused about time!