So we're here! We arrived yesterday, after a 13 hour flight from Chicago (A's first trip in First Class and much enjoyed by all), a train journey from Narita to Tokyo, and a cab ride from Tokyo Station to our new home for the next nine months. The journey was tough on us both (even with the special treatment), and we managed to collide with rush hour Tokyo when hauling our huge ass luggage (two monster cases each) through the public transport system. Nevertheless, we did it, without any mishaps, wrong turns, or meltdowns!
Our temporary accomodation is a serviced apartment in a purpose built housing block in a rather posh neighborhood. We're very lucky to get to travel and experience a new country in this way. Not many people get chances like this. The apartment is beautiful, clean, new, a little sterile looking in decor, but totally live-able for nine months. It comes equipped with free net access, dishwasher, washer & dryer, tv, vcr (but no dvd player?), etc, etc. It's more than you would expect if you were renting an apartment in the US, and we both feel happy that we chose this location and building for our stay. The building is located near several embassies, hotels, and very near to public transport (which I'm sure I'll become intimately familiar with).
We've already noticed some very handy gadgets around the place, one of which I'd like to suggest US bathroom fixture manufacturers copy: the automatic faucet. This faucet/tap is pretty cool (at least as much as faucets can be).The bathroom is also home to the classically Japanese 'robo toilet'. Much has been said by others on this subject so I'll leave it at that.
We went grocery shopping this morning. Our local supermarket is no more than 5 mins walk away in the basement of a building. Its much smaller than the supermarkets in the US, and everything is packaged in much smaller quantities.
The store is absolutely immaculate, and has a vast variety of foods of all kinds (Japanese and Western) so all palates can be catered for. We even noticed many familiar items: Doritos, Werthers Originals, and our favourite pasta "Di Cecco" for example. One thing that is new to us is the UNBELIEVABLE expense of buying food here. We may have to travel a little to find cheaper groceries, or eat less! Language is somewhat of a challenge as much of the packaging on Japanese goods is in (obviously) Japanese, and its difficult to tell precisely what you're buying sometimes. Nevertheless, we walked out of the store with some basic supplies and felt that we'd reached something of a small but significant milestone along the way to getting settled in Tokyo.
