Spends 20 hours traveling to Japan... eats at a Denny's
 |
| Nescafe? Nescalicious! |
Geek here again with another 'book' of the day. Technically the day started with a very early rise and writing of yesterday's post, but we'll skip over that. Our morning started very early at 4:30 AM, when a young little miss started texting, and ultimately video calling her momma. My night's sleep was somewhat restless, but we have learned that soba (buckwheat) filled pillows are amazing. At least one of us arose chipper and ready; I on the other-hand was still fairly dehydrated and almost felt a little hungover, despite not drinking any alcohol.
Today we learned how it's really not about the major stuff, but rather the little details that make everything so different. On first blush, you could look around and think you're in any major metropolitan city (at least those I'm familiar with). When you start interacting with the city, however, and getting closer up, that's when you start to see the difference. For example, there isn't a coffee pot in the room, but rather an electric tea kettle, instant coffee, and two types of tea (oolong and green). Also, the plugs are all two pronged, no ground wire. On an unrelated note we saw no less than ten fires in residential areas during our approach and final descent into Japan.
 |
| In Japan we are taller |
Two types of caffeine behind us it was time to head out and explore for some breakfast. The hotel did offer in-room and a restaurant for the morning, but both were at least ¥3,600 per person, and we're really not in to spending a lot of money on food. Oh, on currency; we (at least I) will likely reference the cost of some things, and will do so in Yen (¥). So you can put this in perspective, simply put a decimal place in two digits to the left, and it will be close enough. For example, that ¥3,600 breakfast would be approximately $36.00. So anyway; off we went in search of food.
We needed nourishment before we felt prepared for the unknown, and spotted, on the way to the hotel last night, a Denny's a mere block away. Everyone in our hotel speaks great English, and they all say everyone in Japan speaks English, so a Denny's will be just like back home. Right? Wrong! For starters, when you walk in, you're supposed to write your name (presumably, because we didn't) on a stand near the front door and sit your butt down out of the way (SFP #31). The man working the front tried to explain that to us, and did manage to get out "Please wait" gesturing to the chairs. We got that far, but still, totally missed signing in. The smell of old cigarette smoke heavy in the air had our minds elsewhere anyway. It's incredible how much of an affront to the senses that is now. Has it been that long that smoking indoors was outlawed in Illinois?
