Our First Night

We're on our third whole day in Japan. So far it's been a really cool experience. I feel like I've spent a lot of my time sleeping. Probably because I do it in stints. I can't seem to sleep past 4 or 5 am. I think my body is still trying to figure out the time difference. So, I wake up (along with Tom) early in the Morning and then I'm tired again a few hours later. Fun times!

On our first night we went to dinner with a friend of ours that is also out here for temporary duty. He's been here a couple of weeks already and will go home next week. He's been here before, so he showed us around a little bit and showed us a cool Thai place to eat. It was absolutely delicious! We all ate different things, but tried all the dishes. Every time I tried a different dish, I thought it was so good! We'll definitely return to try that place again. They also gave us the most unusual dessert afterwards. It was a strange combination of sweet custard-like stuff combined with a gelly-like substance. We thought it was probably partially for soothing the heat from the food. It was really good, just unusual.

Yesterday, I spent a couple of hours just walking around. When I saw a store that was interesting, I just wandered in to look around. For anybody that loves to shop, you would absolutely love this place. I'm not a huge shopper, but I love the different culture in the stores that I would visit. There are also quite a few dollar-type stores. Very fun to walk around and see what's available here vs. at home. Another cultural thing here is the number of scooters and bicycles. They are everywhere. I've included a picture of a scooter parking lot. It's near the shopping areas and the train station.

I've also included some pictures of the outside of our motel as well as a couple on the inside for anybody that is interested. Everybody should also check out Tom's blog. He'll also be posting regularly all our experiences!