Sunday, July 19, 2015

Travelling to Japan - first day

Well, here I am in Japan, on a business trip.  There are some expected things, and some not so expected things.  As expected, the bathrooms in the hotels are small.  The hotel rooms themselves are small, often with the bed butt up against one of the walls.  

Things not expected are many.  The main airport into Tokyo is actually quite a distance from Tokyo.  I took the JR (bullet train) from the Narita International Airport to Tokyo.  The trip took just under an hour, and included only a couple of stops.  

Have cash (yen)!  You may be unpleasantly surprized by the number of places that don't take credit card!

There is English all over the place.  Pretty much any business you might find yourself will have some ability to communicate with you, some better than others.  There are a lot of English translations for things like street signs, company names, restaurant menus, etc.

The mass transit makes getting around fairly easy.  Not everything in translated into English at every point, but enough of it is translated when and where you'll need it in order for you to get to the right location.

The first night I was the Tokyo, in the area of Shinagawa.  I met my co-workers at a quaint sushi restaurant.

 





Since I arrived late in the day and zonked out from a 13 hour flight, I turned in early with the hopes of waking up the next day gleefully well adjusted to the local time zone.  That plan kinda worked.  Kinda.


No comments: