Flight over and first evening in Tokyo

Right now I am drinking my 2nd bottle of Pocari Sweat for the evening. How many times have I had Pocari Sweat before tonight? Umm no more than 5. Why am I drinking it? Because I have no interest in soda and I do not have the courage to try something new tonight.

So my flight over went all right. I upgraded to economy plus and the seat next to me was empty so I was quite content space-wise. The flight attendents minus one were very polite. United actually impressed me. FYI: check in online for Intl. flights. It saves you LOTS of time. There was one woman in front of me to check baggage, as opposed to the 100 people in line to check-in for everything. I said to her, uh, is this it? She told me she couldnt believe it either.

This japanese keyboard is a bit weird, so my puncuation is a little screwy.

Tokyo... Well.. It is too early to say anything. I wandered around the area of my hotel (which I found quite easily thankfully) and memories of Korea came back. It is like Korea but not. That is all I can say at this point.

I made 3 mistakes today. 1 of them wasnt embarrasing at all (I was about to buy a ticket to tokyo from the airport, then realized I needed to get yen), one was slightly embarassing (apparently the japanese line up on the opposite side of the escalator than the rest of the world), and one somewhat embarrasing mistake. I chose a tonkatsu restaurant simply because well, I can read tonkatsu and knew it is something I like (pork cutlet). So I go in, sit down, and get all ready to order for the first time. Dude comes up to me and says something in Japanese and Im like uhhhh what? He then points to the machine by the entrance. Turns out you buy a ticket from the vending machine and then hand it to the waiter. For us ignorant types, there are picture descriptions as well. It is a pretty sweet set-up I have to say.

It isn:t the only restaurant to have it either. Afterwards, I noticed it in a couple other places. Certainly makes it easier for us gaijin.