First Day in Japan

So far the trip is off to an amazing start. After about 14 to 15 hours in the air and an hour and a half bus ride we arrived around 6:00 pm Thursday. We met a few of the Japanese students who were going to take us around during our stay here. They took us to a noodle house where you put money in a machine and a ticket comes out. You give the ticket to the chef and he makes your noodle dish. I had udon noodles with shrimp tempura with some kind of broth. It was really good and it was under $5. We were probably up for over 30 hours that day. It is amazing here, it has such a different feel than any other city that I have been too before.

On Friday we had a full day of events. We started off with a visit to Meiji University where we met some of the professors and the leaders of this program. They gave us a nice lunch and we toured the campus. We met about 15 or 20 students who are going to be our guides around here. They all spoke English very well and were modest about their English abilities. They were very enthusiastic to meet us and help us. The university has about 30,000 students! After the school visit we went to get tickets to the Tokyo Giants, a professional baseball team. We got tickets for only $15 and it was crazy. It was like a European soccer game, there were so many people cheering and into their team. The picture I am positing is the main fan section for the Giants. They would have certain chants and play drums so much that the stadium hardly used any music. I had taco yaki, which is octopus chunks in fried balls of dough. They were really tasty. They also had girls who would walk around the stands with quarter kegs on their back selling beer. We also saw Tom Hanks and Ron Howard which was kind of random. They were at the game also. The energy level in the stadium was intense and it was so much fun.

Last night we were with about 5 Japanese students who took us out to a restaurant that was all you can eat and drink for $21. It was a traditional Japanese restaurant where you had to take off your shoes and we sat on mats. The food was really good, we had endamame, salad, fried chicken necks, whole craw fish, pizza, and other foods. We were there a few hours and had a great time.

So far the trip had been full of events and I am excited to see what else Japan has in store for us.