Tadaima!

Greetings from the "busness room" of the Takanawa Prince Hotel (www.princehotels.co.jp/takanawa-area) in Tokyo, where the internet is free and the keyboard is strange--the @ is next to the P, shift-2 is ", and ` is shift-@.

I`ll have a bigger update to follow--with pictures!--but the quick story is a good plane ride with a turbulent descent, interesting countryside, excellent tonkatsu, a narrowly avoided (thanks to my excellent classmates) violation of Goal #2, and, of course, jet lag. It is now simultaneously ten-til-nine Tokyo time and something like 4 a.m. Portland time.

The weather is familiar--sort of warm and definitely rainy. Masses of people scurry about with a variety of neat umbrellas (which is something I may be picking up) but it doesn`t seem to faze them. Japanese also have really great looking suits, and I don`t feel as tall as I thought I would. The hotel staff--and other service staff and restaurants and such--are extremely helpful and polite. Actually, so were the flight staff, and along with the meals and ice cream sandwiches and such, made me think of all the little concessions that have happened in airlines that have made them generally suck so much. Customs was a breeze.

My thoughts are beginning to get disorganized, so I`m going to cut this short before I get on some rant involving my new favorite name for a chocolate bar--"Crunky"--and something that looked like a Cheese & Corn Danish. If I can, I`ll get a picture. It`s as strange looking as it sounds.

Good night. Morning. Whatever.

--kind cooperation--