TOKYO TIME: 9:34AM, WEDNESDAY

yes, we’re here and doing fine. happy halloween, i guess, americans.

we’re off to a good start even if so far the trip seems to be the vacation of ‘nice tries’. we couldn’t go out sunday night when we got here because we were falling asleep. monday we tried to go to the imperial palace garden but once we got there, realized it was closed mondays and fridays. oops. then yesterday we had two; tried to hit up a cool church-themed restaurant for lunch, but it’s only open for dinners. then tried to hit up a neat 80’s nostalgia themed bar in shinjuku after dinner, and walked around for an hour and couldn’t find it. oh, stupid americans.

the main problems we’ve run into are a combination of jet-lag keeping us from going out and having crazy nights, and the somewhat bothersome fact that tokyo’s not really into the whole ‘streets and addresses’ thing. most of the time the only way to match where you are with a map is based on landmarks cause you can’t always tell which street you’re on, plus our sense of direction hasn’t really solidified yet.

i think we’re getting the hang of it though, and we managed to stay up past midnight finally last night, so it should be smooth sailing from here. it’s not all screw-ups though, we ARE seeing lots of cool stuff and we have walked around a lot of parts of the city already. got some great pictures i can’t wait to share. getting the feel for the subway system. had some delicious ramen and gyoza (dumplings). ate at a super-fancy restaurant with the best view of a city i’ve ever seen in my life.

and we have almost a week left so it really feels like we’re just getting started. plenty of time to make up the couple things we missed, and do all kinds of other stuff still on the list, and hopefully now that we’re caught up on sleep, have some wild nights.