Land Of The Rising Sun

Posted by Emily

I landed in Japan at about 6:30 am and then proceeded to wander around the airport to look for the Starbucks where I was to meet Ellen. I figured it would be in the restaurant portion of the airport, on the 4th floor where there are no luggage carts allowed. So I ditched my luggage on the 3rd floor and took the escalator up to look. It was quite a long area and when I didn't find it, I headed back to the 3rd floor thinking that Ellen must have been mistaken. Well, finally I found it after dragging my crap all over the place and working up a sweat. I couldn't get the ATM I tried to work so I didn't have money so I sat outside the entrance and waited on my comfortable luggage cart.

Once she arrived, we headed down to the airport train station and into Tokyo to a hotel where Ellen and her friends had been staying over the weekend. The train ride was quite long and once we got into the city, they decided to have lunch at a place that was back along the train line from where we had just come. We walked back to the train station, went back in the same direction, got off and ate hamburgers (great first meal for Japan right, but oh well, they were good at least), went back to the airport to get Sarah, and got back on a train to Ellen's town. That was about it for the day since we got in to Ellen's town, Murakami, at about 9 pm. FYI, Tokyo was just as crowded and bustling as I expected it to be. The metro system is the most confusing I have ever seen and it will certainly be interesting to try to figure it out when Sarah and I are navigating on our own!

Since then, we have just been hanging out here with Ellen and seeing her town. It's not even in our guide books and there's not really all that much going on, but it's been nice and quiet to be in for a bit. Plus, it's quality Ellen time! We have hiked the small mountain behind her house (there are castle ruins there); eaten sushi (even the cheap stuff is amazing!); had dinner at the house of Ellen's Japanese teacher; was taken around the town by her the next day to see a laquerware museum/shop, a salmon house (lots of dried salmon hanging from the ceiling....the area is famous for its salmon), and green tea shop; and set off fireworks on the beach on the Fourth of July.

More details to come in the following posts.