My first night in Tokyo...and I've already fallen over

Photos:

• Left: Goodbye Portland!
• Right: Hello Tokyo! (The image looks pretty peaceful, but to get the full effect of my experience you'll have to imagine for yourself the many screaming babies that were serenading our landing.)
  

Here I am in Tokyo. Well, technically I'm in Yokohama, but apparently my ward is just about as close as you can get to Tokyo and I will probably even have to take the train into Tokyo just to catch another one that will get me to work. So for all intents and purposes, I live in Tokyo.

Got into the airport at Narita at about 4:15 after possibly one of the most comfortable of the ridiculously long flights I've taken. Customs and immigration went incredibly smooth as well and then I met up with the team from my language school that had come to pick up a bunch of new hires that were all flying in the same evening. Caught a bus at 6:45pm with three other new guys and arrived in Yokohama just shy of two hours later. One of my flatmates had come to meet me and take me the rest of the way to the apartment.

On the way from the bus station to the train station I had the good fortune of tripping over one of the stones on the sidewalk. Not just a small, unnoticeable trip. The big kind, where you fall completely forward and almost on your face. My flatmate gracefully is blaming it on the jet lag, but I myself have burned into my memory the horrified gasps of the crowd of Japanese people that were awaiting their buses. I didn't get hurt or anything, but it sure is one way to have a memorable arrival.

Once home at my apartment, I met my other flatmate and set up my futon, which means that I'll be getting used to sleeping on the floor. It also redefines the concept of a small bedroom: my futon takes up just under half the floor space of the room but is smaller than a twin-sized bed!

This morning my luggage arrived earlier than scheduled (yay for Japanese efficiency!) and we ended up heading out around 11am, I think. I went to my ward office and applied for my alien residency card which will be ready in a couple weeks and is also necessary to do almost anything that someone who actually lives here might want to do. So for the next couple of weeks, I'll be living like a tourist.

From the ward office, we went to Shibuya. Took a few pictures just outside the train station and then went to Tower Records to look for a Japanese textbook for Kim. Didn’t find it, but a few minutes later we did find a little eatery that looked kind of like a diner, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never been to a diner that serves curry and soba before. It was a relatively cheap meal. We followed that up with a walk through some of the neighboring streets to do window shopping. Piece of informational interest: Japan is pretty much the best place to be if you want to get your alarm clocks for about $1 and then go to Louis Vuitton and get your umbrella for about $600. No joke.

Anyways…ended up the evening with a trip to the grocery store, which is an entirely different kind of adventure that I shall save for a later time, and then I went with Kim to where she gets Japanese lessons for about $3 a month. I’m thinking I may start going next week myself. But for now, I’m just going to settle for going to sleep.