Sorry for the delay in posting updates, we have been so busy that I haven't had time to sit in front of a computer much at all. After we arrived at our new hotel in Tokyo, (see last post), we went sightseeing.

This is a famous building, designed by a famous architect. It is the home of a tv station. We went for a tour. You can go into the round structure and look out. It was a nice view, but Tokyo is very cloudy, so I will move on to then next event. We took a train and walked over to the imperial palace grounds.

This is a gentleman whose job is to keep the tracks clear and keep everyone safe. He was dressed very nicely, I thought.

The entrance to the emperor's palace contains a park that is full a certain kind of pine tree, matsu, (pronounced mahtsue). The park was large and very clean, and you can see people resting underneath the trees. These are not homeless people. Tokyo is much more quiet than I expected. People speak quietly or not at all, the cars are quiet, no stereos blaring, no one yells at you to buy anything. On the trains, everyone is very well behaved. It is surprising to me that a big city can seem so peaceful No car horns honking. Very polite traffic. Wow.

Like many palace buildings, there is an inner gate. This gate is quite large, and the doors are huge.

Here is the closest we got to the emporer's palace. Apparently the emporer doesn't want a bunch of riff-raff wandering around outside his house. I can't say I blame him. It's not like he is supported by my tax dollars. Or yen. whatever. If you look very closely (click on the picture to enlarge it), you can see some workers in the lower left corner of the image. They are in the water.

That's all for now, more later!!!

Okay, our first night in Tokyo we stayed at a Business Hotel in the suburb called Funabashy (foonahbashee). . Our room was about the size of a college dorm room, It was small but clean and the bed was comfortable. Aside from the toilet instructions, in the earlier post, Charles and I noticed that the pillows had some kind of beans in them, which Hiromi said was cut hay. It was a little strange at first, but we both got used to the pillows and they were fine. Also, the lights in the room didn't work unless the key was in a certain slot near the bathroom, right before you leave the room. So if you left, and you took your key, the power was out to the lights in your room while you were gone. Fortunately, the air conditioner and refrigerator do not shut off when you go out. Near our hotel there was a capsule hotel. The rooms in a capsule hotel are about 3 feet by 3 feet by seven feet long. The floor is a mattress, and you crawl in, shut the door, and sleep. It is about $15/night. The main customers of a capsule hotel are people who drank too much and missed the last train. They just need somewhere to sleep.

Charles and I got up this morning and went jogging along a canal, until it reached the bay. The total run was maybe three miles. Funabashi is a very old city, and the roads are narrow, with a variety of types of homes and buildings crammed in next to each other. Here is a view from the balcony of our hotel.




Here is the view we have now:

No wait, Charles and Hiromi are blocking the view.
Here's the view:


That's all for now. It may be 8:30 saturday morning in Tulsa, but it is 10:30 pm here. I'm tired!

We are in Japan!

Charles and I got to Japan without incident at 4:00 pm Japan time. That is 2:00 am Tulsa time. Since we left Tulsa at 10:00 am, that puts the total travel time at 16 hours. Not bad considering we are on the other side of the planet. We met Hiromi at the airport, and I'm really glad she was there, because it would have been nerve-racking to try to get the correct train pass, and then the correct train, and know when to get off the train and where to go from there. She handled everything while we read signs and looked at stuff. So far, Japan has met my expectations in two ways:
1) It is full of people
2) They are japanese.

Other than that, everything is different from how I expected it to be.

1) I aven't seen one heavy person. Somehow I figured that the obesity problem was the same everywhere. Not here. I feel rather portly myself.
2)No doubt related to comment one, there are many many bicycles, and people ride them as their primary transportation to and from the train stations. At one of the train stations I saw a multilevel parking garage, but the structure appeared to be full of bicycles, not cars. Having said that, there are lots of cars, too, but not many trucks.
3)So far english is everywhere, underneath the Kanji signs. Just looking at the instructions on the walls in the bathroom is a fun language exercise. Which brings me to..
4)They have an interesting toilet in our bathroom Here are the instructions for how to use the toilet


The japanese are so ingenious, and I had heard that they have a thing about toilets. Perhaps that was correct. This toilet has instructions that allow it to spray water up, and also to direct the spray. Hey, at least while I was sitting there I had something to read.

Also, the handle for the toilet has two directions for flushing, small and large. Here is the picture of the handle:


The kanji on the left means small, and the one on the right means large. So efficient!

Probably this will be the only post about toilets, but who knows what the day will bring?

Google Map

Here is a link to a Google Map for our planned destinations:
Japan Trip Map

Our trip is three days away...We asked Hiromi if she would like us to bring her anything, and she requested Java Dave's Coffee Beans - Hazelnut, French Vanilla, Chocolate. Also, Jif extra crunchy peanut butter. Charles and I are going over all the little supplies we think we might need. We got an antibiotic prescription filled, and also we are stocking up on all the general medicines that a person might want in the middle of the night.

One of my favorite japanese words is "daijyobu" Here is the kanji for it: 大丈夫
It is used in the phrase "daijyobu deska?" I have heard this phrase often in television and among conversations with Japanese speakers. It means "Are you okay?" I like the Kanji for diejyobu because it is three pictures, and while together the pictures mean "ok", separately they have individual meanings.

大 Dai (pronounced like "die"), means "big".
丈 Jyo (pronounced like "Joe") means "length,"
夫 Bu　(pronounced like "boo") means "husband" or "man."

So in the world of literal thinkers, when you say "Daijyobu deska?" it sounds like you are asking "Are you a big long man?" Of course that's not what it means to japanese speakers. It means "Are you okay?" But to me, adding a symbolic subtext to a language makes it more interesting.

Many of the Kanji that are put together for bigger words do make sense. For instance, chikatetsu is the subway. This word also has three kanji. 地下鉄

地　Chi (pronounced like "chee" in cheetos) means ground, earth, dirt.
下　ka (rhymes with "spa"), means below, or down,　
鉄　tetsu (figure it out) means iron.

So "iron under the ground" is the subway. Neat. 　
Daijyobu, that's enough for today!